The Season of Advent begins!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Prime Timers!

We are a Christian Education group at St. Martin's for Episcopalians aged fifty and above. If you are near the Parlor in between the 9:15 and 11:00am services, come on in, you are invited! 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 has a ranch out toward Bastrop and his son reports that an inch and a half of much needed rain fell the other day.

Inherit the Kingdom

George Laigle led the Prime Timers through this weeks lectionary readings from Matthew, Paul and the Old Testament. This is the last Sunday in the Church Year and our reading is the conclusion of Matthew's fifth and final discourse. After the three parables about the coming of the Son of Man Jesus gives us an idea of what the final judgment might be like. (Matthew 25:40) "...'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'" George points out that today's reading contain lots of references to farm animals; the sheep and goats in Matthew's story for instance. Class decides that the idea is that sheep need to be led by a shepherd, while goats can be stubborn and independent. Annette reminded us that goats have horns!

George is constantly finding interesting things on the internet and today's idea is about the "Moses Principle." If you follow the link you will find yourself in the middle of a pitch for buying gold, but the idea is this: if God is so powerful, why didn't he just send the Israelites right to the promised land? Why make them suffer for forty years in the desert? The Moses Principle is the idea that every forty years there is a generational change. Most of the older people who began the journey to the Promised Land were probably dead after forty years! The ones who remained were young people who had no idea what it was like in Egypt and the Promised Land must certainly have seemed like the Land of Milk and Honey after all that time in the desert. This doesn't have much to do with Jesus and the final judgment, but follows our Old Testament readings this fall, with Moses and the Israelites journey.

Closer to the readings is a reference to The Hound of Heaven, by English poet Francis Thompson (1859-1907). This is a 182 line poem included in Thompson's first book of poems in 1893. It is a story of God's grace pursuing a fleeing soul, and the soul finally turning to accept this grace. This is a famous poem, the phrase "with all deliberate speed" used in the Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision, comes from it. Click here for some more information.

"...just as you did it to one of the least of these...you did it to me." Class discussion turned to how this works. If you do something for someone else for selfish reasons its not the same as a truly selfless gesture. And yet where is the line between selfish and selfless? If we participate in St. Martin's outreach projects because we feel it our duty as Christians is this tainted because we get a sense of personal fulfillment when we do this? We decide that good deeds are good deeds.

Anthony B. Robinson is a Seattle Speaker, Preacher, Consultant, Coach, Author, Columnist and Teacher! He has written:
“When the judgment comes what will King Jesus say to each of us? Will he ask if we have been ‘born again’? will he ask what awards we have received or what influential people we have known? It seems not. He will ask, ‘Did you feed the hungry?’ ‘Did you clothe the naked?’ ‘Did you visit me in prison?’ What is striking about this parable is that the blessed of the Lord seem unaware of what they have done. They are surprised to hear Jesus say, ‘As you cared for the least of my sisters and brothers you cared for me.’ When Jesus says, ‘Come, 0 blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you,’ they ask, ‘Are you talking to us?’”

Lectionary readings

The Readings for Sunday, November 27th are from Lectionary Year Two, Advent 1-B, "The Coming of the Son of Man": Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 and Mark 13:24-37. The text this week is from the New Revised Standard Version.

Isaiah 64:1-9

¹ O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
² as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
³ When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
⁴ From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.
⁵ You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed.
⁶ We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
⁷ There is no one who calls on your name,
or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
⁸ Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
⁹ Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
and do not remember iniquity for ever.
Now consider, we are all your people.

Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18

To the leader: on Lilies, a Covenant. Of Asaph. A Psalm.

¹ Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock!
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
² before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.
Stir up your might,
and come to save us!

³ Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.

⁴ O Lord God of hosts,
how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
⁵ You have fed them with the bread of tears,
and given them tears to drink in full measure.
⁶ You make us the scorn of our neighbors;
our enemies laugh among themselves.

⁷ Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.

¹⁶ They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down;
may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
¹⁷ But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,
the one whom you made strong for yourself.
¹⁸ Then we will never turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call on your name.

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— ⁶just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— ⁷so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Mark 13:24-37

²⁴ ‘But in those days, after that suffering,
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
²⁵ and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
²⁶Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in clouds” with great power and glory. ²⁷Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

²⁸ ‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. ²⁹So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. ³⁰Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. ³¹Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³² ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. ³⁴It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. ³⁵Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, ³⁶or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. ³⁷And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’

NRSV