Join Us Next Week for St. Martin's Day!

Prime Timers is a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education (A.C.E.) group geared for people in the Prime of Life, ages 50-64. We meet in the Parlor near the Church Offices from 10:15am to 11:00. We are following a course of study from the United Council of Churches titled The New Testament Community. October was a journey through the book of Acts, for November we are studying some of Paul's letters, and you are invited!

Prime Timers Celebrates 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 worthy charity, currently the Amistad Mission in Bolivia.

Pete celebrated his six year old granddaughter, who is visiting this week and kept the family very busy! Oakley tells up his 96 year old father just had successful gall bladder surgery, and Lynn read a blog from her daughter, who is on a Christian mission in Budapest, Hungary. She is teaching English and is not allowed to bring up religion in class, but a class question about life in America allowed her to explain her faith.

Fitting Into the Community

Our teacher today was Donn Fullenweider, and Paul's letters to the Ephesians and Corinthians was the subject. The reading from 1 Corinthians was part of the extended reading, but provides a nice introduction to the theme of diversity:

(1 Corinthians 12:4-11) "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

   ⁷Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines."

Following this, Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:12-20 explains the "Body of Christ" in a series of body metaphors, such as this:  ¹⁵'If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.' At this point Donn admitted that he had something of a problem with Paul's writings, and read from Gary Wills book "What Paul Meant" There is a tendency in the modern church to say that Paul distorted Jesus' teachings, that Paul was a misogynist and an anti-Semite. Wills argues that Paul is right in line with Jesus, and backs it up by focusing on the seven letters agreed by scholars to actually be written by Paul. Many of the problems with Paul come from letters ascribed to Paul, but most likely written by others.

Donn asked us to meditate on the nature of grace, what we were given by God and how we can accept or reject this gift. He also asked us the think on the nature of maturation in the Church. Does this go hand in hand with maturity in general or does spiritual maturity have another dimension?

Growing is Christ caused Donn to mention that some people do not start out with the intention of beginning a ministry, and used Rev. Claude Paine, a former St. Martin Rector and Bishop of Texas as an example. Rev. Paine began his career as an engineer. Rev. Graham began as a plastic surgeon. Lastly Donn mentioned a fellow who ended up starting a ministry around golf!!!

Donn concluded class with a short benediction.

The Lesson for Sunday, November 9th is "Conflict in the  Community"

Key Verse:  Galatians 3:28

Focus of the Lesson: When we are afraid of what others might think about us, we sometimes behave in ways inconsistent with our beliefs. How can we live so that our lives witness to our beliefs? Through writing and example, Paul admonishes believers that our acceptance before God comes not by following the rules but through living faithfully to Christ.

The reading is Galatians 2:11-21 This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)

Background Scripture:  Galatians 2:11-21; 3:1-29

   ¹¹When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. ¹²Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. ¹³The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

   ¹⁴When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

   ¹⁵"We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' ¹⁶know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

   ¹⁷"If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! ¹⁸If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. ¹⁹For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. ²⁰I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

NIV