The Altar at St Martin's Church

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, October 4 are from the Lectionary Year A Proper 22: Track1: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Psalm 19 or Track 2: Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:7-14 and for both: Philippians 3:4b-14 and Matthew 21:33-46. The text is from the Bible Study Tools - New International Version.

Track 1:

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

¹ And God spoke all these words:

² “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ³ “You shall have no other gods before me.

⁴ “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

⁷ “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

¹² “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

¹³ “You shall not murder.

¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵ “You shall not steal.

¹⁶ “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

¹⁸ When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance ¹⁹ and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” ²⁰ Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

Psalm 19

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;
     the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

² Day after day they pour forth speech;
     night after night they reveal knowledge.

³ They have no speech, they use no words;
     no sound is heard from them.

⁴ Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
     their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
     ⁵ It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
      like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

⁶ It rises at one end of the heavens
     and makes its circuit to the other;
     nothing is deprived of its warmth.

⁷ The law of the LORD is perfect,
     refreshing the soul.
     The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
     making wise the simple.

⁸ The precepts of the LORD are right,
     giving joy to the heart.
     The commands of the LORD are radiant,
     giving light to the eyes.

⁹ The fear of the LORD is pure,
     enduring forever.
     The decrees of the LORD are firm,
     and all of them are righteous.

¹⁰ They are more precious than gold,
     than much pure gold;
     they are sweeter than honey,
     than honey from the honeycomb.

¹¹ By them your servant is warned;
     in keeping them there is great reward.

¹² But who can discern their own errors?
     Forgive my hidden faults.

¹³ Keep your servant also from willful sins;
     may they not rule over me.
     Then I will be blameless,
     innocent of great transgression.

¹⁴ May these words of my mouth
     and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight,
     LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

or Track 2:

Isaiah 5:1-7

¹ I will sing for the one I love
     a song about his vineyard:

My loved one had a vineyard
     on a fertile hillside.

² He dug it up and cleared it of stones
     and planted it with the choicest vines.

He built a watchtower in it
     and cut out a winepress as well.

Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
     but it yielded only bad fruit.

³ “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem
     and people of Judah,

judge between me
     and my vineyard.

⁴ What more could have been done for my vineyard
     than I have done for it?

When I looked for good grapes,
     why did it yield only bad?

⁵ Now I will tell you
     what I am going to do to my vineyard:

I will take away its hedge,
     and it will be destroyed;

I will break down its wall,
     and it will be trampled.

⁶ I will make it a wasteland,
     neither pruned nor cultivated,
     and briers and thorns will grow there.

I will command the clouds
     not to rain on it.”

⁷ The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
     is the nation of Israel,

and the people of Judah
     are the vines he delighted in.

And he looked for justice,
     but saw bloodshed;

for righteousness,
     but heard cries of distress.

Psalm 80:7-14

⁷ Restore us, God Almighty;
     make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.

⁸ You transplanted a vine from Egypt;
     you drove out the nations and planted it.

⁹ You cleared the ground for it,
     and it took root and filled the land.

¹⁰ The mountains were covered with its shade,
     the mighty cedars with its branches.

¹¹ Its branches reached as far as the Sea,
     its shoots as far as the River.

¹² Why have you broken down its walls
     so that all who pass by pick its grapes?

¹³ Boars from the forest ravage it,
     and insects from the fields feed on it.

¹⁴ Return to us, God Almighty! Look down from heaven
      and see! Watch over this vine,
   ¹⁵ the root your right hand has planted,

and for both:

Philippians 3:4b-14

^4bIf someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 21:33-46

³³ “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. ³⁴ When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. ³⁵ “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. ³⁶ Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. ³⁷ Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. ³⁸ “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ ³⁹ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. ⁴⁰ “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹ “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

    “ ‘The stone the builders rejected
          has become the cornerstone;
       the Lord has done this,
          and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

⁴³ “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. ⁴⁴ Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. ⁴⁶ They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

Thanks to Bible Study Tools for today's text.