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We invite you to join us in the Payne Education Center at St. Martin's, rooms 207-209.  We meet in between the 9am and 11am services from 10:10am to 10:50. Coffee, snacks and Paul's second letter to the Corinthians awaits you.

Joe Thomson is one of the Prime Timer teachers. He taught class this week!

Prime Timers Good News

At the beginning of our class we set aside time for members to bring us their good news. For $1 you can have the floor!

Louise Huck was just coming back from a visit with friends and had a wonderful time.

Forgiving and Reconciling

Joe Thomson taught this weeks lesson from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. To get things rolling he reminded us of the chronology of Paul's mission in Corinth.

There are many interesting articles on the chronology:  here, and here, and here, and here you will find just a few. For our purposes 2 Corinthians can be seen as two separate letters, Chapters 1-9 being the first, or actually the fourth overall, and Chapters 10-13 being next. There is a lot of debate over which letter was written first. Both of these letters were written from Macedonia.

One view holds that chapters 1-9 are in answer to Titus' report that Paul's last, tearful letter of reprimand, which could be chapters 10-13, had the desired effect and the Corinthians were coming around to Paul's views. At any rate these letters were most likely written around 57 AD. 

Joe addressed the subject of the letter, forgiving and reconciling, with several strategies to deal with arguments or conflicts. One is to just forget it, act like it never happened and get on with your life. Another is revenge, holding onto real or imagined wrongs and plotting against the other person. Going along with this is pride and all the baggage that can attach to this. Finally, you can reconcile, where you actively strive to bring the incident to a mutually agreeable conclusion. Certainly Paul's solution would have to be the fourth, after preaching of Jesus' love and forgiveness.

Joe then mentioned C. S. Lewis book, "The Screw Tape Letters", a correspondence between a senior demon, Screwtape, and his wannabe diabolical nephew Wormwood. He read the passage that goes "when Christians are at odds there is great hope in Hell." This certainly applies to Paul's troubles with the Corinthians, and well, try to find a time it wouldn't apply!

For reconciliation you can't have a better passage than Matthew 6:9-15 (The Lord's Prayer), or a better parable than Matthew 18:21-35 (The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant).

Joe then recalled reading "Gates of Fire", by Steven Pressfield, about the Battle of Thermopylae, where three hundred Spartans held off the vastly larger (60,000 - 5,000,000 !!! depending on the account) Persian army for seven days, until the last Spartan was dead. The fictional story depicts the battle as told by a squire of Dienekes, who had been wounded during the fight, but was revived to tell Xerxes of the Spartans heroism. They ask the question "what is the opposite of fear?", finally understanding that it is love. Love for others to the expense of yourself. What else would explain the great sacrifice of these men?

Joe then led the class in our healing prayer and dismissed class after a short benediction.

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Mentor

Rev. B. Massey Gentry
mgentry@stmartinsepiscopal.org

Leader

Louise Huck gave $1 to our Good News chicken Henny Penny this week to celebrate good friends! She did not wear that hat, this photo is from our Halloween party!

The conversion of St. Paul, 1430, parchment, by Fra Angelico. This is in the Museo di San Marco, Florence, Italy.

St. Paul on the road to Damascus, St. Martin's New Church stained glass. You really have to see the St. Martin's stained glass windows in person to appreciate their true beauty. St. Martin's Episcopal Church conducts tours of the church every Sunday starting at 12:30pm, and then Wednesdays and Fridays from 10:45am to 12:30pm, with a formal tour from 11:00am to 12:00pm.

The Lesson for Sunday, August 13th is titled "Giving Generously"

Key Verse:  2 Corinthians 8:9

Focus of the Lesson:  People often find it difficult to be generous. How can we learn to be unselfish in our giving? Paul encourages believers to give generously as a response to Jesus' example of total unselfishness. Paul further teaches that we should be generous in spreading the gospel.

The reading is 2 Corinthians 8:1-15. This text is from the New International Version^®.

   ¹And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. ²Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. ³For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, ⁴they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. ⁵And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will. ⁶So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. ⁷But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

   ⁸I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. ⁹For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

   ¹⁰And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter: Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. ¹¹Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. ¹²For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.

   ¹³Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. ¹⁴At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, ¹⁵as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little."

NIV®