St. Martin's Episcopal Church

Its August, Its Hot, School is Right around the Corner, and St. Martin's is Getting a New Rector in Two Weeks! Its a Great Time to Join the St. Martin's Prime Timers Adult Bible Fellowship!

We meet in the Payne Education Center, rooms 207-209, Sunday from 10:10 to 10:50am. That's upstairs on the second floor. The class is geared towards people aged fifty to sixty-four, but the Bible message we explore is universal. Join us, bring a friend and welcome!

This summer the Prime Timers are studying the Prophets: Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Lamentations (traditionally ascribed to Jeremiah), Ezekiel, Zechariah and Malachi. These prophets proclaimed God's word over several hundred years, but their message was consistent: A faithful relationship with God entails specific requirements, one of which is to do right. This week and next our prophet is Jeremiah.

Prime Timers Good News

At the beginning of our class we devote time to hear our members Good News. Presenting your news requires a $1 donation to our chicken, Henny Penny. Last week I mentioned one of our local Pei Wei restaurants doing something special for one of our members. It involved a birthday celebration for one of our members grandchild. Pei Wei is a franchise restaurant with a menu of New Age Chinese dishes. The dish they prepared, however, was a special one not on the menu, at the request of our parishioner. It is great to see this attention to service! Next, Lynn wanted to thank all the people involved with Prime Timers for the work we do. She also thanked us for contributing to some "Godly Moments" in her life!

Maintaining Hope!

Richard Cruse is our teacher for August, and wouldn't you know our reading today put us right at the middle of one of the most difficult subjects in religion. Richard just returned from Russia, and being intrigued by their history, read about Russia during World War II. There are monuments in St. Petersburg, for instance, that show the furthest extent the Germans made into the city. When thy took over the Hermitage they found it infested with rats. The reason was that there were no cats in the city, the people were forced to eat them! The human toll of this war was was around 23 million Russian lives, about 13-14% of their total population. Only Poland and Lithuania suffered a higher percent of their population lost.

You can't speak of losses during World War II without mentioning the Holocaust, Hitler's "Final Solution" for almost six million Jews. And the Japanese were incredibly brutal to prisoners in their POW camps.

With this ghastly background we read the passages from Lamentations with the question, how does God let events like this happen? How do you maintain faith in this situation. There is no easy answer to this question, no "three step plan" to salvation. What is the Will of God? Current events give us an appreciation of the words of Lamentations as they decry the destruction of Judah.

Richard used British preacher Leslie Weatherhead's 1944 book, "The Will of God" to illustrate a scholar's take on this subject. He describes three states of the will of God: the Intentional Will, the Circumstantial Will and the Ultimate Will of God.

The intentional will of God is the well being of humankind. You don't say "thy will be done" at the death of a child, or in the middle of battles like those catalogued above, but rather when a child is dedicated to loving service, or the war is over.

The circumstantial will of God can see evil done as God's will. Use the example of Jesus' sacrifice. It was not God's will that Jesus be executed, but the circumstances at the time arose where advancing the will of God led to Jesus day on the cross.

The ultimate will of God is the one that prevails even though evil people try to circumvent it, divine will prevails over all. Did Jesus die for our sins, or rather because of our sins?

Then there is Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California who argues that even a defect in a child is a gift of God, and a manifestation of His will.

Finally, Richard mentioned Pope John Paul II, who asks you to surrender the self-centered, egotistical person you are to become the loving person you ought to be.

We were not promised the Garden of Eden. In fact we were kicked out a long time ago. Free will allows us the freedom to do good as well as evil. God wants the best for us, "that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name." The subject of hope in the face of circumstances too terrible to imagine has kept many thoughtful people up for a long time. There are no easy answers, and those proclaiming they have them should be regarded with great caution.

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Mentor

Rev. B. Massey Gentry
mgentry@stmartinsepiscopal.org

Leaders

Anne Berry
832/251-8868 H
atberry@proctor-law.com

Max Kech
713/802-0690 H
maxkech2003@yahoo.com

Marty Smith
713/464-6737 H
martys@houston.rr.com

Teachers

Richard Cruse

Chris Hershberger

Pete Seale

Ben Welmaker
bhwjr@flash.net

Outreach (inviting and welcoming new members)

Anne Berry
832/251-8868 H
atberry@proctor-law.com

Elizabeth Sleeper
jsleeperjr@houston.rr.com