Week Three

Part 3: Sacred Surprises

Conversation Starter

What are your favourite genres of music?

Read 1 Samuel 1: 9-20

Sometimes you’re in the middle of writing somebody off and then suddenly you have to stop writing... 

Eli is going to write Hannah off, send her packing, when something makes him stop — Hannah herself! She checks him and reminds her to treat him with dignity. In our lives we have these sacred moments when we’re in the middle of dismissing someone out of hand and then something makes us stop and realise their dignity and our own folly.

Have you ever found yourself in Eli’s position — judging someone harshly and then suddenly stopping — if so what made you stop?

Read 1 Samuel 2: 1-10

Picture the scene. Hannah plugs in the amplifier. She switches up the gain to full, throws down a few power chords as the waves of feedback screetch back and so begins her punk praise. Hannah’s language and sentiments are vehement, passionate and personal. A sacred punk moment from millennia ago.

In your mind, what is ‘sacred music’? Is there a particular passage of music or line of lyrics that has particularly moved you?

Read Hebrews 10: 19-25

Being sanctified signs for others. 

How can we — as sanctified sinners in the process of being made holy — be signs for others spurring them on toward love and good deeds?

How can our lives be signifiers of God’s Kingdom?