Caravaggio, The Annunciation, 1608-09, Oil on canvas, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy

Happy Holidays from the Prime Timers!

We are a Christian Education group at St. Martin's for Episcopalians aged fifty and above. If you are near the Parlor in between the 9:15 and 11:00am services, come on in, you are invited! We follow a course of study based on the Revised Common Lectionary, the three year cycle of readings from the Bible you hear at every church service. Next week's readings are right here, at the bottom of the page.

Prime Timer Good News!

A Prime Timer tradition is hearing what others are up to, and charging a dollar for the privilege! We donate the money we collect to charities supported by the church. Linda gave general thanks for the day! Marty celebrates his Mother's 93rd birthday tomorrow!

Testifying to the Light

George Laigle is the Prime Timer leader today on this third week of Advent. This week we get the story of John the Baptist from the Gospel of John. After last week with John the Baptist wearing camel hair and eating locusts and wild honey, John the Baptist is challenged by Jewish priests: who are you? The Messiah? A Prophet? (Jn 1:23) “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness..." At the 11am service our Bishop, the Rt. Rev. C. Andrew "Andy" Doyle gave an eloquent sermon on this theme. We are Christians but what does that mean to us?

Well, class continues to fret over the state of the world, as George read about the "normalcy bias" this week. From "Finding Something to Do: the Disaster Continuity Care Model": The normalcy bias, or normality bias, refers to a mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.

Marty adds that this will be an interesting year with our Presidential race heating up. Murray thankfully points out that all of this worry is about temporal things, that we should be concentrating on the spiritual as what is really important. If more people would do this perhaps we could cast some true light on today's problems.

Or maybe we should learn from Brother Lawrence, the 17th century French monk in God-Illuminated Cook The Practice of the Presence of God. This fellow had a constant dialog going with God. George also mentions A. W. Tozer, for thirty-one years pastor of Southside Alliance Church in Chicago, and a prolific writer.

Everyone in class acknowledges the power of prayer, and how in this case its a good thing to be "a creature of habit." George gives an example of a man who wore grooves in the floorboards from thirty years of prayer in the same place. Annette wonders about what else the man did! Marty points out that it is what you do after the prayers that makes a difference in the world.

Raymond Barry Brown, a Christian author has written:
“The purpose of John’s testimony is to bring all to believe in Jesus. There are no favored ones who can boast of inherited pedigree or acquired knowledge. The Word is sent forth to all. Light comes to every [one] who believes. ... The Gospel has been written ‘that believing you may have life in his name’ (20:31). God has sent His only Son in order that ‘whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ (3:16).
“ ... Faith is ‘that form of knowledge, or vision, appropriate to those who find God in an historic Person of the past, who nevertheless, through it, remains the object of saving knowledge, the truth and the life.’ Eternal life is the existence given those who know, accept, and trust God’s Son.”

Elizabeth closes class today with a short prayer.

Lectionary readings

The Readings for Sunday, December 18th are from Lectionary Year Two, Advent 4-B, "Annunciation": 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16; Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26; Romans 16:25-27 and Luke 1:26-38. The text this week is from the New Revised Standard Version.

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

¹Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, ²the king said to the prophet Nathan, ‘See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.’ ³Nathan said to the king, ‘Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.’

⁴ But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: ⁵Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? ⁶I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. ⁷Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’ ⁸Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; ⁹and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. ¹⁰And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, ¹¹from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. ¹⁶Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.

Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26

A Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.

¹ I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, for ever;
with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
² I declare that your steadfast love is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.

³ You said, ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to my servant David:
⁴ “I will establish your descendants for ever,
and build your throne for all generations.” ’
Selah

¹⁹ Then you spoke in a vision to your faithful one, and said:
‘I have set the crown on one who is mighty,
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
²⁰ I have found my servant David;
with my holy oil I have anointed him;
²¹ my hand shall always remain with him;
my arm also shall strengthen him.
²² The enemy shall not outwit him,
the wicked shall not humble him.
²³ I will crush his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
²⁴ My faithfulness and steadfast love shall be with him;
and in my name his horn shall be exalted.
²⁵ I will set his hand on the sea
and his right hand on the rivers.
²⁶ He shall cry to me, “You are my Father,
my God, and the Rock of my salvation!”

Romans 16:25-27

²⁵ Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages ²⁶but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— ²⁷to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever! Amen.

Luke 1:26-38

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ ²⁹But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. ³¹And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³²He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ ³⁴Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ ³⁵The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. ³⁶And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. ³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God.’ ³⁸Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.

NRSV