"Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." (Genesis 15:1)

Prime Timers is a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education group, a.k.a. Adult Bible Fellowship. We are age 50 and beyond, and we invite everyone 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. The Lenten season is just beginning, why not spend some of your forty days with us?

Prime Timers Murray and wife Annette, Lynn, Jim and Anne around the fabulous Prime Timers Shrove Tuesday float. We won the best visual effects award!

Anne, Annette, Rev. Dick "Cupid" Elwood, Murray, George and Elizabeth prepare for the St. Martin's Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper parade.

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. Last year George asked the Lord for rain on his farm property during the drought. As George says, the Lord can really provide, and now there is almost too much rain! He is thankful for the first signs of spring he is seeing now. Marty thanked everyone for our great showing at the annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper. We made it to the semi-finals for the overall, losing out to the Youth of St. Martin's.

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.

Not By Bread Alone

Carol Hartland taught class today as we explored Jesus' forty days in the desert and his temptations by the Devil. The reading of Luke 4:1-13 has Jesus at the end of his fast, famished, and here comes the devil with three bargains, and of course Jesus resists the temptations and gives us all a model for behaviour.

Class discussion turned to fasting and it's effects. George said that with water it would take around sixty days for a healthy person to die without food, so Jesus' forty days was realistic. George also told us he had fasted twice for about four days and reported that it really gives you a powerful alertness, maybe so you can find some food! As far as temptation, he said each of us has a black dog and a white dog inside us, and which one we feed determines our destinies!

The book Survival in Auschwitz was mentioned. This is Primo Levi's account of ending up at the notorious death camp. George tells us this is a very compelling book, but it never mentions God once! He contrasted this with stories from Viet Nam at the prison camp called the Hanoi Hilton, where inmates used the carbon from matchsticks to write parts of scripture on scraps of paper and a communication system using Morse Code tapping on the walls to build up a collection of Bible stories giving themselves hope.

Carol visits patients on the transplant floor at St. Luke's Hospital and she finds that the faith of these people can be very strong.

These two examples did not have much to do with temptation, although they do deal with strong emotional experiences. A member recalled being out of work and going into a pretty deep depression. He found there were two things that helped him come out of it: finding someone worse off than himself and exercise! Getting out of bed can be very difficult when you are depressed.

Marty added that some people really like being depressed. It is an excuse to block out others and feel sorry for yourself. Someone else commented that growing old was not for sissies! Another mentioned being around a St. Martin's member in the days just before he died, in his nineties, who said not much is working anymore and what does hurts!

A sign your are getting older is losing your keys, older still is when you forget what the keys are for.

Our class notes include this from the Rev. Donald S. Armentrout, Professor of Ecclesiastical History at The School of Theology at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee: “Before we celebrate the paschal mystery of Jesus’ death and Resurrection, we follow the example of Jesus by spending forty days in the wilderness. In this spiritual desert we face our sins and shortcomings by seeing
ourselves as we truly are. Rather than fleeing the emptiness and pain within, we allow God to speak to us in the silence. …"

Carol concluded class with a short prayer.

The Readings for Sunday, February 28th are from Lectionary Year Three, Lent 2-C, "Following the Divine Plan"

The Readings for this week are Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Psalm 27; Philippians 3:17--4:1; and Luke 13:31-35. The text is from the New International Version.

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

¹ After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:
"Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward."

² But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" ³ And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."

⁴ Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." ⁵ He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."

⁶ Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

⁷ He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it."

⁸ But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?"

⁹ So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."

¹⁰ Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. ¹¹ Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

¹² As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.

¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. ¹⁸ On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates-

Psalm 27

¹ The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?

² When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.

³ Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.

⁴ One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

⁵ For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

⁶ Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.

⁷ Hear my voice when I call, O LORD;
be merciful to me and answer me.

⁸ My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"
Your face, LORD, I will seek.

⁹ Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
O God my Savior.

¹⁰ Though my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will receive me.

¹¹ Teach me your way, O LORD;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.

¹² Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
breathing out violence.

¹³ I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

Philippians 3:17--4:1

¹⁷Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. ¹⁸For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. ²⁰But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
¹Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

Luke 13:31-35

³¹At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you."

³²He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' ³³In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

³⁴"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! ³⁵Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

NIV