Matthew 28:6 "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said."

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, age 50 and beyond. 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. You are invited to join our group as we begin a new unit titled "The Way of New Life" based on the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians.

Prime Timers go to Afghanistan!

Thursday, May 7, the Prime Timers had our monthly dinner get-together at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Beck building. We were given a private tour of the Afghanistan Exhibit by Museum docent and Prime Timer Connie Colley! This exhibit is leaving on May 17 so we were very lucky to have this opportunity. Thanks to Lynn Swaffar for the photo!

Prime Timers Celebrate Good News!

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 charity, currently the Amistad Mission in Bolivia.  Lynne gave thanks to Connie Colley for our visit and private tour of the Afghanistan exhibit at MFAH. Annette and Murray brought the wonderful news of their thirty-second wedding anniversary!

New Revelation in Christ

Donn Fullenweider returned to teach the Prime Timers today, and thanks to a mixed up communication Carol Hartland was ready with a lesson as well. So both of them led the Prime Timers through our lesson from Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Donn began by reminding us that the idea that salvation is for everyone through Jesus was a new concept when Jesus taught it. The Jewish people had constructed quite a set of rules you needed to follow to obtain God's grace. At the same time the Romans tolerated the Jews since they were an ancient religion and the Romans respected the past. Christians, on the other hand, were the newcomers. Carol pointed out that Paul's letter the the Ephesians is quite formal, most likely intended as a circular letter. That is, not just to the Ephesians but intended for a wider audience.

Jesus began his ministry with the words "the kingdom of God is at hand" in Mark 1:15, and Paul here speaks of God's mysterious plan not being fully revealed to prophets in the past, but now with Jesus' life, his ministry, death and resurrection we are given a glimpse of what God intended for humanity. Everyone, the Jews, the Gentiles, all people are heirs, members and sharers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Carol then read this from Isaiah 40:1-6:

¹Comfort, comfort my people,
  says your God.

²Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD's hand
double for all her sins.

³A voice of one calling:
"In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.

⁴Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.

⁵And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

⁶A voice says, "Cry out."
And I said, "What shall I cry?"
"All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.

The book of Isaiah is an Old Testament book with many "precognitions" that Christians can see as being fulfilled by Jesus.

The idea of Jesus' teaching being for everyone gets to one of the central questions of Christianity, and of all religions. Is Christianity the only way? Are all Confucians and Buddhists condemned to hell? What about the Muslims, who accept Jesus as a prophet, but not a divine being? The class allowed how this is an issue that can lead to bad feeling. When it comes to the practical, though, it's a different story. Carol visits people in the hospital as part of her ministry. These are people getting transplants and Carol asks if she can pray with them through Jesus. She finds most people are happy to pray through Jesus, or anyone with a direct path to God. Another member worked in a trauma ward in New York City for many years and dealt with life and death issues, often many times in a day. She found that people facing this situation are glad to have someone there with them to hold their hand, provide comfort.

How we live our lives is perhaps the best way to confront this mystery. A class member mentioned the Protestant theologian Paul Tillich, who described religion as dealing with ultimate concerns. In other words, belonging to the "right" church or faith is not as important as your own journey dealing with the "holy mysteries." Donn asked a question from our lesson book, what do you say to someone who asks you for "something more" in dealing with life. Certainly you can invite this person to church, although it is likely you are being asked this due to the example you are setting day by day, living in the path prepared for you to walk in!

Donn told us about one of his clients, who wanted Donn to understand the Sharia law of Muslim society. With today's atmosphere poisoned by the practices of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda it is easy to assume this law is simply cruel fanaticism. The client sent Donn to Eqypt, where he spent several days with Egyptian clerics at a university, and Donn acquired a respect and understanding of this system of laws. Respecting and understanding the beliefs of others is the first step toward friendship.

Donn concluded class with this benediction:  Give us new hearts filled with your Spirit, O Lord, that we may live as new creations in Christ. Amen.

The Lesson for Sunday, May 24th,  is "New Life in the Home"

Key Verses:  Ephesians 5:21

Focus of the Lesson: Family life is often disrupted by internal conflict. How can families learn to live together in harmony? In Ephesians, Paul urges believers to serve one another in the home in the name and Sprit of Christ.

The reading is Ephesians 5:21--6:4. This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)

Background Scripture:  Ephesians 5:1--6:4

   ²¹Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

   ²²Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

   ²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰for we are members of his body. ³¹"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." ³²This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

   ¹Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ²"Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise— ³"that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." ⁴Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

NIV