"And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell." (Matthew 5:30)

Prime Timers is a Christian Education group at St. Martin's for Episcopalians aged fifty and above. We are following a course of study based on the Revised Common Lectionary, the three year cycle of Bible readings used throughout the Anglican Communion and by many Protestant denominations worldwide. Keep up with these readings and you will get a guided tour of the Bible! Next week's readings are right here, at the bottom of the page. You are invited to join us in the Parlor near the church offices, Sunday after the 9:00am service, 10:15am to 11:00.

St. Martin's church through the trees!

Prime Timers Good News

The Prime Timers hear members Good News each week at the start of class. We charge a dollar and currently donate the money collected to the Amistad Mission in Bolivia. Elizabeth reports that her husband George is recovering nicely from a back injury suffered during their recent trip to Egypt and Dubai. They missed all the problems in Egypt but a tour bus hit a bad bump in the road, throwing all the passengers to the roof! George was the most severely injured but thanks to a new kind of back surgery was able to walk out of the hospital the same day!

Salt and Light

Carol Hartland led the Prime Timers today in a session dealing with salt and light! In Matthew's gospel (Mt 5:13-20) Jesus asks us what good is salt when it has lost its taste, and answers that it is good for nothing. It is thrown out or trampled under foot. The message is keep your faith to receive the kingdom of heaven. Likewise with the metaphor of light, Jesus asks us to shine the light of our faith far and wide.

Marty mentions how two presidential themes have come from this passage. President Kennedy used the phrase "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness." This actual phrase goes back to a Chinese proverb and was also used by Adlai Stevenson to praise Eleanor Roosevelt, but clearly could have come from Matthew's gospel. It is also fitting on President Reagan's 100th birthday to recall his famous "shining city on a hill" as an example of themes inspired by the Bible.

Eleanor, the class member not the Roosevelt, recalls a trip to India where resources from Nongovernmental Organizations (NGO's) and our government were being sent to a dirt poor village, while literally across the road there was another dirt poor village that would not accept anything from the other, since they were a higher caste than the other! This shows the depth of some strongly held beliefs, no matter how wrong headed or against their own interests they are. Certainly the example in our own country of segregation is another case.

Both of these cases could benefit from the light that Jesus is calling for. Our passage from Isaiah likewise draws the distinction between holier than thou, versus acting in a holy manner. It is not enough to fast if you are not using the time to consider the needs of others, or if you are fasting to acquire some kind of salvation for yourself. The message is clear, being a Christian involves doing good works.

Our class notes come from Patrick J. Ryan, Fordham University's Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society writes in America:
"The holiness of the scribes and Pharisees to which Jesus refers in Matthew's gospel—and it is important to note that He admits its genuine quality in this passage ... demonstrates loyalty to God by exact fidelity to the Law down to the last detail: 'If you choose you can keep the commandments; it is loyalty to do His will.' Jesus, however, wanted the holiness of His disciples to surpass this stringent devotion to duty, but not necessarily to surpass it in scrupulosity and concern with minutiae of observance.
"What St. Paul proclaimed was 'Jesus Christ and him crucified,' not the wisdom of the Law and the prophets. All the wisdom of the ages—Jewish or Greek—and the scrupulous practice of morality and ethics counted for nothing in God's reckoning of righteousness. The secret and hidden wisdom of God points to the crucified Lord."

Carol concludes class with a short prayer.

Lectionary readings

The Readings for Sunday, February 13th are from Lectionary Year One, Epiphany-6A, "Choose Life"

The Readings for this week are Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 and Matthew 5:21-37. The text this week is from the New Revised Standard Version.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

¹⁵ See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. ¹⁶If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. ¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, ¹⁸I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. ¹⁹I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, ²⁰loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Psalm 119:1-8

¹ Happy are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord.
² Happy are those who keep his decrees,
who seek him with their whole heart,
³ who also do no wrong,
but walk in his ways.
⁴ You have commanded your precepts
to be kept diligently.
⁵ O that my ways may be steadfast
in keeping your statutes!
⁶ Then I shall not be put to shame,
having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
⁷ I will praise you with an upright heart,
when I learn your righteous ordinances.
⁸ I will observe your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me.

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

¹And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. ²I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, ³for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? ⁴For when one says, 'I belong to Paul', and another, 'I belong to Apollos', are you not merely human?
⁵ What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. ⁶I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. ⁷So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. ⁸The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labour of each. ⁹For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building.

Matthew 5:21-37

²¹ 'You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, "You shall not murder"; and "whoever murders shall be liable to judgement." ²²But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, "You fool", you will be liable to the hell of fire. ²³So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. ²⁵Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. ²⁶Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
²⁷ 'You have heard that it was said, "You shall not commit adultery." ²⁸But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.
³¹ 'It was also said, "Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce." ³²But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
³³ 'Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, "You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord." ³⁴But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, ³⁵or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷Let your word be "Yes, Yes" or "No, No"; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

NRSV