Make a Lenten promise--Join the Prime Timers!

Prime Timers, a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education (A.C.E.) group, also known as an ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship), is for people in the Prime of Life, age 50 and beyond. Class meets in the Parlor near the Church Offices each Sunday from 10:15am to 11:00. We are following a course of study from the United Council of Churches titled The New Testament Community. You are invited to join our group as we begin the third quarter with a "New Creation in Christ." April brings Easter this year, join with us as we spend some quality time with Luke.

Prime Timers Celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

The Prime Timers celebrated St. Patrick's Day at Baba Yega's in Montrose. The photos are courtesy of Lynn Swaffar (she's at the head of the table). Also the hats, the boa's, the glasses, just about anything green in these photos! Thanks Lynn, for a great St. Patrick's dinner!

 

Anne, Jim and Lynn get into the spirit of the day. No one can accuse them of seeing the world with rose colored glasses!

George and Elizabeth O'Laigle. I guess we ran out of wacky green hats at this point!

No Prime Timers event is complete without Carol and Larry! 

Prime Timers Celebrate Good News!

We celebrate our members Good News at Prime Timers with a $1 contribution to Henny Penny, our Good News chicken. Periodically Henny donates the money she collects to a worthy charity, currently the Amistad Mission in Bolivia.  This week began on a sadder note as we heard one of our members, Dr. Jim Lawhon, suffered a stroke. Anne Berry told us that Jim is in the hospital and recovering, but we should all keep him in our prayers.

Donn was listening to KUHF, our public radio station, and heard a recital by the St. Martin's Choir.

Envisioning New Life

Donn Fullenweider guided us through some more of Ezekiel today. Remember we are with the Jews in exile in Babylonia, a strange place for them where familiar objects from home become precious. In those times it was thought that God actually lived in the temple, he was not the universal being or presence we think of. With the temple destroyed it was thought that God had left, and the people knew that God was involved in their exile. Ezekiel knew that God was preparing for their restoration.

The Israelites were in the desert, so images of water were very powerful. Our reading for today uses water as a metaphor to lead the people deeper into God's grace. Ezekiel's vision even includes the Dead Sea coming to life. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth, with around twenty-five percent salt. Even with streams feeding it its not enough to overcome the salt balance. God's power is mighty indeed in this vision.

Donn asked the class if water played a role in any events in our lives, and this brought quite a response from the class. Marty was reminded of growing up in Northern New Jersey in the Fifties, when the Hudson and East rivers were so polluted that they even smelled bad, contrasted with the Jersey Shore where the Atlantic Ocean was just a great place to be. Another member remembered Wimberly, Texas with the Blanco river enabling huge Cypress trees along the banks. Someone else mentioned the Mississippi River feeding three hundred year old oak trees.

Another member recalled a Jewish friend with cancer who always went to somewhere with water when he got depressed. Anne loves the water because she loves to fish! Others described Surfside with surfing and crabbing. George grew up on what he described as the "Mosquito Prairie" and always drinking well water. When he moved to Houston he thought the chlorinated water we drink was just awful! Then a few years later he went back to the prairie and couldn't believe how bad that well water was!

Annette reminded us that Jesus' first miracle involved water, the water he turned into wine. Donn concluded our lesson with this passage from John 4:7-15:

   ⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

   ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

   ¹⁰Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

   ¹¹"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

   ¹³Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

   ¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

Donn concluded class with this benediction:  Give us new hearts filled with your Spirit, O Lord, that we may live as new creations in Christ. Amen.

The Lesson for Sunday, April 5th,  is "Suffering Unto Death"

Key Verse:  Luke 23:46

Focus of the Lesson: The death event can feature a mix of emotions from suffering to joy. How, then, can we face death? Luke's account of the last week in the life of Jesus reveals that his trust in God led Jesus through triumph and sustained him in suffering.

The reading is Luke 23:32-46. This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)

   ³²Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. ³³When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

   ³⁵The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One."

   ³⁶The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar ³⁷and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."

   ³⁸There was a written notice above him, which read:  "THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS."

   ³⁹One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"

   ⁴⁰But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."

   ⁴²Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

   ⁴³Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

   ⁴⁴It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, ⁴⁵for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ⁴⁶Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last. 

NIV