The St. Martin's Prime Timers Adult Bible Fellowship welcomes you to our web page!

You are invited to join us each Sunday in the Payne Education Center, rooms 207-209 in between the 9 and 11am services from 10:10 to 10:50. We have coffee and snacks ready for you. For the next couple month we are studying the gospel of John, don't let The Houston Marathon put you off. Click here for the package of maps and window stickers the Church and the City developed to get you here!

Ben Welmaker is our teacher for January. Today he discussed one of the most famous passages in the Book of John!

Be Free!

Ben Welmaker began today's lesson with the famous passage from John 8:32--so famous it is worth reading from two sources. In the King James Version most of us grew up with, it reads "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." This is engraved on many university buildings, in fact the 27-story, 270-foot University of Texas Tower Main building has been home to this inscription since 1935. In the New International Version we use for our class it reads:  "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Uh, oh what's that "then" mean? Ben reminded us that these passages don't exist by themselves. In order to understand John 8:32 it helps to read John 8:31 before:  To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples." Then... If you would like to read the whole of John 8:31-59 from the NIV, click on the underline. The reading is a pointed exchange between Jesus and some Jews who believe in Jesus, but want to incorporate him into traditional Jewish thought.

Ben told the class how discussions of sin can make us think that if we hardly have a traffic ticket and try to be good people why is it that we have to be forgiven our sins? Well, lets recount some sins:

   1. Pride
   2. Greed
   3. Gluttony
   4. Lust
   5. Envy
   6. Sloth
   7. Anger
and for good measure:
   8. Fear
   9. Despair
   10. Dishonesty

How many of us can really say we never sin? Ben continued with material from a Men's Retreat in 2004 led by The Very Rev. Kenneth Swanson, Ph.D. on the subject "What went wrong between God and Man?" The Adam and Eve story reflects the desire to become autonomous, and the consequence of alienation from God. This first act of sin defines the nature of sin:  a basic attitude of self absorption.

The consequence is death because we cut ourselves off from God. The Tower of Babel is a metaphor for this. Many people talking different languages, no one understanding. God clothing man is called "the hinge of history." It is the beginning of God's promise to redeem humanity. The ultimate redemption of course is when God sends his son to die for our sins.

The reading from John is one that can lead to lots of reflection, but Ben left us with a comment from the Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr:  "No amount of contrary evidence seems to disturb humanity's good opinion of itself."

Ben then read our intercessory prayer and dismissed the class.

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Mentor

Rev. B. Massey Gentry
mgentry@stmartinsepiscopal.org

Leaders

St. John the Evangelist by Jacobello Alberegno, 1360-90, Tempera on Panel at the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

St. John on a stained glass window in the new St. Martin's Church.

St John the Evangelist on Patmos, by Hieronymus Bosch, 1504-05 Oil on oak panel, at the Staatliche Museen, Berlin

The Lesson for Sunday, January 14th is titled "Ultimate Fairness"

Key Verse:  John 5:24

Focus of the Lesson:  Many times we question the fairness or appropriateness of a particular judgment or decision. Is it possible for decisions to be unbiased and completely fair? John says Jesus has authority that comes directly from God; because God and Jesus are perfect, their decisions are perfect.

The reading is John 5:19-29 This text is from the New International Version^®.

   ¹⁹Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. ²¹For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. ²²Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

   ²⁴"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. ²⁶For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. ²⁷And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

   ²⁸"Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

NIV®