Week Two

Part 2: Sites of the Sacred

Conversation Starter

Do you have any favourite ‘sacred places’ where you like to be?

Read Ruth 3:1-5 and 4:13-17

(If you have time read all of chapters 3-4 or indeed all of Ruth, if meeting as a group perhaps asking people to read individually before the session)

The book of Ruth begins with death and loss and ends with new life and restoration. In between there is the resourcefulness of two women trying to negotiate strange and traumatic circumstances. It’s a compelling story and partly that’s because it has the highest ratio of dialogue to narrative of any of the books in the Old Testament — perhaps giving us particular insight into the characters.

Looking at her story where do you see signs of the sacred in and amongst the heartache, confusion and strangeness?

Read 1 Kings 17: 8-16

A little sacred jug that just does not fail… 

What are other examples of ordinary, unassuming objects becoming sites of the sacred? These could be moments from your own life, from the Bible, or from the history of the church or the community you live in.

Read Mark 12: 38-44

Let’s retell this parable in a contemporary setting. Instead of robes and copper coins how would you tell this story as if it was something that happened where you live in 2021?