Welcome to The St. Martin's Prime Timers Adult Bible Fellowship!

You are invited to join us for coffee, refreshments, fellowship and Luke during the month of August. We now meet in rooms 207-207 of the Payne Education Center, every Sunday from 10:00am to 10:50. Bring a friend!

Skip Maryan is our teacher, leading the class in the Gospel According to Luke.

Good News!

Every week we set aside time to listen to news from our members. For $1 you can tell us what's going on in your life, and contribute to a good cause.

This week Bobbie Griffith-Winner had not one but three things to be thankful for. 1) Her son-in-law's insomnia allowed him to run off a would be robber at their house in New Orleans. 2) Her family bought her a new car, a Chrysler PT Cruiser, and 3) Bobbie's prayers to move on from explaining health benefits at outdoor job sites was answered by Stewart Cadillac, who offered her a better job, indoors.

Jackie Rose showed us her ID card from the Perkins School, where she begins classes this week.

Stretching our Love 

Our lesson for this week is the story of the Good Samaritan, as told in the Gospel According to Luke. Jesus told this story to answer a test from a lawyer!  Just in case you forgot, the story of the Good Samaritan involves a man robbed and beaten half to death who is passed by first by a priest, second by a Levite and third by a Samaritan, a kind of half-caste Jew who didn't follow the strict Jewish Law. Only this man took pity on the beaten man. As Jesus asked who was the "neighbor" to the fallen man, the lawyer said (Luke 10:37) "The one who had mercy on him." He couldn't bring himself to just say the Samaritan.

Skip recounted the story of Kitty Genovese, the horrible murder in 1964 of a girl returning home from work who's attacker stabbed and robbed her while neighborhood residents watched and didn't do anything. The killer came back three times as he realized that no one was coming to her aid. If you have forgotten or don't know the details of this crime, which led to a national soul searching at the time, click here for a very good summary from Court TV.

Our own discussion began with Skip asking us what prevents us from being Good Samaritans. We might be afraid for our safety. It might not be any of my business, or its "not my problem." You can get sued was the third suggestion. And of course the thought that "someone else will do it."

It takes effort to help someone else, and TV with its endless bombardment of violence and horror can make us numb to suffering, or we can have a sense of hopelessness/helplessness, a feeling that we won't make a difference. These ideas center around selfishness, my feelings interfering with being a good neighbor.

Skip told about his mailbox filled with requests for money and then recounted joining a Habitat for Humanity project--in August in Houston and nearly dying! He suggested volunteering in November. This led someone to bring up the idea of buying salvation and how spending time might be more valuable.

Lastly we heard a personal story from one of our members who was jogging in Memorial Park when a person coming the other way had a Grand Mal epileptic seizure. Our member did not know what to do and watched as many Houstonians jogged right on by until a nurse happened by and was able to lend aid.

Max Kech then concluded our session with our healing prayer.

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Mentor

The Rev. Maurice L. "Rusty" Goldsmith. D.D.
713/985-3831
rgoldsmith@stmartinsepiscopal.org

Leader

The Prime Timers in our new room, with Leader Jackie Rose and mentor the Rev. Rusty Goldsmith at the podium.

Bobbie Griffith-Winner had a three part Henny Penny contribution.

Henny Penny is the Prime Timers Good News Chicken.

St. Martin's New Church.

 The Lesson for Sunday, August 28th is titled "Building Community"

Key Verse:  Luke 14:23

Focus of the Lesson:  Our natural tendency is to put ourselves first, but this makes it difficult to form and function as any kind of essential community. How can we recognize the importance of self-esteem while avoiding self-centeredness, and how can we affirm individual worth while maintaining community? Jesus taught that we need to see things from a new perspective: We need to view ourselves with humility, but graciously accept the recognition and esteem offered by others; not only do we need to graciously receive others into community but we also need gratefully to accept the invitation to become part of the community.

The reading is Luke 14:7-11, 15-24. This text is from the New International Version.

   7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 "When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Luke 14:15-24 The Parable of the Great Banquet
   15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."
   16 Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'
   18 "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'
   19 "Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.'
   20 "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.'
   21 "The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.'
   22 " 'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.'
   23 "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.' "

NIV®