Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Brazen Serpent, 1511, fresco at the Sistine Chapel, The Vatican

This is a Great Time to Join the Prime Timers!

You are invited to join us in the Parlor after the 9:15 service. We follow a course of study based on the Revised Common Lectionary, the three year cycle of readings from the Bible you hear at every church service. Next week's readings are right here, at the bottom of the page.

Prime Timer Good News!

A Prime Timer tradition is hearing what others are up to, and charging a dollar for the privilege! We donate the money we collect to charities supported by the church. George had a series of out-patient surgeries on his back which so far are successful!

Restoring True Worship

George Laigle led us through our Lenten readings, perhaps even more relevant since he had some minor surgery this past week, and our readings deal with serpents that turn into objects of faith, and what is the symbol of the American Medical Association but a serpent wrapped around a staff! Looking for the right was to spell caduceus I discovered that the medical symbol is actually a representation of the rod of Asclepius, the son of Apollo who was a practitioner of medicine. The caduceus is two serpents wrapped around a staff with wings, carried by the messenger of the Greek gods, Hermes.

In the reading from Numbers, Moses' people are out in the desert bemoaning their fate: the food is terrible, there is nothing to drink, etc. So God sends poisonous serpents out show them that things can be a lot worse! People are dying from these snakes and once again the people ask Moses to intervene with God. God tells Moses to make a serpent and put it on a pole, and the people who look at it will be cured. While this seems somewhat fantastic, we can see how snakes and staffs came to be associated with healing and medicine. Likewise Jesus will be "placed on a pole" very soon and people looking up to him will likewise be saved.

Rev. Paul Smith serves as co-pastor of Broadway Church in Kansas City, Missouri. He has written:
“Jesus says something deeply confrontational to Nicodemus: ‘The Son of Man will be lifted up as a new version of the serpent in the wilderness.’ Looking on this replacement symbol in faith will be what gives life, what saves. For John, writing this story of the night-time encounter years after Jesus’ death and resurrection
the meaning was clear: the new serpent in the wilderness with power to save is Christ on the cross. Those who gaze on him with the eyes of faith will be saved.”

Murray gave a short prayer to conclude class.

Lectionary readings

The Readings for Sunday, March 25th are from Lectionary Year Two, Lent 5-B, "Jesus' Coming Sacrifice": Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-13; Hebrews 5:5-10 and John 12:20-33. The text this week is from the New Revised Standard Version.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

³¹ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. ³³But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Psalm 51:1-13

To the leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you alone, have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgement.
⁵ Indeed, I was born guilty,
a sinner when my mother conceived me.

⁶ You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.

Hebrews 5:5-10

⁵ So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him,
‘You are my Son,
today I have begotten you’;
⁶as he says also in another place,
‘You are a priest for ever,
according to the order of Melchizedek.’

⁷ In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; ⁹and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, ¹⁰having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

John 12:20-33

²⁰ Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. ²¹They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ ²²Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ^24MVery truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.

²⁷ ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. ²⁸Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ ²⁹The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ ³⁰Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. ³¹Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ ³³He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

NRSV