Make a Lenten promise--Join the Prime Timers!

Prime Timers, a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education (A.C.E.) group, also known as an ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship), is for people in the Prime of Life, ages 50-64, but don't worry we won't card you at the door. Class meets in the Parlor near the Church Offices each Sunday from 10:15am to 11:00. We are following a course of study from the United Council of Churches titled The New Testament Community. This is a great time to join our group as we begin the third quarter with a "New Creation in Christ." This month we are spending time with the prophecies of Ezekiel, some of the most fascinating and puzzling writings in the Bible. The 16th century art below comes courtesy of the Web Gallery of Art, a wonderful resource.

Prime Timers Celebrate Good News!

This Tuesday, March 17, St. Patrick's Day, is the Prime Timers monthly dinner. Lynn Swaffar tells us that it will be at Baba Yega's in Montrose. Please let Lynn know if you are coming. LYNNSWAFFAR@YAHOO.COM or 281-495-3832. Baba Yega's "offers a variety of dishes, from hamburgers to seafood dishes to vegetarian fare and more" and Lynn tells me she wants you to come whether you are on a diet or not!

We celebrate our members Good News at Prime Timers with a $1 contribution to Henny Penny, our Good News chicken. Periodically Henny donates the money she collects to a worthy charity, currently the Amistad Mission in Bolivia.  Lynne and Linda both gave thanks that their son's found new jobs! Annette went to see her Mother on her birthday, and she (Annette, not the Mother!) passed out! Now that's a present you won't forget! Annette reports she is ok now.

Francisco Collantes, The Vision of Ezekiel, 1630, Oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid

God's People, Restored Again

Donn Fullenweider guided us through Ezekiel's dark prophesy today. He began by reciting Psalm 25. Did you know that this psalm is an acrostic? The verses begin with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet:

¹To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;

²in you I trust, O my God.
Do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.

³No one whose hope is in you
will ever be put to shame,
but they will be put to shame
who are treacherous without excuse.

⁴Show me your ways, O LORD,
teach me your paths;

⁵guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.

⁶Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.

⁷Remember not the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you are good, O LORD.

⁸Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.

⁹He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.

¹⁰All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

¹¹For the sake of your name, O LORD,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

¹²Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.

¹³He will spend his days in prosperity,
and his descendants will inherit the land.

¹⁴The LORD confides in those who fear him;
he makes his covenant known to them.

¹⁵My eyes are ever on the LORD,
for only he will release my feet from the snare.

¹⁶Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.

¹⁷The troubles of my heart have multiplied;
free me from my anguish.

¹⁸Look upon my affliction and my distress
and take away all my sins.

¹⁹See how my enemies have increased
and how fiercely they hate me!

²⁰Guard my life and rescue me;
let me not be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.

²¹May integrity and uprightness protect me,
because my hope is in you.

²²Redeem Israel, O God,
from all their troubles!

Donn looked for some alternate explanations of Ezekiel to help us get a handle on this prophet, who pronounced harsh judgments on Israel. Ezekiel is the son of Buzi, a priest of Jerusalem, part of the aristocracy that Nebuchadnezzar (597 BC) carried off to be exiled in Babylonia. In the Jewish Encyclopedia Ezekiel is characterized as occupying a unique position among Hebrew prophets. "He stands midway between two epochs, drawing his conclusions from the one and pointing out the path toward the other." Prior to Ezekiel Israel is a united and homogeneous nation. Ezekiel's exile lasts twenty two years! He considers is his mission to reach each and every Israelite and to bring them back to God. Those he wins back will form the basis of a new "kingdom of priests." 

In the Catholic Encyclopedia, we find Ezekiel's name signifies "strong is God" or "whom God makes strong." "During the first period of his career, he foretold the complete destruction of the kingdom of Juda, and the annihilation of the city and temple. After the fulfilment of these predictions, he was commanded to announce the future return from exile, the re-establishment of the people in their own country and, especially, the triumph of the Kingdom of the Messiah, the second David, so that the people would not abandon themselves to despair and perish as a nation, through contact with the Gentiles, whose gods had apparently triumphed over the God of Israel. This is the principal burden of Ezekiel's prophecy..."

Our reading today has Ezekiel alluding to a promise of new life, and this is significant in the book of Ezekiel since most of it consists of telling the Israelites that judgment and suffering are awaiting to get back into God's favor. In Ezekiel 36:1-21 we are given the reasons for Israel's exile:  violence and idolatry. In our readings verses 24-27 the key words "take," "gather," and "bring" indicate that while the exodus from Egypt was for the suffering of the people this new exodus was for God's own holiness. People were to be restored and transformed.

The price of this restoration was that people "will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices." (Ezekiel 36:31) This may sound harsh but is more on the line of "those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it" (George Santayana ).

A class visitor asked why does God need us to glorify him? After all someone who can create the universe in a couple of days must not need us for anything! Rather lets treat the universe as a fabulous machine that God gave us, along with instructions! If we get a printer/copier/scanner/fax machine and try to make coffee with it we are going to be disappointed! But following instructions we can realize the marvels it is capable of. Likewise Ezekiel wants to make sure we remember the bad things we have done to appreciate to new life we are given.

The Lesson for Sunday, March 22nd,  is "Prophesying New Life"

Key Verse:  Ezekiel 37:6

Focus of the Lesson: Sometimes situations seem so overwhelming that we fall into despair. Where can we find hope? Ezekiel's prophecy of the valley of dry bones vividly illustrates how God enlivens people and fills them with he breath of life and hope.

The reading is Ezekiel 37:1-14. This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)

Background Scripture:  Ezekiel 37

   ¹The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ²He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. ³He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

   ⁴Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! ⁵This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. ⁶I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "

   ⁷So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

   ⁹Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " ¹⁰So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

   ¹¹Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' ¹²Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.' "

NIV