"Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation towards us. " (Psalm 85:4)

Sure it's hot outside, come cool off in the Parlor!

Welcome to Prime Timers, a Christian Education Group at St. Martin's for Episcopalians aged fifty and above. We are following a course of study based on the Revised Common Lectionary and you are invited to join us in the Parlor near the church offices, Sunday after the 9:00am service, 10:15am to 11:00. You can keep up to date with our Lectionary based readings at the bottom of this page.

St. Martin's Church, a view from the balcony.

Prime Timers Good News

The Prime Timers hear members Good News each week at the start of class. We charge a dollar and currently donate the money collected to the Amistad Mission in Bolivia. Marty gave thanks for Annette's birthday cards! Lynn's son Andrew got a job at Texas A&M, where he is also a graduate.

Prime Timers Monthly Dinner Fellowship

This month's dinner get together will be at Alexander the Great Greek restaurant, 3055 Sage Road at Hidalgo, 713-622-2778. Lynn tells us "don't get turned off because it's Greek! The food is fabulous!" Dinner will be on Tuesday, July 27th at 6:30pm. Please let Lynn know if you are coming, you can call her at (281) 495-3832.

The Lord's Prayer

Today's lectionary based reading is the alternate version of the Lord's Prayer, found in Luke 11:1-4. The version closer to the one we learned as children and recite every week in church is the one in Matthew 6:9-13. As Carol and our curate the Rev. Kate Picot in her sermon today reminds us, Jesus meant the Lord's prayer as an everyday devotion, not something for special occasions only. This prayer is so embedded in our Christian experience that it is easy to forget the powerful message it contains.

George thinks the wording in Luke 11:4 is extreme: "And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us." He feels that this is asking a lot. Murray describes a friend who did not pray "because God knows everything, so why do I need to pray?" Jean says this is because we need to have a relationship with God.

The parable following the prayer, about the friend who goes to his neighbor's house at midnight because he has no bread to give to his guests, seems at first to trivialize the bond of friendship, but on discussion we decide that this is an example of persistence, a characteristic needed for effective prayer.

George mentions the acrostic ACTS: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication as a structure for prayer. An interesting question for you: who first suggested this method of prayer? If you Google ACTS you will find page after page of people using it, sermons, etc. but no mention of who started it! Just remember this isn't the only way to pray, but many people find it a good guide.

Backing up the theme of persistence is the Old Testament passage from Hosea. Hosea predicts, accurately, the destruction of Israel. God is once again unhappy with the Israelites in the eternal cycle of sin, suffering and redemption and is prescribing serious medicine, but in the end says to the people of Israel (Hosea 1:10) "...and in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people', it shall be said to them, 'Children of the living God.'"

Today's quote from our lesson guide is from Philip Yancey, a Christian writer of many books, the first in 1977. He says in in Prayer: Does It Make a Difference?
that "the act of prayer brings together Creator and creature, eternity and time, in all the fathomless mystery implied by that convergence. I can view prayer as a way of asking a timeless God to intervene more directly in our time-bound life on earth. ... I can also view prayer from the other side, as a way of entering into the
rhythms of eternity and aligning myself with God's 'view from above,' a way to harmonize my own desires with God's and then to help effect, while on earth, what God has willed for all eternity."
Taking into account these two views of prayer, like two sides of a coin, can help us begin to enter into true prayer.

Carol concluded class with a short prayer.

The Readings for Sunday, August 1st are from Lectionary Year Three, Proper 13-C, "The Rich Fool"

The Readings for this week are Hosea 11:1-11; Psalm107; Colossians 3:1-11 and Luke 12:13-21. The text this week is from the New Revised Standard Version.

Hosea 11:1-11

¹ When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
² The more I called them,
the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
and offering incense to idols.

³ Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.
⁴ I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.
I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks.
I bent down to them and fed them.

⁵ They shall return to the land of Egypt,
and Assyria shall be their king,
because they have refused to return to me.
⁶ The sword rages in their cities,
it consumes their oracle-priests,
and devours because of their schemes.
⁷ My people are bent on turning away from me.
To the Most High they call,
but he does not raise them up at all.

⁸ How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
⁹ I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.

¹⁰ They shall go after the Lord,
who roars like a lion;
when he roars,
his children shall come trembling from the west.
¹¹ They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,
and like doves from the land of Assyria;
and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.

Psalm 107

¹ O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures for ever.
² Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
those he redeemed from trouble
³ and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.

⁴ Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to an inhabited town;
⁵ hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
⁶ Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress;
⁷ he led them by a straight way,
until they reached an inhabited town.
⁸ Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.
⁹ For he satisfies the thirsty,
and the hungry he fills with good things.

¹⁰ Some sat in darkness and in gloom,
prisoners in misery and in irons,
¹¹ for they had rebelled against the words of God,
and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
¹² Their hearts were bowed down with hard labour;
they fell down, with no one to help.
¹³ Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress;
¹⁴ he brought them out of darkness and gloom,
and broke their bonds asunder.
¹⁵ Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.
¹⁶ For he shatters the doors of bronze,
and cuts in two the bars of iron.

¹⁷ Some were sick through their sinful ways,
and because of their iniquities endured affliction;
¹⁸ they loathed any kind of food,
and they drew near to the gates of death.
¹⁹ Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress;
²⁰ he sent out his word and healed them,
and delivered them from destruction.
²¹ Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.
²² And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices,
and tell of his deeds with songs of joy.

²³ Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the mighty waters;
²⁴ they saw the deeds of the Lord,
his wondrous works in the deep.
²⁵ For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
²⁶ They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths;
their courage melted away in their calamity;
²⁷ they reeled and staggered like drunkards,
and were at their wits' end.
²⁸ Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he brought them out from their distress;
²⁹ he made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
³⁰ Then they were glad because they had quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
³¹ Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.
³² Let them extol him in the congregation of the people,
and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

³³ He turns rivers into a desert,
springs of water into thirsty ground,
³⁴ a fruitful land into a salty waste,
because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.
³⁵ He turns a desert into pools of water,
a parched land into springs of water.
³⁶ And there he lets the hungry live,
and they establish a town to live in;
³⁷ they sow fields, and plant vineyards,
and get a fruitful yield.
³⁸ By his blessing they multiply greatly,
and he does not let their cattle decrease.

³⁹ When they are diminished and brought low
through oppression, trouble, and sorrow,
⁴⁰ he pours contempt on princes
and makes them wander in trackless wastes;
⁴¹ but he raises up the needy out of distress,
and makes their families like flocks.
⁴² The upright see it and are glad;
and all wickedness stops its mouth.
⁴³ Let those who are wise give heed to these things,
and consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

Colossians 3:1-11

¹ So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, ³for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). ⁶On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. ⁷These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. ⁸But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. ⁹Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices ¹⁰and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. ¹¹In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

Luke 12:13-21

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, 'Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.' ¹⁴But he said to him, 'Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?' ¹⁵And he said to them, 'Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.' ¹⁶Then he told them a parable: 'The land of a rich man produced abundantly. ¹⁷And he thought to himself, "What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?" ¹⁸Then he said, "I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry." ²⁰But God said to him, "You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" ²¹So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.'

NRSV