Welcome to the St. Martin's Prime Timers Web Page!

Join us in the Payne Education Center at St. Martin's, in rooms 207-209.  We meet in between the 9am and 11am services from 10:10am to 10:50. We have coffee and snacks and this week more from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians awaiting you.

This week Joe Thomson led the class, his valedictory for the Prime Timers. Joe is being conscripted into the new Absolutely Fabulous A.B.F. Good luck Joe, we will miss you!

Prime Timers Good News

For $1 you can tell everyone your good news. Its a Prime Timers tradition!

Randy Riddell brought us a story that didn't involve car trouble with his sons! Randy's youngest son joined the Navy, which came as a surprise. Then Randy began looking at his wife's and his family histories. Almost every generation joined the military. Randy did not serve in the military, but now he does perform the civilian salute (your right hand over your heart) when he sees the American Flag.

Skip Allen asks us to remember John McMann in our prayers. He has cancer and the prognosis is not good. It is at the stage where small victories are achievements to be celebrated.

Leaning on Grace

Joe Thomson led the class today in our concluding lesson with Paul in 2nd Corinthians. This is the idea of Paul's "thorn" or strength coming from weakness. Joe told us of 2 Corinthians 10:10 For some say, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing." Paul is defending himself against attacks by the Jews in this letter and is somewhat uncomfortably boasting of others experiences in the Lord. For Paul though, he chooses to speak of his weaknesses.

Paul is concerned that people are being swayed by eloquent speakers and rival teachers who boast of their spiritual experiences. He sees them as a threat to the Corinthians being rooted in the gospel, calling their message "a different gospel" presenting "another Jesus" (2 Corinthians 11:4). Rather than boasting, Paul uses that example of a thorn in his side, (2 Corinthians 12:8-9) Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Joe asked the class for examples of things that can test our faith, troubled times is right at the top of the list. Someone else suggested anger management, and the weather disasters we experienced here last year. How do you cope with these situations? Randy Riddell's idea is to see yourself as part of the puzzle rather than the whole show.

George Laigle then remarked how he had a difficult time with the concept of (2 Corinthians 12:10) delighting in weaknesses. He allowed that while he has weaknesses, he certainly doesn't delight in them. Another member suggested the wording from the NRSV instead of delighting you are content with your weaknesses.

Joe then recalled the movie and book Ben-Hur. I certainly forgot that the full title of that book is "Ben Hur:  A Tale of the Christ." Ben Hur encounters Jesus on his way to the slave galley of a boat. He was denied water by his Roman Guards but Jesus defies them and gives water to Ben Hur. This relates to our lesson today in that Ben Hur was not freed from slavery by Jesus, but rather given water, just enough to keep Ben Hur going at a particularly low point. We are also reminded that Jesus himself is not relieved of his burden.

The lesson is in humility, and learning from the "curve balls" that life throws at us. How we respond to these challenges changes as we get older and having a positive attitude and the faith of our convictions makes us stronger.

Max Kech then led the class in our healing prayer and Joe Thomson then dismissed the class.

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Mentor

Rev. B. Massey Gentry
mgentry@stmartinsepiscopal.org

Leader

Randy Riddell told us some of his family's history.

St. Paul by Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1503-1504, Marble. In Duomo, Sienna, Italy.

The Conversion of Paul, also by Michelangelo, 1542-45. Fresco at the Vatican, Cappella Paolina, Palazzi Pontifici.

St. Paul on the St. Martin's New Church stained glass. Tours of the church are available every Sunday starting at 12:30pm, and then Wednesdays and Fridays from 10:45am to 12:30pm, with a formal tour from 11:00am to 12:00pm. For more information, or to schedule a tour, call 713-830-4117.

The Lesson for Sunday, September 3rd is titled "Finding Security"

Key Verse:  Genesis 9:15

Focus of the Lesson:  We all long for some sense of security. What can we trust as being sound and secure? God promised all creation never to send another flood, and the rainbow serves as a reminder that God is keeping this promise.

The reading is Genesis 9:1-15. This text is from the New International Version^®.

   ¹Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. ²The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. ³Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

   ⁴"But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. ⁵And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.

   ⁶"Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
for in the image of God has God made man.

   ⁷As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it."

   ⁸Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ⁹"I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. ¹¹I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."

   ¹²And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: ¹³I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. ¹⁶Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."

   ¹⁷So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth."

NIV®