Meeting Tuesday December 4: Psalms and "Advent"

      Hi everyone. This week concludes our conversations about the psalms.  Looking over the psalms in “Book Five”,  psalms 107-150 I am struck by two themes we can reflect on, the desire to be faithful -- especially expressed in the different portions of Psalm 119, which I’ve been reflecting on slowly over the last 2 weeks. It is an example of a “wisdom psalm,”  of which there are many -- reflecting on what it is like to follow the way of God not out of fear of punishment or desire to be special, but just out of trust that it is a good way to live.   So we may reflect on what it might mean for us, in our time, to think in terms of “committing our way” to God’s way?  What does that look like?

Of course it all involves  praise, and we will not let the evening go by without looking at some of the wonderful praise psalms that conclude the book of psalms, as well as Psalm 139, another of my favorites which combines, I think, wisdom and praise.  Should be a rich time. I look forward to being with you.

       I also want to mention that this Sunday, December 2, marks the first Sunday of the season of Advent.  For those of us in more liturgically oriented traditions his is a season of expectation, of quiet confidence and waiting for the coming of Christ -- it is one of the times when Christianity is at its most ‘counter-cultural.  While in our daily lives and often in church life we are rushing around getting ready for Christmas, Advent practices encourage us to slow down, rest in darkness, wait for the light,  begin a new “church year” in a spirit of renewal.    Depending on the tradition you were raised in Advent may be a new concept or a familiar concept to you.    You can see a great summary of what it’s all about online on the “Busted Halo” website at http://bustedhalo.com/video/advent-in-two-minutes    ( a website worth checking out generally, I think).

            And speaking of Advent.  I will be in Northern Virginia on Saturday December 8 to lead an Advent Quiet Day at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church from 9-12.  The day will combine some short meditations with sharing and time for quite, solitary reflection on the Advent themes of promise. I’ll probably be using a couple of favorite poems as well as Advent Scripture readings and prayers to focus our time.  My hope is that it will be for all of us a time to enter the spirit of the season, in quiet and hopeful reflection on God’s promises in our lives.  See basic information on the church's website here

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!

Apple picking and country outing this Saturday October 6!

Hi everyone - we decided last night that a group of us would head out to Stribling Orchard in Markham Virginia this Saturday to do some apple picking, have lunch together and enjoy (we hope) a beautiful day.  We will meet in the parking lot at Vienna Baptist Church at 9:30 Saturday morning (That's this Saturday 10/7).  Even if you haven't been coming to the Bible study group we'd love to have you join us - a chance to meet other young adults and enjoy the season.  Feel free to be in touch with Kathy at kathleen.staudt@gmail.com if you need/want more info!

Next meeting this Tuesday, October 2

Our next meeting is this Tuesday at the Johnsons' home, 7-9 as usual.  Joe and Carolanne are cooking and we'll sign up for meal-nights when we meet.  Whether or not you've been reading the psalms this week you'll be able to join in the discussion (there's never "homework" for this group).  2-3 psalms a day gets us to Psalm 37, which we will probably look at together. But particularly interesting is the variety of ways-of-praying that we see in Psalms 22-25.   That's probably where I'll start, as we discuss the contexts of these prayers and how they do (and don't) resonate with us today!

I will likely be hanging out at the Starbuck's in Oakton VA for a few hours before our meeting this week - my usual practice to get out ahead of  the traffic. I expect to be there starting around 4:00.  If you're just reading about this group online, or if you're in the group and just want to chat, feel free to come find me there!

Looking forward to seeing you all on Tuesday - please spread the word and bring a friend if you can.

Off to a Good Start

Find it here

We were off to a good start for the fall last night.  Grateful, once again, to Tom and Mary for opening their home to us.  Welcomed one newcomer, Chad.  And began with an overview of what it means to pray the psalms.  Our plan for the fall will to try to read 2-3 psalms each day,  so between now and our next meeting, October 2,  we'll read through psalms 1-37.    We used verses from psalms to do a kind of survey of the prayer-places that psalms take us to. These include: 

Places of "orientation" and confidence:  (Bless the Lord, O My Soul, and all that is in me, bless God's holy name! (ps 103:1)   (The heavens declare the glory of God!  Ps. 19:1)

Places of "disorientation,"  suffering, confusion:  ("Save me, O God, for the waters are up to my neck" (ps 69:1); "Keep not silence O God, and be not still" (ps 83:1), even "How long will you forget me, O Lord? Forever?  How long will you hide your face from me? " (ps 13:1).    Songs of lament,  and even disturbing prayers for vengeance against enemies,, as well as prayers of repentance, come up in these psalms.  We talked a little - and will talk more about how these psalms speak both of the experience of Israel, the people of God, as a community, and about our own personal experiences of God.

Places of "re-orientation," and transformation:  An assumption in the psalms is that the best place to be is a place where we are able to praise God with our whole hearts -- the themes of covenant and "righteousness," which we'll talk about, point to that place where we are at peace with our lives and with God, even when we are facing trouble.  It is a place of deep honesty and continuing growth -- some of the psalms capture this, e.g. Ps 46: "God is our refuge and strength. A very present time of trouble. Therefore we will not fear. . . .") or the last few psalms, which buildup to the final verse of Ps 150 "let everything that hath breath praise the Lord!"  

Deeply embedded in the psalms is a confidence that God is in the midst of everything, even the deepest "pit" experience (a vivid image that comes from the psalms).  I invite you this fall to spend some time with these ancient prayers and see what parts of them you can "make your own" -- try different translations. The King James version is beautiful for the poetry though sometimes archaic in its worldview;  Eugene Peterson's The Message, or Nan Merrill's Psalms for Praying make the psalms more personal, even, sometimes, when the original psalm is really more about a communal than an individual experience.  We will look at all these dimensions of the psalms in our study time.

So here's a tentative look ahead to the fall (think about whether you can cook one of these days and we'll try to fill out the calendar next time -- or email me at kathleen.staudt@gmail.com for more info and/or with preferred dates to cook - no one should feel they HAVE to cook but I know many people like to!)

October 2:  Ps 1-37  (Joe and Carolanne are cooking )

October 16: Ps. 38-74

November 6:  Ps. 75-118

November 20:  Ps 119 - the theme of "faithfulness"

December 4:  Ps 120-150

December 18:   Christmas party Reflections (prayer practice for today based on favorite psalms from the fall - stay tuned.)

I should add that this language about "orientation" -"disorientation" - "reorientation" comes from scholar Walter Brueggemann, who has written several books about the psalms, including Praying the Psalms and Meditations on the Psalms.  I'll be drawing on his work as well as Denise Dombrowski Hopkins, Journey through the Psalms. -- good resources if you want to read further, but not by any means "assigned."

Starting up again on September 18

Hi everyone
I meant to post sooner this photo from our retreat in May.  Finding it reminded me of how I've missed everyone (including those not in the photo!)  - and looking forward to seeing you all again in September.     We will be meeting at the Johnsons' from 7-9 as usual on September 18, and then on first and third Tuesdays going forward.  We agreed that it would be "potluck" the first time, and I'm inclined to let it be just that -- just bring what you want to. But if you want to tell me what you're bringing  you can email me at kathleen.staudt@gmail.com and I can try to coordinate a little bit. We've never had too little food and it usually works if everyone brings something they'd like to share.

Our study focus this fall will be on the book of Psalms, and I've had a good summer returning to the psalms and commentaries on them.  Our focus will be both on where the psalms come from and, just as important, how they reflect different ways of praying and can lead us into prayer.  I've been looking at the psalm texts in the King James version and also in a little book by Nan C. Merrill called Psalms for Praying, which paraphrase the psalms into much more intimate prayers.  There is lots to talk about n the psalms -- the parts that trouble and put us off, the familiar lines that seem to resonate down through the ages,  the ways that people pray, from wild thanksgiving to angry and dark lament.   I look forward to looking at these profound and beautiful poems with you and reflecting together on how they do (and sometimes don't) speak to where we are in our lives with God.

Please feel free to get in touch with me if you're thinking of coming for the first time and need directions (if it's your first time please don't worry about bringing food!), or if you have any other ideas or concerns about the year ahead. I really look forward to being with you all again soon!

--Blessings to all
KATHY

Thanks for a Great Retreat - and next meeting 5/21

Our next meeting will be Monday May 21 and we'll be talking about the Resurrection story in John 21.
Joel will be cooking.


I'm already looking forward to seeing everyone again -- especially after the lovely time we had at the retreat at Lost River this past weekend (May 11-13). Thanks to all who came:  what a lovely place and "getaway".  It was great to have the chance to know each other better, to have some serious conversations about faith and life and also some serious fun.  Joel's pen & ink drawings do a beautiful job of capturing the feel of our time together, in beautiful weather, out in the meadow and beside the lake.  You can view them on flickr, here .

 On Sunday for our shared worship I asked everyone to write a “help me” prayer and a “thank you” prayer that would reflect on our time together in this place.   Even if you couldn't be with us on the retreat, I hope that these prayers give you some of the spirit of what we talked about, in our conversations about faithful living and finding purpose in our lives and work -- so many of these prayers and thankgivings are about concerns that many of you share. Here is a sampling: 

Thank you:

     for crackling fire

     melting marshmallows

     croaking bullfrogs

     starry sky

     butterflies

     friends’ laughter   

     voices blending together

     and time alone

     I thank you, Creative Love

Help me

    As I dig into myself, my life,

     I find things I don’t like

     Help me not to run away

     Help me to hash this out

     Help me to grow

     . . . and help me be the person

     You and I want me to be.

Thank you God for the gift of life and a wonderful wife, for the world full of amazing creatures and adventures. 

Please help me find fulfillment in my job.  Help me find the strength to evaluate my career choice

Thank you for my family and friends, my physical and financial security, trees, birds, laybugs and bot-chee ball.

Help me to follow the way to you and feel your presence in all I do.  I need your guidance to see this path in my professional life -- to bring spiritual purpose and passion to a paycheck.

Help me figure out where I am and where I’m headed

     Thank you for bringing me this far.

Thank you for speaking to me in tall the ways you do!  Help me see the beauty in everything I see. 

I am grateful for the uniqueness of each voice and the deepening of friendship and connection and insight that everyone shared on this retreat,  truly a special time, which I know will spill over into our regular Bible Study group meetings in all kinds of ways.  Thank you everyone for the gift this was to me!    --KATHY