Sunday, November 4, 2012

Our meeting on Election Night November 6, 7-9 PM

Hi everyone -- I'm looking forward to seeing you all on Tuesday night.  Looking over the psalms in Book III of the psalms (73-89) I am struck by how appropriate they are for election night, when I think as people of faith we must struggle to balance our politics with our confidence in God's reign.   I hope we can talk about the way God  is called on in these psalms as a tribal God, the "God of Israel" -- and what God has to do with the community of Israel in the book of psalms.   Many of these psalms are also written in the voice of David, the King who is also "beloved of God" and a man of prayer.  It is interesting to remember that and imagine the "I" of these psalms as the ruler, e.g. in psalm 74, or 77, or 86 and 88.   And there are the beautiful psalms, 80 and 84 -- we may start with these, where trust in God is combined with a sense of God's relationship to the nation.  I hope we can explore how the psalms open up a wider and longer view of faithfulness in the political order, at a time when we've been so focused on this one election, this one moment in history.  

Anyway - we can also talk about other things, but I am going to spend the next couple of days \with this part of the book of psalms, reflecting on what it means to be part of the "people of God" l and what that has to do with my life - I invite you to do the same!

Heidi will be cooking - come join us for dinner, fellowship and prayer --  and bring a friend!