"They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it." (Amos 8:12)

You are invited to join us this Sunday!

Welcome to Prime Timers, a Christian Education Group at St. Martin's for Episcopalians aged fifty and above. Don't let that stop you, though. We are following a course of study based on the Revised Common Lectionary and you are invited to join us in the Parlor near the church offices, Sunday after the 9:00am service, 10:15am to 11:00. You can keep up to date with our Lectionary based readings at the bottom of this page.

Rembrandt, Landscape with the Good Samaritan, 1638, Oil on oak panel, at the Czartoryski Museum, Cracow (click on the picture for a larger view).

Prime Timers Good News

The Prime Timers hear members Good News each week at the start of class. We charge a dollar and currently donate the money collected to the Amistad Mission in Bolivia. Murray gave thanks for his younger daughter's twenty first birthday. Lynn is happy that her daughter is back from missionary work in Hungary, and she is also happy that her (Lynn's) recent eye surgery is a success.

Prime Timers go to Dinner!

This month's dinner get together will be at Alexander the Great Greek restaurant, 3055 Sage Road at Hidalgo, 713-622-2778. Lynn tells us "don't get turned off because it's Greek! The food is fabulous!" Dinner will be on Tuesday, July 27th at 6:30pm. Please let Lynn know if you are coming, you can call her at (281) 495-3832.

The Good Samaritan

Today's lectionary based reading is Luke 10:27-37, the parable of the Good Samaritan. Our teacher Carol Hartland began class with a reading of this famous Scripture. As we read two weeks ago, the Samaritans were the people from the other side of town to the Jewish people. As a priest and a Levite both pass by the man robbed and beaten by the side of the road, it is the Samaritan who comes to his aid. Jesus is making the point that loving your neighbor not a sometimes job.

Class members brought up some of today's complications. What if you are driving on the freeway out in the country and someone is standing outside their car on the other side. It might be several miles before you can turn around to help. And what if the person is up to no good, waiting for some sucker to come along and try to help! Salle reminded us that Jesus asks us to trust that our efforts are right. Someone said the priest might have thought the man was dead and not allowed to touch him as he would be unclean. The Levite might have thought the man was not in his clan, then again how could he tell, the man was naked! Finally Carol gave us a clear example of not loving your neighbor: a woman in her office fell and was having a hard time collecting herself when another woman came in, rushed right past her and said "I'm really in a hurry, I have to go!" George reminded us that guilt is a very powerful darkness.

Our lectionary readings include Old Testament prophets in this the third year: Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel and Habbakuk. Today it is Amos, and he is predicting that Israel will fall. A priest tells Amos to go prophesy somewhere else! I guess the thinking is that he could go predict someone else's fall. This led to a discussion about how the world seems to be getting worse and worse. Look at Venezuela and Mexico, these are just about failed states. Mexico is overrun with corruption and drug dealer violence. Hugo Chavez is running Venezuela into the ground as he nationalizes the means of production and burns bridges with the world while his economy grinds to a halt.

Martin mentioned an article in the Wall Street Journal by Paul Berman, a writer at New York University, "What you can't say about Islamism." Mr. Berman points out how many of the Nazi's ideas, right up to genocide against the Jews, have taken root in modern Islamism, and how our intellectuals are denying it, just like they did in the 1930's and 40's.

Jean brought up an example of being helped in New York City. She tripped on the sidewalk and while most people simply walked by a street vendor came over and helped her. There are whole articles written about "not making eye contact" in New York, although someone said that after the events of 9/11 people in NYC are more friendly and caring.

Carol read from our class notes from a person "she had never heard of" Kathleen Norris. Well, she is (this is from Wikipedia) "a best-selling poet and essayist. She became known for her writings about Christian spirituality, especially after she became a Benedictine oblate and spent two extended periods at Saint John's Abbey in Minnesota. Born in Washington D.C., (July 27, 1947) Norris was raised in South Dakota and Honolulu, attended Bennington College in Vermont and now divides her time between South Dakota and Hawaii."

At any rate, Kathleen Norris has written that "None of us knows what the next change is going to be, what unexpected opportunity is just around the corner, waiting a few months or a few years to change all the tenor of our lives."

God is calling us to service today. We are to reach out, as the Good Samaritan did, beyond our "comfort zone."

Carol concluded class with a short prayer. Peace be with you!

The Readings for Sunday, July 18th are from Lectionary Year Three, Proper 11-C, "Mary, Martha and Jesus"

The Readings for this week are Amos 8:1-12; Psalm 52; Colossians 1:15-28 and Luke 10:38-42. The text this week is from the New Revised Standard Version.

Amos 8:1-12

¹This is what the Lord God showed me—a basket of summer fruit. ²He said, 'Amos, what do you see?' And I said, 'A basket of summer fruit.' Then the Lord said to me,
'The end has come upon my people Israel;
I will never again pass them by.
³ The songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day,'
says the Lord God;
'the dead bodies shall be many,
cast out in every place. Be silent!'

⁴ Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
⁵ saying, 'When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practise deceit with false balances,
⁶ buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.'

⁷ The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
⁸ Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?

⁹ On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon,
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
¹⁰ I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on all loins,
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son,
and the end of it like a bitter day.

¹¹ The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send a famine on the land;
not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
¹² They shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.

Psalm 52

To the leader. A Maskil of David, when Doeg the Edomite came to Saul and said to him, 'David has come to the house of Ahimelech.'

¹ Why do you boast, O mighty one,
of mischief done against the godly?
All day long ²you are plotting destruction.
Your tongue is like a sharp razor,
you worker of treachery.
³ You love evil more than good,
and lying more than speaking the truth.
Selah
⁴ You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.

⁵ But God will break you down for ever;
he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.
Selah
⁶ The righteous will see, and fear,
and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,
⁷ 'See the one who would not take
refuge in God,
but trusted in abundant riches,
and sought refuge in wealth!'

⁸ But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
for ever and ever.
⁹ I will thank you for ever,
because of what you have done.
In the presence of the faithful
I will proclaim your name, for it is good.

Colossians 1:15-28

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; ¹⁶for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
²¹ And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²²he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him— ²³provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.

Paul's Interest in the Colossians

²⁴ I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. ²⁵I became its servant according to God's commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. ²⁷To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Luke 10:38-42

³⁸ Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.' ⁴¹But the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; ⁴²there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.'

NRSV