The Rose Window at St. Martin's Church

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, June 5, are from Lectionary Year C, Sunday Closest to June 8 - Proper 5: 1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24); Psalm 146 or Psalm 30; Galatians 1:11-24 and Luke 7:11-17. The text is from the Revised Standard Version w/Apocrypha *

1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24)

⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ⁹ "Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you." ¹⁰ So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink." ¹¹ As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." ¹² But she said, "As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die." ¹³ Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. ¹⁴ For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth." ¹⁵ She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. ¹⁶ The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. ¹⁷ After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. ¹⁸ She then said to Elijah, "What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!" ¹⁹ But he said to her, "Give me your son." He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. ²⁰ He cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?" ²¹ Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again." ²² The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. ²³ Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, "See, your son is alive." ²⁴ So the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth."

Psalm 146

¹ Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
     ² I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
     I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

³ Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals,
     in whom there is no help.

⁴ When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
     on that very day their plans perish.

⁵ Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
     whose hope is in the Lord their God,

⁶ who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them;
     who keeps faith forever;

⁷ who executes justice for the oppressed;
     who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
     ⁸ the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
     The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;

the Lord loves the righteous.
     ⁹ The Lord watches over the strangers;
     he upholds the orphan and the widow,
     but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

¹⁰ The Lord will reign forever,
     your God, O Zion, for all generations.
     Praise the Lord!

or Psalm 30

¹ I will extol you, O Lord,
     for you have drawn me up,
     and did not let my foes rejoice over me.

² O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
     and you have healed me.

³ O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol,
     restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.

⁴ Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones,
    and give thanks to his holy name.

⁵ For his anger is but for a moment;
     his favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may linger for the night,
     but joy comes with the morning.

⁶ As for me, I said in my prosperity,
     "I shall never be moved."
    ⁷ By your favor, O Lord, you had established me as a strong mountain;

you hid your face;
     I was dismayed.

⁸ To you, O Lord, I cried,
     and to the Lord I made supplication:

⁹ "What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit?
     Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?

¹⁰ Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me!
     O Lord, be my helper!"

¹¹ You have turned my mourning into dancing;
     you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

¹² so that my soul may praise you and not be silent.
     O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

Galatians 1:11-24

¹¹ For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; ¹² for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹³ You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. ¹⁴ I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. ¹⁵ But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased ¹⁶ to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, ¹⁷ nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus. ¹⁸ Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days; ¹⁹ but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord's brother. ²⁰ In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie! ²¹ Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, ²² and I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; ²³ they only heard it said, "The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy." ²⁴ And they glorified God because of me.

Luke 7:11-17

¹¹ Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. ¹² As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. ¹³ When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, "Do not weep." ¹⁴ Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you, rise!" ¹⁵ The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. ¹⁶ Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has risen among us!" and "God has looked favorably on his people!" ¹⁷ This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

Thanks to Bible Study Tools for today's text.