Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Eternal One: ²³ Collect the best spices: twelve and a half pounds of liquid myrrh, six pounds of fragrant cinnamon, six pounds of fragrant cane, ²⁴ and twelve and a half pounds of cassia—in accordance with the sanctuary weights—and one gallon of olive oil. ²⁵ Blend all these spices together like a skillful perfumer to make a holy anointing oil; this fragrant mixture will be used as a holy anointing oil. ²⁶ Use it to anoint the congregation tent and the covenant chest, ²⁷ the table and all its accessories, the lampstand and its tools, the altar of incense, ²⁸ the altar for the burnt offering and all its tools, and the basin and its stand. ²⁹ Consecrate all these furnishings and their utensils so that they are most holy. Anything that touches them will become holy.

³⁰ Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them, so that they are able to serve as My priests. ³¹ Address the Israelites and say, “This is My sacred anointing oil that you will use for all generations. ³² It must not be poured on anyone else. Do not attempt to make an anointing oil for your own purposes with the same ingredients in the same proportions. It is sacred, and it is to be sacred to you. ³³ Whoever makes a similar blend or anoints anyone who is not ordained as a priest will be cut off from the community.”

Eternal One: Gather three aromatic spices—stacte, onycha, galbanum—and mix them with pure frankincense in equal measure. ³⁵ Have a perfumer take this mixture and blend it carefully with salt in order to create a pure and sacred incense. ³⁶ Grind it into a fine powder, and place some of it in front of the covenant chest in the congregation tent where I will meet with you. It will be most holy to you. ³⁷ Do not attempt to make incense for yourselves with the same ingredients in the same proportion. You must regard this as perfectly sacred to Me. ³⁸ Whoever makes an incense like it and uses it for themselves will be cut off from the community.

Paul: ³ I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia. I was raised here in Jerusalem and was tutored in the great school of Gamaliel. My education trained me in the strict interpretation of the law of our ancestors, and I grew zealous for God, just as all of you are today. ⁴ I encountered a movement known as the Way, and I considered it a threat to our religion, so I persecuted it violently. I put both men and women in chains, had them imprisoned, and would have killed them— ⁵ as the high priest and the entire council of elders will tell you. I received documentation from them to go to Damascus and work with the brothers there to arrest followers of the Way and bring them back to Jerusalem in chains so they could be properly punished. ⁶ I was on my way to Damascus. It was about noon. Suddenly a powerful light shone around me, ⁷ and I fell to the ground. A voice spoke: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” ⁸ I answered, “Who are You, Lord?” The voice replied, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, the One you persecute.”

⁹ My companions saw the light, but they didn’t hear the voice. ¹⁰ I asked, “What do You want me to do, Lord?” The Lord replied, “Get up and go to Damascus; you will be given your instructions there.” ¹¹ Since the intense light had blinded me, my companions led me by the hand into Damascus. ¹² I was visited there by a devout man named Ananias, a law-keeping Jew who was well spoken of by all the Jews living in Damascus. ¹³ He said, “Brother Saul, regain your sight!” I could immediately see again, beginning with Ananias standing before me. ¹⁴ Then he said, “You have been chosen by the God of our ancestors to know His will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the voice of God. ¹⁵ You will tell the story of what you have seen and heard to the whole world. ¹⁶ So now, don’t delay. Get up, be ceremonially cleansed through baptism,^[a] and have your sins washed away, as you call on His name in prayer.”