It's a New Season at Prime Timers!

Prime Timers is a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education (A.C.E.) group, or an A.B.F. (Adult Bible Fellowship). Our description says the group is for people in the Prime of Life, age 50 and beyond, but remember you are only as old as you feel! Class meets in the Parlor near the Church Offices each Sunday from 10:15 am to 11:00. We are beginning a new class year based on the Revised Common Lectionary and you are invited to join us as we explore Bible readings along with a large group of Christian Churches worldwide!

No Prime Timers Class Next Week!!!

October 11 there is a special program at St. Martin's on the important subject of Prevention and Recovery. The sermons will be conducted by special guest the Rev. Jeff Georgi, from Duke University Medical Center and a conversation with Rev. Georgi in the new church will occur during our regular class time.

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. Lynn reported that her 94 year old Mother's birthday is coming up next week and the whole family is attending. Lynn's daughter was Maid of Honor at a friend's wedding. Marty reported that one of his sister's cats had a run in with a skunk, and that after a week the smell is out of the house, although after several cleanings it is still on the cat!

The Nature of the Kingdom

Donn Fullenweider led the Prime Timers today in our exploration of Jesus' teachings on the subject of divorce! Donn's law practice is family law so today's class was right up his alley! The reading from Mark 10 has the Pharisees testing Jesus by trying to trap him into taking sides on this sticky issue. The only mention of divorce in the Torah is in Deuteronomy 24:1-4: "¹If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, ²and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, ³and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, ⁴then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance."

There were two schools of thought on divorce in these ancient times, the school of Shammai held to a very strict standard, where only sexual misconduct was the grounds for divorce. The followers of Hillel, on the other hand, allowed divorce for most anything that displeased the husband. This was pretty one-sided with most of the power going to the man. Rather than taking sides Jesus returns with another question, "What did Moses command you?" (Mark 10:3) Actually Moses did not command anything about the legality of divorce, the passage from Deuteronomy assumes the reality of divorce and concerns itself with mercy for the woman in this situation, allowing for her re-marriage rather than leading a life of abandonment.

Jesus does not get involved in the legalities of the situation, concentrating on what God intended by making the man joined to the wife and "the two shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). "Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate" (Mark 10:9).

Divorce can create quite a turmoil. The Roman Catholic Church treats divorce as a sin, and today annulment is rarely granted. Most everyone would agree that an ideal situation is one man and one woman remaining faithful through the years, but the reality is that sometimes things just don't work out. Is it a sin to re-marry? What about people under the age of thirty who are un-married and have little intention of actually marrying until much later? Where is the morality in common law marriages, where there is never any sacrament of marriage?

An old Jewish custom held that if the husband dies the wife should marry his brother! Some customs come from agrarian situations where a good sized family is needed to bring in the crops and raise the livestock, so the law works to keep family groups. Donn has seen arranged marriages break up and is amazed how similar the problems are to regular marriages. Jewish divorces can be just as sticky as Christian ones. The "get" is a Jewish term for a certificate of divorce that the man gives the woman, allowing her to marry other men. This gives the man extraordinary bargaining power.

The second part of the reading from Mark is where the disciples keep little children from interfering with Jesus, who rebukes them and blesses the children. Placing this right after a discussion of divorce is a good way of focusing attention on what is really important, the young and powerless who are the hope of the next generation.

Donn concluded class with a short prayer.

The Key to Eternal Life

The Readings for Sunday, October 11th are from Lectionary Year Two, Proper 23 B.

The Old Testament Readings are Job 23:1-9, 16-17; and Psalm 22:1-15. The New Testament readings are Hebrews 4:12-16 and Mark 10:17-31. The text is from the New International Version.

Job 23:1-9, 16-17

¹ Then Job replied:

² "Even today my complaint is bitter;
his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.

³ If only I knew where to find him;
if only I could go to his dwelling!

⁴ I would state my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵ I would find out what he would answer me,
and consider what he would say.

⁶ Would he oppose me with great power?
No, he would not press charges against me.

⁷ There an upright man could present his case before him,
and I would be delivered forever from my judge.

⁸ "But if I go to the east, he is not there;
if I go to the west, I do not find him.

⁹ When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.

¹⁶ God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me.

¹⁷ Yet I am not silenced by the darkness,
by the thick darkness that covers my face.

Psalm 22:1-15

¹ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?

² O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent.

³ Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the praise of Israel.

⁴ In you our fathers put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.

⁵ They cried to you and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

⁶ But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by men and despised by the people.

⁷ All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

⁸ "He trusts in the LORD;
let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him."

⁹ Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother's breast.

¹⁰ From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother's womb you have been my God.

¹¹ Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.

¹² Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

¹³ Roaring lions tearing their prey
open their mouths wide against me.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted away within me.

¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.

Hebrews 4:12-16

¹²For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. ¹³Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Jesus the Great High Priest

¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. ¹⁶Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Mark 10:17-31

¹⁷As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

¹⁸"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. ¹⁹You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'"

²⁰"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."

²¹Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

²²At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

²³Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"

²⁴The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

²⁶The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"

²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."

²⁸Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you!"

²⁹"I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel ³⁰will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. ³¹But many who are first will be last, and the last first."

NIV