The Cross in front of St Martin's Church.

This is a Great Time to Join 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. Marty is thankful that the cold he's had all week seems to be improving. George has a ranch out around Bastrop that was hit hard by the drought last year so the rain we've been having is much appreciated. Murray gave thanks for a friend who is heading back to Canada.

Raised to Wholeness

George Laigle led the Prime Timers in our readings about Jesus' early healing ministry. Our reading from Mark prompts George to wonder what people today would think if you said you were healed by Jesus. The world is so different from the one described in the Bible, yet many themes are as relevant today as they were then.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 is trying to unite the various factions that developed in Corinth. He trys to be (1 Cor 9:22) "all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some." Today we also have have many divisions among people, and the world is in quite a mess, maybe we as Episcopalians can help put things back together.

George tells a story about being in a Bible study group where several groups got together for study. At a round table meeting he is at a table where he is the only man and is asked how he came to Jesus. He tells how he was something of a hard case and thanks to his wife and the church came to accept Jesus as his saviour, after twenty-five years! A woman at the table bursts into tears, saying her husband sounds just like George, but she had no idea how long it might take to get him to see the light!

Ron Miller is Professor of Religion at Lake Forest College. He wrote in The Witness (Jan. 29, 2006):
“In the Gospel passages for this and for last week, we certainly see the lengths to which Jesus went to bring the news of God’s reign to those who needed to hear it. He preached in the synagogue, cured the demoniacs (and silenced their truth-speaking spirits), healed the sick, and went from town to town in all the region to spread his message and to share the power of God’s love in healings and other signs. The urgency of his ministry is expressed by the way Mark chains events together, with many of Jesus’ activities compressed into a few verses and frequently linked from the last by the word ‘immediately.’ It is important to recognize that Mark does not report that Jesus tested people to see whether they accept or reject his message. There were people in the synagogues to whom his message was news, and there were people in need of God’s healing power; Jesus offered all of them what he had to give. He also recognized his own need and
slipped off in the morning for prayer. Thus supported and strengthened, he saw that God’s love is for all people and was clear that immediate, local needs should not get in the way of reaching out to more distant communities.”

Murray gave a short prayer to conclude class.

Lectionary readings

The Readings for Sunday, February 12th are from Lectionary Year Two, Epiphany 6-B, "Compassion and Healing": 2 Kings 5:1-14; Psalm 30; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 and Mark 1:40-45. The text this week is from the New Revised Standard Version.

2 Kings 5:1-14

¹Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favour with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. ²Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. ³She said to her mistress, ‘If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’ ⁴So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. ⁵And the king of Aram said, ‘Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.’

He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. ⁶He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, ‘When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.’ ⁷When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, ‘Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.’

⁸ But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, ‘Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.’ ⁹So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.’ ¹¹But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, ‘I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! ¹²Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?’ He turned and went away in a rage. ¹³But his servants approached and said to him, ‘Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, “Wash, and be clean”?’ ¹⁴So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

Psalm 30

A Psalm. A Song at the dedication of the temple. Of David.

¹ I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up,
and did not let my foes rejoice over me.
² O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you have healed me.
³ O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol,
restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.

⁴ Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
⁵ For his anger is but for a moment;
his favour is for a lifetime.
Weeping may linger for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.

⁶ As for me, I said in my prosperity,
‘I shall never be moved.’
⁷ By your favour, O Lord,
you had established me as a strong mountain;
you hid your face;
I was dismayed.

⁸ To you, O Lord, I cried,
and to the Lord I made supplication:
⁹ ‘What profit is there in my death,
if I go down to the Pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it tell of your faithfulness?
¹⁰ Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me!
O Lord, be my helper!’

¹¹ You have turned my mourning into dancing;
you have taken off my sackcloth
and clothed me with joy,
¹² so that my soul may praise you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you for ever.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. ²⁵Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one. ²⁶So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; ²⁷but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.

Mark 1:40-45

⁴⁰ A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ ⁴¹Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ ⁴²Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. ⁴³After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, ⁴⁴saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ ⁴⁵But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

NRSV