Old Testament Reading
1 The LORD said to Moses,
2 “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.
3 And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze,
4 blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair,
5 tanned rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood,
6 oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,
7 onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
10 “They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height.
11 You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it.
12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it.
13 You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.
14 And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them.
15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it.
16 And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you.
17 “You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth.
18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat.
19 Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends.
20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.
21 And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you.
22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel. (ESV)
New Testament Reading
17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.
18 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus,
19 but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.
20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts?
23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?
24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.”
25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God.
26 And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.”
28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them.
30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
33 And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.”
34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”
36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.
37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.
38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.
39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’” (ESV)