Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁹ But the moment Moshe got near the camp, when he saw the calf and the dancing, his own anger blazed up. He threw down the tablets he had been holding and shattered them at the base of the mountain. ²⁰ Seizing the calf they had made, he melted it in the fire and ground it to powder, which he scattered on the water. Then he made the people of Isra’el drink it.

²¹ Moshe said to Aharon, “What did these people do to you to make you lead them into such a terrible sin?” ²² Aharon replied, “My lord shouldn’t be so angry. You know what these people are like, that they are determined to do evil. ²³ So they said to me, ‘Make us gods to go ahead of us; because this Moshe, the man that brought us up from the land of Egypt — we don’t know what has become of him.’ ²⁴ I answered them, ‘Anyone with gold, strip it off!’ So they gave it to me. I threw it in the fire, and out came this calf!”

²⁵ When Moshe saw that the people had gotten out of control — because Aharon had allowed them to get out of control, to the derision of their enemies — ²⁶ Moshe stood at the entrance to the camp and shouted, “Whoever is for Adonai, come to me!” All the descendants of Levi rallied around him.

¹⁷ But in giving you this next instruction I do not praise you, because when you meet together it does more harm than good! ¹⁸ For, in the first place, I hear that when you gather together as a congregation you divide up into cliques; and to a degree I believe it ¹⁹ (granted that there must be some divisions among you in order to show who are the ones in the right). ²⁰ Thus, when you gather together, it is not to eat a meal of the Lord; ²¹ because as you eat your meal, each one goes ahead on his own; so that one stays hungry while another is already drunk! ²² Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or are you trying to show your contempt for God’s Messianic community and embarrass those who are poor? What am I supposed to say to you? Am I supposed to praise you? Well, for this I don’t praise you!