St. Mark by Agnolo Bronzino, c 1525, Oil on Wood and the Cappella Capponi, Santa Felicità, Florence

Prime Timers

The Prime Timers were a Bible study group at St. Martin's for eight years. One of the goals of our founder, Jackie Rose, was to have a weekly web page for the group and all the pages are still online here. The group disbanded but the readings below are being kept up to date.

Lectionary readings

The Readings for Sunday, November 4are from Lectionary Year B, Proper 26 Sunday closest to November 2: Ruth 1:1-18; Psalm 146 or Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Psalm 119:1-8; Hebrews 9:11-14 and Mark 12:28-34. The text is from the Bible Study Tools - New Revised Standard Version.

Ruth 1:1-18

¹ In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. ² The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. ³ Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. ⁴ They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, ⁵ both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

⁶ When Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. ⁷ With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. ⁸ Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. ⁹ May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud ¹⁰ and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.” ¹¹ But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? ¹² Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— ¹³ would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD’s hand has turned against me!” ¹⁴ At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

¹⁵ “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” ¹⁶ But Ruth replied,

    “Don’t urge me to leave you
         or to turn back from you.
     Where you go I will go,
         and where you stay I will stay.
     Your people will be my people
         and your God my God.
   ¹⁷ Where you die I will die,
         and there I will be buried.
     May the LORD deal with me,
         be it ever so severely,
     if even death separates you and me.”

¹⁸ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

Psalm 146

¹ Praise the LORD.

     Praise the LORD, my soul.
   ² I will praise the LORD all my life;
     I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

³ Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings,
     who cannot save.

⁴ When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
     on that very day their plans come to nothing.

⁵ Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
     whose hope is in the LORD their God.

⁶ He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—
     he remains faithful forever.

⁷ He upholds the cause of the oppressed
     and gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets prisoners free,
     ⁸ the LORD gives sight to the blind,
      the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,

the LORD loves the righteous.
   ⁹ The LORD watches over the foreigner
     and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
     but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

¹⁰ The LORD reigns forever,
     your God, O Zion, for all generations.
     Praise the LORD.

or Deuteronomy 6:1-9

¹ These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, ² so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. ³ Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Psalm 119:1-8

¹ Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,
     who walk according to the law of the LORD.

² Blessed are those who keep his statutes
     and seek him with all their heart—

³ they do no wrong
     but follow his ways.

⁴ You have laid down precepts
     that are to be fully obeyed.

⁵ Oh, that my ways were steadfast
     in obeying your decrees!

⁶ Then I would not be put to shame
     when I consider all your commands.

⁷ I will praise you with an upright heart
     as I learn your righteous laws.

⁸ I will obey your decrees;
     do not utterly forsake me.

Hebrews 9:11-14

¹¹ But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. ¹² He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. ¹³ The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. ¹⁴ How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Mark 12:28-34

²⁸ One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” ²⁹ “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.” ³² “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. ³³ To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

Thanks to Bible Study Tools for today's text.