While this page was being prepared I got the sad news that Rev. Bob Browne has passed away. This photo is from one of Rev. Browne's visits to Prime Timers in 2005. Prime Timers and I will miss Rev. Browne's always upbeat and thoughtful presence at St. Martin's and our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife Dorothy.

It's a New Season at Prime Timers!

Prime Timers, a St. Martin's Adult Christian Education (A.C.E.) group, also known as an A.B.F. (Adult Bible Fellowship), is for people in the Prime of Life, age 50 and beyond. 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 adopted formally by the Episcopal Church in 2006, and you are invited to join us! Readings in church and our class will span a large group of Christian Churches worldwide! Why don't you join us on this journey?

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. Today Lynn reported that her Mom continues a recovery from a life-threatening illness and the whole family is gathering for her ninety-fourth (!) birthday. Carol brought to our attention that Monday, September 21st is World Alzheimer's Awareness Day. As we all live longer and longer this disease becomes more and more a factor in our lives and the lives of caregivers. Wearing purple Monday shows you are aware of this issue.

Epicure Cafe

The Prime Timers monthly dinner get together will be Tuesday, September 22, at 6:30pm at the Epicure Cafe, 2005C West Gray, Houston 77019, (713) 520-6174. Click on the name above for their web site and to check out the menu. This looks like another nice dinner, and you are invited! Please let Anne Berry, Ann.Berry@comcast.net or Lynn Swaffar ((281) 495-3832) know so they can get an idea of how many people are coming.

Setting Our Minds on God

Donn Fullenweider taught class today in our second Lectionary based class of the fall season. The main reading is Mark 9:30-37 where Jesus' public ministry is changing to his private ministry with the disciples. This explains Jesus not wanting the disciples to reveal their location. Jesus tells the disciples the story familiar to us but new to them about his being betrayed, killed and rising again. They don't understand what Jesus means, but as a class member said, maybe they did not want to know.

It is possible that the disciples at this time were still expecting Jesus to become the warrior/savior like David, but Jesus makes several attempts to get them back "on message" with this from Mark 9:35 ... "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." This prompted a class member to mention that one of Queen Elizabeth's mottos is "I served." Many biblical references require explanation due to their being over two thousand years old and having undergone translations and shiftings in meaning. Adam and Eve originally ate "a piece of fruit" that later was turned into an apple. Likewise Jesus was someone good with his hands, in other words of humble origins, and sometime later this was turned into Jesus being a carpenter. In the present case, however, serving is just that, by serving even a child you are serving Jesus and God.

The other reading for today is James 3:13--4:3 where James tells us to do good deeds and lead a good life through the wisdom that comes with humility. The rest of the reading tells us how bad we can be. Class members suggested one of the reasons the public discourse these days gets so nasty is that people do not learn these lessons and instead exist in a self-centered, envious world where all that matters is me, me, me!

Leave it to class member and sometime teacher Carol to remind us the value of outreach and the rewards you get for helping others. To which husband Larry exclaimed "Hallelujah!"

Donn concluded class with a short prayer.

"A Salty Discipleship."

The Readings for Sunday, September 27th are from Lectionary Year Two, Proper 21 B.

The Old Testament Readings are Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22; and Psalm 124. The New Testament readings are James 5:13-20 and Mark 9:38-50. The text is from the New International Version.

Esther 7:1-10

¹So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther, ²and as they were drinking wine on that second day, the king again asked, "Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted."

³Then Queen Esther answered, "If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. ⁴For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king."

⁵King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, "Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?"

⁶Esther said, "The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman."
Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. ⁷The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.

⁸Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, "Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?" As soon as the word left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. ⁹Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, "A gallows seventy-five feet high stands by Haman's house. He had it made for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king."
The king said, "Hang him on it!" ¹⁰So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's fury subsided.

Esther 9:20-22

²⁰Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, ²¹to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar ²²as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

Psalm 124

¹ If the LORD had not been on our side—
let Israel say-

² if the LORD had not been on our side
when men attacked us,

³ when their anger flared against us,
they would have swallowed us alive;

⁴ the flood would have engulfed us,
the torrent would have swept over us,

⁵ the raging waters
would have swept us away.

⁶ Praise be to the LORD,
who has not let us be torn by their teeth.

⁷ We have escaped like a bird
out of the fowler's snare;
the snare has been broken,
and we have escaped.

⁸ Our help is in the name of the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

James 5:13-20

¹³Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. ¹⁴Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

¹⁷Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. ¹⁹My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, ²⁰remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

Mark 9:38-50

³⁸"Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us."

³⁹"Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, ⁴⁰for whoever is not against us is for us. ⁴¹I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.

⁴²"And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. ⁴³If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. ⁴⁵And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸where " 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.' ⁴⁹Everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other."

NIV