"Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 18:18)

Prime Timers is a Christian Education group at St. Martin's for Episcopalians aged fifty and above. We follow a course of study based on the Revised Common Lectionary, the three year cycle of Bible readings used throughout the Anglican Communion and by many Protestant denominations worldwide. Next week's readings are right here, at the bottom of the page! You are invited to join us in the Parlor near the church offices, Sunday after the 9:00am service, 10:15am to 11:00.

Moses and Ruth, two stained glass windows in St. Martin's Church.

Prime Timer Good News!

A Prime Timer tradition is hearing what others are up to, and charging a dollar for the privilege! We donate the money we collect to charities supported by the church. This week the chicken took the week off due to the teacher's meeting in the Parish Hall!

The Cost of Following Jesus

This week all the Fellowship teachers in a meeting in the Parish Hall so the Prime Timers led themselves! Actually Murray Sykes was kind enough to fill in for George Laigle. Today's Old Testament reading is the familiar story of Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3:1-15. Prime Timer Marty could not help but think of Charlton Heston as Moses in the great 1956 Cecil B. DeMille epic "The Ten Commandments." This was followed by Psalm 105, which directly refers to Moses. This Psalm, like many Psalms, begins with praise for God, and class agreed, especially after hearing Rev. Levenson's sermon about choices this morning, that we need to praise God more often, and as Rev. Levenson suggests, deeper.

In Matthew 16 Jesus, after giving Peter "the keys to the kingdom of heaven" (Mt. 16:19), turns around and tells Peter to "get behind me Satan" (Mt. 16:23) when Peter will not accept that Jesus must endure death and resurrection. Class reacts to Rev. Levenson's sermon, where he says that this was an example of how the devil can inhabit the best of us at times.

A class member mentions the series of books by Sarah Young, "Jesus Calling." These books have Jesus speaking directly to you, and are a great source of joy to many people.

After reading our passage from Romans 12 class remarks how this is a very readable letter from Paul, who sometimes rambles. Marty is reading "What Paul Meant" by Gary Wills. After reading Hyam Maccoby's book "The Mythmaker, Paul and the Invention of Christianity" that presents Jesus as a Pharisee who had no intention of creating an entirely new religion, Wills book makes the point that Paul's writing is done ten to twenty years after Jesus' resurrection, a first person account written close to the actual events. Contrast this to the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which were not actually written down until something like forty years after the events of Jesus life: several generations after the fact. Just imagine Paul with all the excitement of having come in contact with the risen Lord on the road to Damascus trying to put his new knowledge into words in his letter to the Romans.

Class discusses the Jewish concept of what happens when you die. We agree that there does not seem to be much detail, that the Jewish faith is more concerned with what you do in this life. Someone brings up an example of a Muslim man who leads a good life, essentially following the spirit of being a good Christian without actually being one. What happens when he dies? Does he go to heaven? Linda tells us Rev. Stuart Bates (now rector at St. Francis Episcopal Church) answer, that this is not for us to decide or to worry about, it is a matter for God. What a terrific answer!

This must be books and movies reference day, because just as class is winding down someone mentions "Seven Days in Utopia" a movie opening this Friday (September 2) about golf, from a book by David Cook. Of course golf is just the jumping off point, watch the movie trailer if you click the name above!

William Pounds, Professor Emeritus of Management and Dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1966-1980 has written:

“Our cross is not calamity, or experience of sorrow or loss. These are facts of life. It is not trying to live our own shortcomings nor keeping up obligations despite all. Jesus assigned us crosses that we might enter into a self-donating love: ‘take up’ love, grasp it, lay hands on it, pour it out without expecting a return.”

Linda concluded class with a short prayer.

Lectionary readings

The Readings for Sunday, September 4th are from Lectionary Year One, Proper 18-A, "True Reconciliation": Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 149; Romans 13:8-14 and Matthew 18:15-20. The text this week is from the New Revised Standard Version.

Exodus 12:1-14

¹The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: ²This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. ³Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. ⁴If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbour in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. ⁵Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. ⁷They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ⁹Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. ¹⁰You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. ¹¹This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. ¹²For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements: I am the Lord. ¹³The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

Psalm 149

¹ Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the faithful.
² Let Israel be glad in its Maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.
³ Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre.
⁴ For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with victory.
⁵ Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their couches.
⁶ Let the high praises of God be in their throats
and two-edged swords in their hands,
⁷ to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples,
⁸ to bind their kings with fetters
and their nobles with chains of iron,
⁹ to execute on them the judgement decreed.
This is glory for all his faithful ones.
Praise the Lord!

Romans 13:8-14

⁸ Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ ¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

¹¹ Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; ¹²the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; ¹³let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. ¹⁴Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Matthew 18:15-20

¹⁵ ‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. ¹⁶But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. ¹⁷If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. ¹⁸Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. ²⁰For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’

NRSV