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Room at the Table - Week Five

December 28, 2025 0 0

 

Room to spare

Room for all the world

 

As we head into the New Year with our expansive message that there is room at the table for all — we further widen our scope to the natural world and indeed to the cosmos. There is room to spare for all creation! How can ‘Room at the table’ change how we think about our world?

 

Seeds to sow: What are we making room for in 2026? What tables are we going to be setting?

Additionally the group could reflect on the Advent short story that will be released each week of the theme at sanctuaryfirst.org.uk/blog

 

Read Psalm 148

Room to spare for creation.

There is room enough for all of us in the majesty of God’s creation, indeed room to spare, and yet we often live absurd lifestyles that are profoundly wasteful and unequal. Mountains of food go to waste while others hunger. Habitats that have long sustained life are squandered for short-term gain.

Q: Is the psalmist’s invitation for nature to praise God an example of poetic licence? Not a literal instruction but an artistic way of expressing the vividness of creation? Or is it an actual invite, and if so what does it mean for creatures, weather systems and habitats to praise God?

Q: There is room at the table, not just for you and I, but for all of creation too! How can we re-embrace and rediscover creation as a partner not a source of plunder?

 

Read Colossians 1: 15-23

Room to spare at the table — draw up a seat!

This table is cosmic, bigger than we could imagine.

Q: What do you think it means that through Christ “all things hold together”? How can we begin to get our heads around such an enormous statement?

Q: How does this passage inspire you to work towards the reconciliation of all things?

 

Read Luke 2: 22-35

Room to spare for all nations!

Simeon’s prayer is both deeply personal to him and universally relevant to us all. There are no geographical or ethnic limits to God’s grace — all are invited to God’s table, all are welcome.

While Simeon’s prayer is heartening this reading is bittersweet as it’s followed by Simeon’s quiet words of warning to Mary.

Q: Why do you think the prospect of a truly open invitation to salvation offered to all people — wherever they come from — was so controversial back in the first century?

Q: Do you think this message is still counter-cultural in the 21st century? If so, is it for the same reasons or for different reasons than it was two thousand years ago?