St. Martin's Church from the Balcony

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.

The Readings for Sunday, June 19 are from Lectionary Year C, Proper 7: Track 1: 1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a and Psalm 42 and 43 or Track 2: Isaiah 65:1-9 and Psalm 22:18-27; and for both: Galatians 3:23-29 and Luke 8:26-39. The text is from the Bible Study Tools - New Revised Standard Version.

Lectionary readings

Track 1:

1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a

¹ Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. ² Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow." ³ Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.

⁴ But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors." [⁵ Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, "Get up and eat." ⁶ He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷ The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you."] ⁸ He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. ⁹ At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.

Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" ¹⁰ He answered, "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away."

¹¹ He said, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by." Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; ¹² and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" ¹⁴ He answered, "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away." ¹⁵ Then the Lord said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus;"

Psalm 42

¹ As a deer longs for flowing streams,
     so my soul longs for you, O God.

² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
     When shall I come and behold the face of God?

³ My tears have been my food day and night,
     while people say to me continually,
    "Where is your God?"

⁴ These things I remember, as I pour out my soul:
     how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God,

with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
     a multitude keeping festival.

⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul,
     and why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God;
     for I shall again praise him, my help
    ⁶ and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
     therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan
     and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

⁷ Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts;
     all your waves and your billows have gone over me.

⁸ By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
     and at night his song is with me,
     a prayer to the God of my life.

⁹ I say to God, my rock,
     "Why have you forgotten me?
     Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?"

¹⁰ As with a deadly wound in my body,
     my adversaries taunt me,

while they say to me continually,
     "Where is your God?"

¹¹ Why are you cast down, O my soul,
     and why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God;
     for I shall again praise him,
     my help and my God.

and Psalm 43

¹ Vindicate me, O God,
     and defend my cause against an ungodly people;
     from those who are deceitful and unjust deliver me!

² For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
     why have you cast me off?
     Why must I walk about mournfully because of the oppression of the enemy?

³ O send out your light and your truth; let them lead me;
     let them bring me to your holy hill
     and to your dwelling.

⁴ Then I will go to the altar of God,
     to God my exceeding joy;
     and I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.

⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul,
     and why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God;
     for I shall again praise him,
     my help and my God.

or Track 2:

Isaiah 65:1-9

¹ I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,
     to be found by those who did not seek me.

I said, "Here I am, here I am,"
     to a nation that did not call on my name.

² I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
     following their own devices;

³ a people who provoke me
     to my face continually,

sacrificing in gardens
     and offering incense on bricks;

⁴ who sit inside tombs,
     and spend the night in secret places;

who eat swine's flesh,
     with broth of abominable things in their vessels;

⁵ who say, "Keep to yourself,
     do not come near me, for I am too holy for you."

These are a smoke in my nostrils,
     a fire that burns all day long.

⁶ See, it is written before me:
     I will not keep silent, but I will repay;

I will indeed repay into their laps
     ⁷ their iniquities and their ancestors' iniquities together,
     says the Lord;

because they offered incense on the mountains
     and reviled me on the hills,

I will measure into their laps
     full payment for their actions.
   ⁸ Thus says the Lord:

As the wine is found in the cluster,
     and they say, "Do not destroy it,
     for there is a blessing in it,"

so I will do for my servants' sake,
     and not destroy them all.

⁹ I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,
     and from Judah inheritors of my mountains;

my chosen shall inherit it,
     and my servants shall settle there.

Psalm 22:18-27

¹⁹ But you, O Lord, do not be far away!
     O my help, come quickly to my aid!

²⁰ Deliver my soul from the sword,
     my life from the power of the dog!

²¹ Save me from the mouth of the lion!
     From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.

²² I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;
     in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:

²³ You who fear the Lord, praise him!
     All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
     stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

²⁴ For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted;
     he did not hide his face from me,
     but heard when I cried to him.

²⁵ From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
     my vows I will pay before those who fear him.

²⁶ The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
     those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
     May your hearts live forever!

²⁷ All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
     and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.

²⁸ For dominion belongs to the Lord,
     and he rules over the nations.

and for both:

Galatians 3:23-29

²³ Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. ²⁴ Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶ for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. ²⁷ As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Luke 8:26-39

²⁶ Jesus and his disciples arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. ²⁷ As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. ²⁸ When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me"— ²⁹ for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) ³⁰ Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him. ³¹ They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

³² Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. ³³ Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

³⁴ When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. ³⁵ Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. ³⁶ Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. ³⁷ Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. ³⁸ The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹ "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

Thanks to Bible Study Tools for today's text.