Room at the Table - Week One
November 30, 2025
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Leaving room
Hope and expectation
We begin Advent reflecting on anticipation and expectation. As we journey through the season what are we anticipating? What are we expecting? What are we leaving room for? And what room has been left for us? How do we respond to the invitation to God’s table where all are welcome and there’s always room?
Seeds to sow: This can be such a busy season but it’s important to make room and make time too. What do you want to stop doing over Advent to leave room for other things?
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 Romans 13: 11-14
Getting up, getting dressed, and getting going!
Q: What are the clothes of Christ we are being advised to wear in the reading?
Q: How does this passage feel relevant as we begin our advent journey?
Q: As we get up and going as a community heading into Advent who are we wanting to leave room for? Who do we want to feel included and like they belong this Christmas in our local communities and in our world?
Read Psalm 85 & Psalm 23
Coming to the table to discover something new.
At God’s table we long to uncover a new prophetic picture of justice and mercy for a world that all too often tears itself apart.
Q: How do these psalms make you feel? What, if anything, in these psalms makes you feel hopeful for the world around you?
Q: At the unity of a shared, happy table we get a glimpse of what verses 9-10 of Psalm 85 are describing. What does a land look like when God’s glory dwells there, when love and faithfulness meet and righteousness and peace kiss?
Q: In verse 5 of Psalm 23 God prepares a table for us before our enemies. Are we leaving room for God to create a table for us in the presence of our enemies? In other words: are we leaving room for peace, even reconciliation, with those who are opposed to us?
Read 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26
There’s always a space left open at the Lord’s table!
In verse 23 Paul says he received the instruction about the Lord’s Table from the Lord himself, but Paul was never at the Passover meal in the upper room.
Q: Is Paul speaking metaphorically, that he has inherited this tradition from the first followers of Jesus and is passing it on? Or could he be referring to an encounter he had with the risen Christ (such as in Galatians 1:12,1 Corinthians 9:1, 1 Cor 15:8) when Christ instructed him? Or does he mean that time and space blur at the moment of Communion and that in a sense he was there, and we are there with Christ when we enact the meal? Or is it a mix of all three? Discuss!
Q: Are we leaving room at the Lord’s table for others? Have we made Communion tables too remote, too inaccessible to the everyday life of the average person? What are the hurdles between people and joining in Communion?
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