The Fall Season Begins! Join Us in the Parlor This Sunday!

Prime Timers is a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education (A.C.E.) group for people in the Prime of Life, ages 50-64. We now meet in the Parlor near the Church Offices from 10:15am to 11:00. The Parlor has the most comfortable chairs at St. Martin's, and Prime Timers is fortunate to call this our new home. We are starting a new course from the United Council of Churches titled The New Testament Community. September is a journey through the book of Matthew, and you are invited!

Prime Timers Celebrates Good News.

The Prime Timers "chicken" is called Henny Penny. Rather than tell us the sky is falling, Henny listens to our members Good News for a dollar! Periodically we contribute this money to the Amistad Mission in Bolivia. Today we moved to our new room and this is the first day of a new system at the church: they maintain a box with lesson materials and communications for us, but Henny managed to escape! Search parties were dispatched so Henny might return next week. Nonetheless, we did hear some members Good News.

George reported that Elizabeth and he celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary with a trip to Toronto. They both had a wonderful time, and congratulations are in order for a Golden achievement!

Martin is happy that the stitches are coming off his Mother's thumb this week. His mother slammed the car door on her thumb and the stitches are a very persistent reminder to DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!!!

New member Muriel reported attending a family member's One Hundredth Birthday party! It was an occasion of many fond memories for everyone attending.

A New Community.

Its a new season of Prime Timers, in a new room, so it shouldn't be a surprise that today we heard a new teacher, Carol Hartland, a long time Prime Timer. Carol did a wonderful job, and we all hope to have her as one of our regular teachers. She began our discussion of community with the last two verses of this from 1 Peter 1:10:  

  ¹Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. ²Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, ³now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

  ⁴As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For in Scripture it says:
    "See, I lay a stone in Zion,
     a chosen and precious cornerstone,
     and the one who trusts in him
     will never be put to shame." ⁷Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
    "The stone the builders rejected
     has become the capstone," ⁸and,
    "A stone that causes men to stumble
     and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

   ⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Carol pointed out how in ancient times it was a challenge to travel, and taking a circuitous route was sometimes necessary to avoid hazards. So this passage from Isaiah 40:3 that is referred to in our reading from Matthew 3:1-12 is making a statement when it mentions a straight path to God.

    ³A voice of one calling:
     "In the desert prepare
      the way for the LORD;
      make straight in the wilderness
      a highway for our God.

Our reading for today gives Mark and Matthew's description of John the Baptist and his presaging of the coming of Jesus, and the community of the faithful. Carol presented an exercise from the lesson plan, creating two sides on the "whiteboard", one for In the Community, the other for Out of the Community, asking us what is it about St. Martin's that made us feel that way. We all agreed that the class we were in made us feel more connected to the church, and of course the regular services. Then we were asked what made us feel disconnected. The big first answer is the "broken world" we live in, with its sometimes hostile treatment of the community of faith. At a recent meeting of the Christian Education leaders we heard about people who attended classes here and were never greeted! Certainly this would lead to disaffection. We were glad we greeted our three new faces this morning!

Someone mentioned the Seven Sins. We recalled Ben Welmaker's handout listing these, with three Bonus sins:

Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth (or complacency), Wrath, Envy, Pride (this is a big one!). And for good measure:  False Gods, No Spiritual Growth and Failure to Spread the Good News.

As an over-the-top example of being out of the community, George described seeing a lady defending her "pew" rather than make room for someone in a walker!

Getting back to the good things someone mentioned sharing, and of course everyone would be better off in a world where people shared more.

Carol mentioned reading the book Sundays in America, by Suzanne Strempek Shea. This is a lady who went to a different church each week for a year, and then wrote a book about it. Click the name above for a link to Amazon's page on this book if you would like a sample of what's in the book.

Carol concluded class with a short benediction.

The Lesson for Sunday, September 14th is "The Birth of a New Community"

Key Verse:  Matthew 2:6

Focus of the Lesson: Regardless of the nature of our humble beginnings, we want to know that life has significance and value. What community offers value and significance to those who, in the world's eyes, may seem insignificant? The new community, as exemplified in Jesus,  provides a place where all people have value and significance.

The reading is Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-15 This text is from the New International Version. (NIV)

Background Scripture:  Matthew 1:18-2:23

   ¹⁸This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

   ²⁰But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

   ²²All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."

   ²⁴When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

   ¹³When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." ¹⁴So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."

NIV