"So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today." (Matthew 6:34)

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. Matthew by El Greco, 1610-14, Oil on Canvas, and the Musea de El Greco, Toledo, Spain.

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. Linda gave thanks for her upcoming cataract surgery!

Prime Timers are looking and praying for Hugh Turner

Prime Timer Murray Sykes asks for our prayers, and any information, on Hugh Turner, who is 85 and lives in Mesa, Arizona, went missing Christmas Eve. His family lives in Calgary, Canada and go to the same church as Murray. Click here for a letter from the Turner family.

Prime Timers Monthly Dinner

Every month we get together for fellowship and a good meal. This month we are going to Pronto Cucinino at 3191 West Holcombe. This is on the southeast corner of Holcombe at Buffalo Speedway. Dinner is Tuesday at 6:30pm February 22nd. Contact dinner organizer Lynn Swaffar at (281) 495-3832 to let her know if you are coming. Bon appétit!

Putting Others First

Carol Hartland leads the Prime Timers today on a discussion of a section of the Sermon on the Mount our notes title Putting Others First. Jesus contrasts the Old Testament laws with his new vision of loving your enemies and praying for people who wish you ill. These are difficult ideas for the people assembled, and for us today.

But wait, there's more! Jesus asks us to "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:38) As Rev. Martin Bastian tells us in the sermon this morning, the meaning of perfect in the ancient Greek is more working toward perfection than actually being there.

Our reading in Matthew concerns the section of the Sermon on the Mount called the antithesis section. Jesus is re-interpreting the former Law with a non-violent new way of thinking. I think we all understand that "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" is a good way to engage in and endless cycle of violence, and that Jesus way is the one we all aspire to. Jesus' concrete examples are more difficult to accept. For instance, turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:39) seems easier to accept as a concept that if it actually happens to you! As our class notes explain, a backhanded slap to the right side of the face is a demeaning slap by a superior person to an inferior. If this person turns the left cheek it requires the aggressor to strike with their fist, acknowledging that the other person is an equal.

Ancient clothing consists of a tunic of linen worn next to the skin with a heavier cloak over it. This cloak is prohibited by the law from being used as collateral in a loan. So when Jesus tells his followers if someone sues you for your tunic give them the cloak as well, the debtor is left naked, shaming the creditor.

Likewise "walking the extra mile" (Matthew 5:41) acquires extra meaning by considering the times. Roman law allowed a soldier to force a citizen to carry his baggage for a mile, but anything beyond brings a disciplinary action against the soldier.

Carol asks us for examples of non-violent action and of course the first one mentioned is Mahatma Gandhi. Martin Luther King is another, and he was a Christian clergyman. At the same time loving your enemies requires us to pray for the Taliban, for instance, and this is maybe harder to do.

We can all strive for perfection by following Jesus, the rewards are real, the benefits are to our souls.

Sister Helen Prejean is a nun in the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille. She began her prison ministry in 1981 when she dedicated her life to the poor of New Orleans. She wrote a book "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States" that became a major motion picture. She wrote in Saving Jesus:
"As the anger built against Jesus and the radical new kind of community that he was forming, where no one was unclean and accepting people who are unacceptable in society, that anger started with those kinds of stories that Jesus told. People must have been stung."

Carol concludes class with a short prayer.

Lectionary readings

The Readings for Sunday, February 27th are from Lectionary Year One, Epiphany-7A, "Do Not Worry About Tomorrow"

The Readings for this week are Isaiah 49:8-16a; Psalm 131; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 and Matthew 6:24-34. The text this week is from the New Revised Standard Version.

Isaiah 49:8-16a

⁸ Thus says the Lord:
In a time of favour I have answered you,
on a day of salvation I have helped you;
I have kept you and given you
as a covenant to the people,
to establish the land,
to apportion the desolate heritages;
⁹ saying to the prisoners, 'Come out',
to those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.'
They shall feed along the ways,
on all the bare heights shall be their pasture;
¹⁰ they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down,
for he who has pity on them will lead them,
and by springs of water will guide them.
¹¹ And I will turn all my mountains into a road,
and my highways shall be raised up.
¹² Lo, these shall come from far away,
and lo, these from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Syene.

¹³ Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord has comforted his people,
and will have compassion on his suffering ones.

¹⁴ But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me,
my Lord has forgotten me.'
¹⁵ Can a woman forget her nursing-child,
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.

Psalm 131

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

¹ O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvellous for me.
² But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

³ O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time on and for evermore.

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

¹Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries. ²Moreover, it is required of stewards that they should be found trustworthy. ³But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. ⁴I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. ⁵Therefore do not pronounce judgement before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.

Matthew 6:24-34

²⁴ 'No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
²⁵ 'Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁸And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, "What will we eat?" or "What will we drink?" or "What will we wear?" ³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

³⁴ 'So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today.

NRSV