Introduction

Tim Gray: Today is the feast day of St. Lawrence, a remarkable martyr in the early church. We're going to talk a little Bible study about his main occupation for the church. He was an arch deacon for the church in Rome; that meant he was the role of deacons to take care and serve especially those who are needy. And so we see that the early church loved almsgiving. But what I want to say is that Luther saw an abuse of this during the time of the Reformation when bishops started fundraising for cathedrals rather than helping the poor.