"'...Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;" (Luke 10:41)

Join us this Sunday in the Parlor!

Welcome to Prime Timers, 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 and you are invited to join us in the Parlor near the church offices, Sunday after the 9:00am service, 10:15am to 11:00. You can keep up to date with our Lectionary based readings at the bottom of this page.

Tintoretto, Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, 1570-75, Oil on canvas, at the Alte Pinakothek, Munich

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. Murray gave thanks for his wife Annette's birthday, and also for the fifth anniversary of her heart attack! Murray told us this makes every year with Annette that much more special. Linda celebrates the birthday of her son. Marty is thankful that the cancer treatments on his cousin's teenage daughter appear to be successful.

Prime Timers go to Dinner!

This month's dinner get together will be at Alexander the Great Greek restaurant, 3055 Sage Road at Hidalgo, 713-622-2778. Lynn tells us "don't get turned off because it's Greek! The food is fabulous!" Dinner will be on Tuesday, July 27th at 6:30pm. Please let Lynn know if you are coming, you can call her at (281) 495-3832.

Mary, Martha and Jesus

Today's lectionary based reading is Luke 10:38-42, the story of busy busy Martha and spiritual Mary, and Jesus' lesson for all of us that being busy sometimes we miss the point. Mary sits at Jesus' feet listening to his message, while Martha is working at many tasks. Martha carps to Jesus that she is doing all the work while Mary is just listening. A class member said that most Marthas resent Marys! Jesus reminds her that her spiritual life is more important.

Our teacher, Carol Hartland, reminded us that Mary and Martha's brother is Lazarus, who Jesus rose from the dead. Today's lesson from Luke is only four verses, but seventy in John 11:1--12:11. The story in John recounts the events of Lazarus' rising from the dead, and the story of Mary and Martha occurs after this, so we can assume that both are very grateful to Jesus and honored to have him in their house.

In Colossians 1:15-28 our good friend Paul is extolling the virtues of Jesus and the church. Lynn mentioned a movie from 1981, Peter and Paul, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins. She felt his portrayal of Paul was very good and gave a sense of the powerful personality that must be Paul!

We read the prophet Amos follow-up to last weeks reading. Amos predicts, accurately, the fall of Israel. In our first reading Amaziah wants Amos to go somewhere else with his doom and gloom. Maybe the disaster he predicts will happen to someone else! This week God compares Israel to a basket of fruit, one that left too long on the shelf will rot and decay. This is the God of Jonathan Edwards "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Israel sinned and now will suffer!

Our class notes contain interesting quotes pertaining to our readings. Barbara Brown Taylor teaches religion at Piedmont College in rural northeast Georgia and is an adjunct professor of spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur. She is the author of twelve books, including the New York Times best seller An Altar in the World, published by HarperOne in February 2009. She wrote in The Christian Century (April 3, 2007):

"Jesus is terrible at meeting people's expectations of him. He engages the sorts of people he should ignore and ignores the sorts of people he should engage. He accepts the wrong dinner invitations. He is rude to respected religious leaders. He scolds his own disciples, while he praises the faith of a Roman soldier. All in all,
this is not a man you want teaching the first-grade Sunday school class (although he is crazy about children). He is impossible to manage. He will not stay in role. Every time his handlers think they have him handled, he vanishes from their midst.
"While it is easy to understand why the followers of Jesus might stop short of emulating him in these ways, it is intriguing to think what might happen if we did. What if ministering in his name meant answering questions with more questions? What if it included refusing to do for others what they must do for themselves? What if it meant maintaining a critical distance from our most beloved institutions, declining to fulfill the roles they assign to us? On the basis of Jesus' own example, these are redemptive ways of life too."

Bishop John Goodwin of LifeCare Ministries was visiting the Prime Timers this week and concluded class with a short prayer.

The Readings for Sunday, July 25th are from Lectionary Year Three, Proper 12-C, "The Lord's Prayer"

The Readings for this week are Hosea 1:2-10; Psalm 85; Colossians 2:6-15 (16-19) and Luke 11:1-13. The text this week is from the New Revised Standard Version.

Hosea 1:2-10

² When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, 'Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.' ³So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
⁴ And the Lord said to him, 'Name him Jezreel; for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. ⁵On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.'
⁶ She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, 'Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them. ⁷But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by war, or by horses, or by horsemen.'
⁸ When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. ⁹Then the Lord said, 'Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people and I am not your God.'

The Restoration of Israel

¹⁰ Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people', it shall be said to them, 'Children of the living God.'

Psalm 85

To the leader. Of the Korahites. A Psalm.

¹ Lord, you were favourable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
² You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you pardoned all their sin.
Selah
³ You withdrew all your wrath;
you turned from your hot anger.

⁴ Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
and put away your indignation towards us.
⁵ Will you be angry with us for ever?
Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
⁶ Will you not revive us again,
so that your people may rejoice in you?
⁷ Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.

⁸ Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people,
to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
⁹ Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.

¹⁰ Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
¹¹ Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
and righteousness will look down from the sky.
¹² The Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
¹³ Righteousness will go before him,
and will make a path for his steps.

Colossians 2:6-15 (16-19)

⁶ As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. ⁹For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, ¹⁰and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. ¹¹In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; ¹²when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. ¹³And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, ¹⁴erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.
¹⁶ Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. ¹⁷These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. ¹⁸Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, ¹⁹and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

Luke 11:1-13

¹He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.' ²He said to them, 'When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
³ Give us each day our daily bread.
⁴ And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.'

Perseverance in Prayer

⁵ And he said to them, 'Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, "Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; ⁶for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him." ⁷And he answers from within, "Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything." ⁸I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
⁹ 'So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ¹¹Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? ¹²Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? ¹³If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!'

NRSV