The Season of Advent Begins

Prime Timers is a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education (A.C.E.) group, or an A.B.F. (Adult Bible Fellowship). We are people in the Prime of Life, age 50 and beyond, with a welcome for all who come to the Parlor near the Church Offices each Sunday from 10:15 am to 11:00. We are following a program based on the Revised Common Lectionary and will meet during the busy Advent season as Church Activities permit.

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 charity, currently the Amistad Mission in Bolivia. George was thankful today for central heating! Donn was thankful for the snow this past week in Houston, the eartliest ever, and the first time in quite a while where it was still around the next day. Someone was thankful for the hard freeze that should keep the mosquitos at bay next year! Oakley gave thanks for his parents seventy fifth anniversary!!! Sue was thankful for her good health, who can disagree with that?

This is said to be the part of the skull of John the Baptist, in a reliquarium, Residenz, Munich.

A Baptism of Repentance

Donn Fullenweider led the Prime Timers today on this second Sunday of Advent. The readings today concern baptism and the coming of something, or someone, very special. The first reading is called the Song of Zechariah, (Luke 1:68-79) a hymn of praise by the father of John the Baptist, thanking God for his son and foretelling John's mission. John means "God is gracious" in Hebrew. In Luke 3:1-6 great pains are taken to establish the time and place of John the Baptist and his ministry. John is mentioned in non-Christian writings, here he is mentioned in Jewish Antiquities (book 18, chapter 5, 2) by Flavius Josephus (37–100):

"But to some Jews the destruction of Herod's army seemed to be divine vengeance, and certainly a just vengeance, for his treatment of John, surnamed the Baptist. For Herod had put him to death, though he was a good man and had exhorted the Jews to lead righteous lives, to practice justice towards their fellows and piety towards God, and so doing to join in baptism. In his view this was a necessary preliminary if baptism was to be acceptable to God. They must not employ it to gain pardon for whatever sins they committed, but as a consecration of the body implying that the soul was already thoroughly cleansed by righteousness."

John the Baptist and John the Apostle are different people. The Gospel of John in the opinion of many scholars was written by a disciple of John, who chronicled his preaching. John the Baptist's ministry was “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” while baptism today is more of an entrance to the church.

John the Baptist by Titian, painted 1542. At the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice, Italy

The Mandaeans, followers of John the Baptist, exist today with only a few thousand adherents towards the mouth of the Euphrates on the borders of Iraq and Iran. This is a small sect that believes Jesus was a false Messiah but they revere John the Baptist. George commented that they must not have gotten John's message in Luke 3:4-6 ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.⁵Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth;⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” ’

There are stories surrounding John the Baptist. He was beheaded on the order of Herod. It is possible that this was due to his condemnation of Herod's marriage to Herodias, but a juicier story is Herod's daughter Salome entrancing him with a dance, after which he said she could have anything she wanted, and this was the head of John the Baptist!

During the Crusades, the Knights Templar were said to have the head of John the Baptist as an object of worship.

In a serendipitous aside, Donn mentioned the book "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel, chronicling the life of Thomas Cromwell, and bringing to life the times of Henry VIII and the events leading up to the creation of the Church of England.

This is the season of Advent, after all, and John the Baptist's main role for us is the heralding of the coming of Jesus the Messiah. Our reference materials provide the following quote, it mentions the German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he is a Lutheran pastor who went back to Germany during World War II protesting Nazism, participating in a group that set out to assassinate Hitler! He was hanged.

“Advent marks something momentous: God’s coming into our midst. That coming is not just something that happened in the past. It is a recurring possibility here and now. And thus Advent is not merely a commemorative event or an anniversary, but a yearly opportunity for us to consider the future, second Advent, the promised coming of God’s kingdom on earth.
“Such an understanding of Christmas is possible only insofar as we let go of the false props of convention and seek to unlock its central paradox. That paradox, to paraphrase the modern martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is the fact that God’s coming is
not only a matter of glad tidings but, first of all, ‘frightening news for everyone who has a conscience.’ … “If the essence of Advent is expectancy, it is also readiness for action: watchfulness for every opening, and willingness to risk everything for freedom and a new beginning.”

Donn concluded class with a short prayer.

The Readings for Sunday, December 13th are from Lectionary Year Three, Advent-3C. "Preparer of the Way"

The Readings this week are Zephaniah 3:14-20, Canticle 9 (Isaiah 12:2-6), Paul's letter to the Philippians 4:4-7 and Luke 3:7-18. The text is from the New International Version.

Zephaniah 3:14-20

¹⁴ Sing, O Daughter of Zion;
shout aloud, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
O Daughter of Jerusalem!

¹⁵ The LORD has taken away your punishment,
he has turned back your enemy.
The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm.

¹⁶ On that day they will say to Jerusalem,
"Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.

¹⁷ The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."

¹⁸ "The sorrows for the appointed feasts
I will remove from you;
they are a burden and a reproach to you.

¹⁹ At that time I will deal
with all who oppressed you;
I will rescue the lame
and gather those who have been scattered.
I will give them praise and honor
in every land where they were put to shame.

²⁰ At that time I will gather you;
at that time I will bring you home.
I will give you honor and praise
among all the peoples of the earth
when I restore your fortunes
before your very eyes,"
says the LORD.

Canticle 9 (Isaiah 12:2-6)

² Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation."

³ With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.

⁴ In that day you will say:
"Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done,
and proclaim that his name is exalted.

⁵ Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things;
let this be known to all the world.

⁶ Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,
for great is the Holy One of Israel among you."

Philippians 4:4-7

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Luke 3:7-18

⁷John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ⁹The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."

¹⁰"What should we do then?" the crowd asked.

¹¹John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."

¹²Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?"

¹³"Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them. ¹⁴Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely—be content with your pay."

¹⁵The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. ¹⁶John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹⁷His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

¹⁸And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.

NIV