'He said to him, "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."' (Luke 16:31)

Welcome to Prime Timers, the best Christian Education Group at St. Martin's for Episcopalians aged fifty and above. We are following a course of study based on the Revised Common Lectionary, a three year cycle of Bible readings used throughout the Anglican Communion and by many Protestant denominations worldwide. You are invited to join us in the Parlor near the church offices, Sunday after the 9:00am service, 10:15am to 11:00. Keep up to date with our Lectionary based readings at the bottom of this page!

The Prime Timers meet in the St. Martin's Parlor. Don't those chairs look comfortable?

Prime Timers Good News

The Prime Timers hear members Good News each week at the start of class. We charge a dollar and currently donate the money collected to the Amistad Mission in Bolivia. George celebrated Tropical Storm Hermine; she dumped four inches of rain on George's drought stricken properties! Lynn reminded us that today is Prime Timer Anne Berry's birthday!! Happy Birthday Anne.

Managing Possessions Wisely

George Laigle is the Prime Timers teacher today, as we explore some difficult readings. First up is Jeremiah, bewailing the upcoming desolation of Judah as if it already happened. Jeremiah tries to warn everyone of the coming disaster to Jerusalem, but no one is listening and the people are listening to false prophets. Class comment is that this could apply to what is happening today. We have the Red states and Blue states, and neither listens to the other. Even our leaders seem tone deaf to the problems facing us. And false prophets, well take your pick!

We think we have problems, but remember Bosnia? This was not too long ago, two peoples in the same country at each other's throats, to the benefit of neither. Lynn recalls talking to a young person from this area, she sympathized with him about the criminals ruining the country, and the young man said, "...but in your country you go after the criminals!" Even as we moan about the sad state of our country, we should not forget that the U.S.A. is still by far the country people want to come to.

Psalm 79 reinforces the message from Jeremiah. Jerusalem is in a mess, the psalm wonders how long the Lord will punish them. (Psalm 79:9) "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name's sake." A class member comments: "it may seem like we are in a mess today, but I guess we can take heart that this has been going on since Biblical times and we are still here!"

Paul's letter to Timothy gives us hope as he reminds us that we should pray for everyone in order to live a life of peace and godliness. Paul also reminds us that he was appointed as an apostle and teacher!

The most difficult reading today is Luke 16:1-13, and this is indeed the subject of Rev. Levensons' sermon. Here is a manager told by his master that he is unhappy with the way the manager is managing, so the manager goes and reduces the debts of the master's debtors in the hope that they will welcome him as he looks for new work! The master then commends the manager for being shrewd! What is going on here? George tells us to remember that this is a parable, and that the master is God and the manager is us.

Once again Jesus is telling his disciples (and hopefully us) that true wealth is not just money, it is all the talents and abilities God gave us, along with the material possessions. God wants us to make the most of this and to do that involves sharing it with others. Contribute your time to an outreach program. Give money to a worthwhile charity. Solve a problem for someone!

Class members brought up the problems of the rich and famous, whether the tragedies of Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy, Jr. or the wasted personal life of a Lindsay Lohan. Lynn thinks that people like these can get into a state where they believe that they are protected from the world and can then make a tragic mistake. If only Diana had buckled her seat belt... This could also be part of the process of maturing, growing up. If you make it out of the teen years alive you are doing pretty well! Likewise talented performers are presented with an amazing world of destructive temptations and some come through it with stories to tell, like Robert Downey, Jr., where others will end up dead.

John Sheila Galligan is a woman Professor in Theology at Immaculata University and an author. She wrote wrote in Spirituality Today (Spring 1985):

"The disciples must take heed, grasp the seriousness of the need to respond to Jesus' call, and deliberately set out with a positive sense of self-interest to inherit the Kingdom. With forthrightness and vigor Jesus presses his point: 'What I say to you is this: Make friends for yourselves through your use of this world's goods, so that when they fail you, a lasting reception will be yours' (Lk. 16:9). To dispose of worldly wealth in the proper way is to gain the friendship of God.
"A series of provocative sayings (Lk. 16:9-13) further stresses this notion. In this collection, the word mammon comes to the fore with a pertinent incisiveness. In rabbinic writing it meant not merely money in the strict sense, but a person's possessions, everything that had value equivalent to money. Jesus insists that one is not to cling to mammon but to use it for the benefit of others. Mammon can be dealt with effectively only by converting it from selfish to unselfish uses."

Our leader Carol Cartland concludes class today with a short prayer.

The Readings for Sunday, September 26th are from Lectionary Year Three, Proper 21-C, "The Rich Man and Lazarus"

The Readings for this week are Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16; 1 Timothy 6:6-19 and Luke 16:19-31. The text this week is from the New Revised Standard Version.

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. ²At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah, ³where King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him.
⁶ Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came to me: ⁷Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, 'Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.' ⁸Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, 'Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.' Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.
⁹ And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. ¹⁰I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. ¹¹Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; ¹²and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. ¹³In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, ¹⁴Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. ¹⁵For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.

Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16

¹ You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
² will say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust.'
³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence;
⁴ he will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night,
or the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ or the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
or the destruction that wastes at noonday.

¹⁴ Those who love me, I will deliver;
I will protect those who know my name.
¹⁵ When they call to me, I will answer them;
I will be with them in trouble,
I will rescue them and honour them.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy them,
and show them my salvation.

1 Timothy 6:6-19

⁶Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; ⁷for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; ⁸but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. ⁹But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
¹¹ But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. ¹²Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you ¹⁴to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. ¹⁶It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.
¹⁷ As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, ¹⁹thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

Luke 16:19-31

¹⁹ 'There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. ²²The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴He called out, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames." ²⁵But Abraham said, "Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. ²⁶Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us." ²⁷He said, "Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house— ²⁸for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment." ²⁹Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them." ³⁰He said, "No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent." ³¹He said to him, "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." '

NRSV