Christ by El Greco, 1606, oil on canvas at the Cathedral in Toledo, Spain

Prime Timers

The Prime Timers were a Bible study group at St. Martin's for eight years. One of the goals of our founder, Jackie Rose, was to have a weekly web page for the group and all the pages are still online here. The group disbanded but the readings below are being kept up to date.

Lectionary readings

The Readings for Sunday, February 3 are from Lectionary Year C, Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany: Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 and Luke 4:21-30. The text is from the Bible Study Tools - New International Version.

Jeremiah 1:4-10

⁴ The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

    ⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
      before you were born I set you apart;
      I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

⁶ “Alas, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” ⁷ But the LORD said to me,

    “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’
     You must go to everyone I send you to
     and say whatever I command you.
    ⁸ Do not be afraid of them,
     for I am with you and will rescue you,”

declares the LORD.

⁹ Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me,

      “I have put my words in your mouth.
    ¹⁰ See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms
       to uproot and tear down,
       to destroy and overthrow,
       to build and to plant.”

Psalm 71:1-6

¹ In you, LORD, I have taken refuge;
     let me never be put to shame.

² In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me;
     turn your ear to me and save me.

³ Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go;
     give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

⁴ Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,
     from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel.

⁵ For you have been my hope, Sovereign LORD,
     my confidence since my youth.

⁶ From birth I have relied on you;
     you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.
     I will ever praise you.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

¹ If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. ¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Luke 4:21-30

²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” ²² All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. ²³ Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ ” ²⁴ “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. ²⁵ I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. ²⁶ Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. ²⁷ And there were many in Israel with leprosyin the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸ All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹ They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Thanks to Bible Study Tools for today's text.