"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (John 3:17)

Prime Timers is 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, the three year cycle of Bible readings used throughout the Anglican Communion and by many Protestant denominations worldwide. Next week's readings are right here, at the bottom of the page! You are invited to join us in the Parlor near the church offices, Sunday after the 9:00am service, 10:15am to 11:00.

Nicodemus and Jesus by French artist Alexander Bida, 1874, from a series of Bible illustrations, The Gospel Life of Jesus.

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. Elizabeth celebrates her husband George's birthday, the first time she did this he was twenty and the year was 1950! I guess that makes George 39. Happy birthday George.

Right Relationship with God

Carol Harland leads the class today, the second Sunday in Lent, with the story of Nicodemus late night meeting with Jesus. Nicodemus is described as a Pharisee and the class is curious if this meeting is a trick of some sort to get Jesus to make a heretical statement, or a genuine inquiry into matters of faith. There is no definitive answer in the Bible whether Nicodemus takes Jesus advice to be reborn in faith, but in John 7:50-51 Nicodemus defends Jesus: "Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, ⁵¹'Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?'" And it was Nicodemus who brought spices to anoint the body of Jesus after the crucifixion, (John 19:39) "Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds."

The reading from Genesis is the story of the Lord telling childless, ninety year old Abraham that he will be the father of a great land, with countless blessed families. Class remarks how Abraham is claimed by the Jews, Christians and Islam as a founding figure. Murray says he can't understand how Islam can accept Jesus as a prophet and yet ignor completely his message of love and redemption. Murray notes that Islam is a religion of laws, much like the Jewish laws that Jesus contends with.

In Romans 4 Paul extends the message of God's grace to all who "share the faith of Abraham." Linda recalls a class with former St. Martin's clergyman the Rev. Stuart Bates, now Rector at St. Francis Episcopal in Houston. He said do not worry about others relationship with God, worry about your own! Another class member recalled a quote "Lord make me a great Christian, but not too quickly" recognizing that true faith is a significant journey.

This must be recall famous quote time in class, as someone else quotes Henry David Thoreau: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." And finally, "there are no atheists in foxholes!"

The Rev. Dr. Donald S. Armentrout is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at The School of Theology at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. He has written:
"Today's Gospel tells of a late-night meeting. A member of the 'establishment' asks for insight into the meaning of life from an itinerant prophet named Jesus. It is a strange encounter, a dark, secret exchange on the subject of light and life.

"Strange as this meeting is, it serves as a metaphor for the place in which we all sometimes find ourselves. We live parts of our lives in shadows as a result of fear and brokenness, which can make day-today existence oppressive. What is stranger still is that we often choose to live that way.

"Jesus makes clear to Nicodemus that God offers salvation to a hurting, broken, shadowy world. God loved the world so much, the Gospel says, that God sent his only-begotten Son. And then, on the cross, Jesus suffered the penalty for our sins.
"God loves with an incredible, unconditional, wide-open love through which we are reborn. Our baptism sets us out on the road with Christ and leads us to the place where Jesus is lifted up for the sake of the world.

"Part of the mystery of salvation is that we never have to cut a path on our own through the world's deep darkness. The way to eternal life is always before us."

Carol concludes class with a short prayer.

Lectionary readings

The Readings for Sunday, March 27th are from Lectionary Year One, Lent 3-A, "Living Water"

The Readings for this week are Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-11 and John 4:5-42. The text this week is from the New Revised Standard Version.

Exodus 17:1-7

¹From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. ²The people quarrelled with Moses, and said, 'Give us water to drink.' Moses said to them, 'Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?' ³But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, 'Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?' ⁴So Moses cried out to the Lord, 'What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.' ⁵The Lord said to Moses, 'Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. ⁶I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.' Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarrelled and tested the Lord, saying, 'Is the Lord among us or not?'

Psalm 95

¹ O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
² Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
³ For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
and the dry land, which his hands have formed.

⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
⁷ For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice!
⁸ Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
⁹ when your ancestors tested me,
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
¹⁰ For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, 'They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they do not regard my ways.'
¹¹ Therefore in my anger I swore,
'They shall not enter my rest.'

Romans 5:1-11

¹Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. ⁸But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. ⁹Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. ¹¹But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

John 4:5-42

⁵So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink'. ⁸(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, 'How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?' (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) ¹⁰Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, "Give me a drink", you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.' ¹¹The woman said to him, 'Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹²Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?' ¹³Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.' ¹⁵The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.'

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, 'Go, call your husband, and come back.' ¹⁷The woman answered him, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said to her, 'You are right in saying, "I have no husband"; ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!' ¹⁹The woman said to him, 'Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.' ²¹Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.' ²⁵The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah is coming' (who is called Christ). 'When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.' ²⁶Jesus said to her, 'I am he, the one who is speaking to you.'

²⁷ Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, 'What do you want?' or, 'Why are you speaking with her?' ²⁸Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹'Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?' ³⁰They left the city and were on their way to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, 'Rabbi, eat something.' ³²But he said to them, 'I have food to eat that you do not know about.' ³³So the disciples said to one another, 'Surely no one has brought him something to eat?' ³⁴Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. ³⁵Do you not say, "Four months more, then comes the harvest"? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. ³⁶The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, "One sows and another reaps." ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.'

³⁹ Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me everything I have ever done.' ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. ⁴¹And many more believed because of his word. ⁴²They said to the woman, 'It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.'

NRSV