Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, Joachim Beuckelaer, 1565, Oil on oak, at the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

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, July 21 are from Lectionary Year C, Proper 11: Amos 8:1-12; Psalm 52 or Genesis 18:1-10a; Psalm 15; Colossians 1:15-28 and Luke 10:38-42. The text is from the Bible Study Tools - New International Version.

Amos 8:1-12

¹ This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me:
     a basket of ripe fruit.

² “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.
     “A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.

Then the LORD said to me,
     “The time is ripe for my people Israel;
      I will spare them no longer.

³ “In that day,” declares the Sovereign LORD,
     “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.

Many, many bodies—flung everywhere!
    Silence!”

⁴ Hear this, you who trample the needy
     and do away with the poor of the land,

⁵ saying, “When will the New Moon be over
     that we may sell grain,

and the Sabbath
     be ended that we may market wheat?”

— skimping on the measure, boosting the price
     and cheating with dishonest scales,

⁶ buying the poor with silver
     and the needy for a pair of sandals,
     selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

⁷ The LORD has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob:

“I will never forget anything they have done.

⁸ “Will not the land tremble for this,
     and all who live in it mourn?

The whole land will rise like the Nile;
     it will be stirred up and then sink like the river of Egypt.

⁹ “In that day,” declares the Sovereign LORD,
     “I will make the sun go down at noon
      and darken the earth in broad daylight.

¹⁰ I will turn your religious festivals into mourning
     and all your singing into weeping.

I will make all of you wear sackcloth
     and shave your heads.

I will make that time like mourning for an only son
     and the end of it like a bitter day.

¹¹ “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD,
     “when I will send a famine through the land—

not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
     but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

¹² People will stagger from sea to sea
     and wander from north to east,

searching for the word of the LORD,
     but they will not find it.

Psalm 52

¹ Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero?
     Why do you boast all day long,
     you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?

² You who practice deceit,
     your tongue plots destruction;
     it is like a sharpened razor.

³ You love evil rather than good,
     falsehood rather than speaking the truth.

⁴ You love every harmful word,
     you deceitful tongue!

⁵ Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
     He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent;
     he will uproot you from the land of the living.

⁶ The righteous will see and fear;
     they will laugh at you, saying,

⁷ “Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold
     but trusted in his great wealth
     and grew strong by destroying others!”

⁸ But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God;
     I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.

⁹ For what you have done I will always praise you in the presence of your faithful people.
     And I will hope in your name, for your name is good.

or Genesis 18:1-10a

¹ The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. ² Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. ³ He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. ⁴ Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. ⁵ Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.” “Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.” ⁶ So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.” ⁷ Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. ⁸ He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.

⁹ “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There, in the tent,” he said. ¹⁰ Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Psalm 15

¹ LORD, who may dwell in your sacred tent?
     Who may live on your holy mountain?

² The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous,
     who speaks the truth from their heart;

³ whose tongue utters no slander,
     who does no wrong to a neighbor,
     and casts no slur on others;

⁴ who despises a vile person
     but honors those who fear the LORD;

who keeps an oath even when it hurts,
     and does not change their mind;

⁵ who lends money to the poor without interest;
     who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things
     will never be shaken.

Colossians 1:15-28

¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. ²² But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— ²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

Luke 10:38-42

³⁸38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” ⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴² but few things are needed—or indeed only one.Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Thanks to Bible Study Tools for today's text.