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The Sacred is Calling 2026 - Week Two

November 08, 2026 0 0

 

Week 2: A Voice in the Wind, Nature

 

Sites of the Sacred. Creation is a living sanctuary. This week, we listen for the sacred calling through the natural world — the earth, the sky, the waters, and the wild. God does not occasionally use nature to communicate with us — God continually uses it to communicate with us! There are lessons and challenges and invitations all around us!

 

1. Trees clapping their hands -- Isaiah 55: 8-13

 

  • Theme: Our faith is not in opposition to the natural world, it is full embedded in it.
     
  • Context: Isaiah presents a vivid picture of nature itself worshipping God. The water cycle becomes a theology lesson offering a way of understanding God’s continual connection with us. God’s word doesn’t come as an occasional interruption to our lives, but instead is an essential part of the ecosystem we live and breathe in.

 

  • Group Discussion Questions:

 

  • What does a tree clapping its hands look like? How about a mountain or a hill bursting into song? Have you ever walked in the hills and felt like the hill could just burst into song at any moment as a vibrant hymn to God?
     
  • Where do you see joy, life, and celebration expressing itself in your favourite places? Do you have a favourite tree you see clapping its hands? A favourite river, forest, park, moor?

 

  • Personal Reflection: Think of your favorite place in nature to go. How could you use the sights, sounds and smells of that place to shape a time of prayer?

 

2. Birds and lilies — Matthew 6: 25-34

 

  • Theme: Living in the moment like a flock of birds or a vibrant wildflower meadow…

 

  • Context: Jesus uses readily accessible little pictures from his followers’ everyday life to lead them to the big picture of faith. Jesus’ instruction to stop worrying about tomorrow and to root ourselves in the here and now by quietly observing the natural world is sound mindfulness advice two thousand years before our current preoccupation with mindfulness!

 

  • Discussion Questions:

 

  • How can spending time in nature change our perspective on our worries and anxieties?
     
  • Do our churches and faith groups place enough importance on the power of the natural world to calm, restore and inspire us? Or does the natural world play second fiddle to the upkeep of buildings?

 

  • Personal Reflection: Where is somewhere you could go this week to quietly observe small wild things with Jesus?

 

3. The voice over the waters — Psalm 29

 

  • Theme: Transformation in our world and in our lives.

 

  • Context: Here we return to a water metaphor but this time to show the transformative power of God. Humans have always been in awe of the power of water to utterly change the world around them and so it makes for a compelling metaphor for the incredible, life-giving power of God.

 

  • Group Discussion Questions:

 

  • What words stand out to you in this psalm, how do they make you feel?

 

  • Where do you long to see the transformative power of God break, change cleanse, move and reshape things in our society and the wider world?

 

  • Personal Reflection: Where are we asking God for the sacred to rush and flow through our personal lives, through those of our friends and family?
     

Head to Week Three!