"When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time." (Luke 4:13)

Prime Timers is a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education group,or Adult Bible Fellowship. We are age 50 and beyond, although we invite one and all to come to the Parlor near the Church Offices each Sunday from 10:15 am to 11:00. We are following the Revised Common Lectionary this year. 2010 is a great time to jump in!

A Dragon at Shanghai River's Celebration of Chinese New Year, the year of the Tiger!

More colorful characters at Shanghai River's annual celebration of Chinese New Year.

Prime Timers Murray, Annette and Lynn celebrate Chinese New Year at the Shanghai River Restaurant.

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 celebrated his wife's finding a photo of them on their third date, sixty years ago!

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper

The annual festivities celebrating the beginning of Lent begin at 5:30pm on Tuesday, February 16. Come on down for pancakes or some red beans and rice! The Prime Timers will be represented with a float and some foolishness with our mentor the Rev. Dick Elwood. If you would like to give out beads and accompany our float we are assembling in the activity center around 6:30pm.

Outreach Opportunity

Carol tells us there is a good outreach opportunity coming up Sunday, March 7, from 3:00-4:30 pm. as St. Martin's hosts an Ice Cream Social at New Hope Housing, 2821 Canal Street. Sign up by March 1 and meet at the Canal Street address. For more information send email to outreach@stmartinsepiscopal.org.

Camp Good News

PrimeTimers is participating in an outreach project with Camp Good News, a camp for children who have a parent in prison. The outreach project will be writing letters or cards of encouragement or inspiration to these children who receive very little mail. The camp session is the first part of June and more information will be forthcoming. Click on the Camp Good News name for more information about this organization.

Revealed in Glory

Carol Hartland taught class today as our Lectionary readings took us to the Transfiguration. This event is referred to in the other Synoptic Gospels, although none as eloquently as the one in Luke. The Synoptic Gospels are Matthew, Mark and Luke, called synoptic because they contain many of the same stories, sometimes in very similar terms. So you can experience this yourself, here is the Transfiguration as related in Matthew 17:1-9:

¹After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. ²There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. ³Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

⁴Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."

⁵While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"

⁶When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. ⁷But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid." ⁸When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

⁹As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Don't tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."

And once again in Mark 9:2-10:

²After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. ³His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. ⁴And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

⁵Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." ⁶(He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

⁷Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!"

⁸Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

⁹As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. ¹⁰They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what "rising from the dead" meant.

This event is appropriate for the beginning of Lent as it foreshadows Jesus coming death and resurrection in Jerusalem. In all three accounts Jesus glows, shining like the sun (Matthew), or his clothes shining brighter than anyone could bleach them (Mark), or bright as a flash of lightning (Luke). The Old Testament view was that directly confronting the divine led to death. In the passage from Exodus, Moses comes down from the mountain with the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments, and his face is radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. Moses covers his face with a vail because the people were afraid to come near him.

In 2 Corinthians 3:12--4:2, Paul mentions this vail to highlight the difference between the old and new, "because only in Christ is it taken away." (2 Corinthians 3:14) All this visual imagery prompted George to say how he thought the Glory of God was much more than merely visual. Carol attended Rev. Fields wonderful program, "The Bible for Dummies" and described how listening can provide you with different perspectives on the same passages of scripture! For instance if a man reads a passage and then a woman reads the same passage it is likely that each will provide a different emphasis.

Discussing divine manifestations in the Bible can be difficult. After all we are modern people and we tend to be skeptical. At the same time we believe in the Bible as a "manual" for spiritual guidance. Biblical scholarship reflects this same problem. Early scholarship regarded the Bible as a perfect book, so if you found an inconsistency there must be a reason for it, within the Bible itself! The search was ever inward. In the late 1800's modern archaeology began to uncover relics and evidence of the events chronicled in the Bible. Now dates could be established for an event, and if the chronology in the Bible was different, well now you have a problem. With the Bible being written by multiple authors, however divinely inspired they were, there were bound to be "writer's techniques" included, such as altering events to make a point, or a better story. Nonetheless it is a tribute to the Bible's essential power that it continues to be a source of wonder and enlightenment for so many people.

Some class members bemoaned the decline of Christian membership, especially in European countries. Many of the magnificent old churches and cathedrals are only attended by a handful of people, sometimes mostly tourists. Or they are used just for weddings! While membership may be in decline, Christianity is still by most accounts the number one religion by membership, or adherents. Check this table from various sources, numbers are in billions:

Data Source	Christianity	Islam	Hinduism
Adherents.com	2.1	1.3	0.9
British Broadcasting Corp.	2.0	1.2	0.75
Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year (1966)	1.9	1.1	0.78
Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year (2003)	2.0	1.2	0.8
International Bulletin of Missionary Research	2.0	1.2	-
Wikipedia Encyclopedia	2.1	1.3	0.9

Others in class wondered if other religions have a single phrase that kind of sums up the mission of the church, such as John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Discussion then turned to the amazing sources online for Bible study. Only a little while ago if you wanted to find a Biblical passage you would head for one of many reference books and start digging. Now there are many web sites that let you type in a phrase and find what you are looking for. George mentioned the Blue Letter Bible. Carol uses Halley's Bible Handbook, a classical work that is still coming out with new editions. Click the name above to see the big variety of editions. The Bible Gateway provides searches for a huge number of Bibles. Our own Episcopal Church has a nice web site with many resources. The Prime Timers web site uses the resources of Biblica.com for passages from the New International Version Bible.

Our reference sheet for the readings concludes with this from Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor:

“Jesus, like Moses before him, was about to set God’s people free, only it was not bondage to pharaoh they needed freeing from this time. It was bondage to their own fear of sin and death, which crippled them far worse than leg chains ever had. Whenever they got too brave and eloquent in the face of death, all someone had to do was threaten them and they would go back to being good slaves again, minding their own business and forgetting who they were. So God had planned another exodus for them—in Jerusalem this time.”

Carol concluded class with a short prayer.

The Readings for Sunday, February 21st are from Lectionary Year Three, Lent 1-C, "Not by Bread Alone"

The Readings for this week are Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16; Romans 10:8b-13 and Luke 4:1-13. The text is from the New International Version.

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

¹ When you have entered the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, ² take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name ³ and say to the priest in office at the time, "I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the land the LORD swore to our forefathers to give us." ⁴ The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God. ⁵ Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: "My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. ⁶ But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. ⁷ Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. ⁸ So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. ⁹ He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; ¹⁰ and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O LORD, have given me." Place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before him. ¹¹ And you and the Levites and the aliens among you shall rejoice in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household.

Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16

¹ He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

² I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."

...

⁹ If you make the Most High your dwelling—
even the LORD, who is my refuge-

¹⁰ then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.

¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;

¹² they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

¹³ You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

¹⁴ "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

¹⁵ He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.

¹⁶ With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."

Romans 10:8b-13

⁸But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: ⁹That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. ¹¹As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." ¹²For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, ¹³for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Luke 4:1-13

¹Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, ²where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

³The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."

⁴Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'"

⁵The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷So if you worship me, it will all be yours."

⁸Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'"

⁹The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. ¹⁰For it is written:
" 'He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully;
¹¹they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

¹²Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

¹³When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

NIV