St. Martin's Church from the Cloister Garden

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,September 2 are from Lectionary Year B, Proper 17 Sunday closest to August 31: Song of Solomon 2:8-13 or Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9; Psalm 45:1-2, 7-10 or Psalm 15; James 1:17-27 and Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23. The text is from the Bible Study Tools - New International Version.

Song of Solomon 2:8-13

⁸ Listen! My beloved!
     Look! Here he comes,

leaping across the mountains,
     bounding over the hills.

⁹ My beloved is like a gazelle
     or a young stag.

Look! There he stands
     behind our wall,

gazing through the windows,
     peering through the lattice.

¹⁰ My beloved spoke and said to me,
“Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
     come with me.

¹¹ See! The winter is past;
     the rains are over and gone.

¹² Flowers appear on the earth;
     the season of singing has come,

the cooing of doves
     is heard in our land.

¹³ The fig tree forms its early fruit;
     the blossoming vines
     spread their fragrance.

Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one,
     come with me.”

Psalm 45:1-2, 7-10

¹ My heart is stirred by a noble theme
     as I recite my verses for the king;
     my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.

² You are the most excellent of men
     and your lips have been anointed with grace,
     since God has blessed you forever.

⁶ Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
     a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
   ⁷ You love righteousness and hate wickedness;

therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
     by anointing you with the oil of joy.

⁸ All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;
     from palaces adorned with ivory the music of the strings makes you glad.

⁹ Daughters of kings are among your honored women;
     at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.

or Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9

¹ Moses said: Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. ² Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.

⁶ Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” ⁷ What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? ⁸ And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?

⁹ Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

Psalm 15

¹ LORD, who may dwell in your sacred tent?
     Who may live on your holy mountain?

² The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous,
     who speaks the truth from their heart;

³ whose tongue utters no slander,
     who does no wrong to a neighbor,
     and casts no slur on others;

⁴ who despises a vile person
     but honors those who fear the LORD;

who keeps an oath even when it hurts,
     and does not change their mind;

⁵ who lends money to the poor without interest;
     who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things
     will never be shaken.

James 1:17-27

¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ¹⁸ He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. ²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

²⁶ Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

¹ The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus ² and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. ³ (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. ⁴ When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles. ) ⁵ So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” ⁶ He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

    “ ‘These people honor me with their lips,
         but their hearts are far from me.
     ⁷ They worship me in vain;
         their teachings are merely human rules.’
⁸ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

¹⁴ Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. ¹⁵ Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” ²¹ For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³ All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Thanks to Bible Study Tools for today's text.