After Thanksgiving, why don't you come down to the Prime Timers Adult Bible Fellowship?

You are invited to join us in the Payne Education Center, rooms 207-209 each Sunday in between the 9 and 11am services from 10:10 to 10:50 Currently we are studying God's Living Covenant from the Old Testament. Coffee and snacks are provided at all the St. Martin's ABFs, and the Prime Timers are no exception!

Prime Timer Good News

Our class begins with time for members Good News. This morning Lee Ohrt took us to her back yard this past Wednesday, when fifty mile an hour winds charged across the South. Lee heard a noise she had not heard before, looked out her window, and watched as a live oak tree began to fall right toward her! This wasn't any old tree, it was the major tree in the yard, with a trunk almost three feet in diameter. Luckily there were brick arches leading to the house that broke the fall of the tree, so Lee was spared although there was damage to the roof and of course a big mess in the yard. Four trees in all were lost.

Lee told this story with great good spirits, even taking up a mock collection at the end. It shows that when all is said and done, your health is the most important thing.

Katy Given gave thanks for our prayers for her child Don, who has had some rough times medically but made it through ok. Her mother has throat cancer, but is now a survivor, making it through treatment.

Making Wrong Choices

Ben Welmaker guided the Prime Timers through our journey in the Old Testament today, with the Israelites being thrown out of Jerusalem under King Zedekiah. Ben used a comparison to King Lear, by William Shakespeare.

First, to put today's reading in perspective, Ben gave us the chronology of Kings leading up to Zedekiah. Last week we read about King Josiah, who reformed the temple, even though God was going to punish his people. Josiah is killed by Pharaoh Neco of Egypt. Josiah's son Jehoahaz becomes King at the age of twenty-three and reigns only three months, when the pharaoh replaces him with his brother Eliakim, changing his name to Jehoiakim. He is twenty-five when he assumes the throne. He reigns for eleven years, (2 Chronicles 36:5) "...He did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God." The Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar attacks Jehoiakim, bounds and takes him off to Babylon to answer for his deeds.

Once again the son becomes king, at eighteen years old, Jehoiachin becomes King of Judah, succeeding his father Jehoiakim. This son lasts three months and ten days until King Nebuchadnezzar dethroned him and made Jehoiachin's uncle, Zedekiah, King of Judah at twenty -one years of age. Once again we have a King who does evil in the eyes of the Lord. Do you see a pattern here?

This progression of bad Kings is leading up to the Fall of Jerusalem, and Zedekiah is painted as an evil King, deserving of his fate. In the verses leading up to today's reading we get a king who is not humble, rebels against his sponsor, King Nebuchadnezzar, and (2 Chronicles 36:13) "...He became stiff-necked and hardened his heart and would not turn to the Lord, the God of Israel." We also have priests becoming more and more unfaithful, following bad practices and defiling the temple.

Ben compares Zedekiah to King Lear. Both were evil men, stubborn and proud. Zedekiah is warned by God's messengers, but mocks and scoffs at them. Lear banishes the Lord of Kent, even though he supports Lear's daughter Cordelia. Zedekiah is turned over to King Nebuchadnezzar for his faithlessness. Lear gives his kingdom to his daughters Goneril and Regan, but is betrayed by them.

Lear has this conversation with the Fool at the beginning of Act III, out on the moor in a thunderstorm: 

"Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain!
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters.
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness;
I never gave you kingdom, call’d you children;
You owe me no subscription. Then let fall
Your horrible pleasure. Here I stand, your slave,
A poor, infirm, weak, and despis’d old man;
But yet I call you servile ministers,
That will with two pernicious daughters join
Your high engender’d battles ’gainst a head
So old and white as this. Oh! Oh! ’tis foul!"

The wrong choices have consequences. Discussion that followed mentioned the fact that God uses evil people to exact his revenges. There is always a Hitler or Stalin waiting in the wings.

Ben read our Healing Prayer, followed by a short benediction, after which he dismissed the class.

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Mentor

Rev. B. Massey Gentry
mgentry@stmartinsepiscopal.org

Leaders

Lee Ohrt took a harrowing experience and found reasons to be thankful! This photo is from the Prime Timers Halloween party last year!

Katy Given brought two Good News stories to class today.

Sir Lawrence Olivier as King Lear, from a TV production in 1983.

(2 Kings 25:7) "They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon." By French artist Gustave Doré

The Lesson for Sunday, November 26th is titled "Experiencing Forgiveness"

Key Verse:  2 Chronicles 36:23

Focus of the Lesson:  Many people experience forgiveness after they have done something wrong. How do we experience God's forgiveness? The Israelites knew God had forgiven them when they were allowed to return home and rebuild.

The reading is 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:5-7. This text is from the New International Version^®.

   ²² In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:

   ²³"This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
" 'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you—may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.' "

Ezra 1:5-7

   ⁵Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. ⁶All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings. ⁷Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god.

NIV®