Week Two

God’s Poetry, Our Praise

SEEDS TO SOW: BEING LIVING POEMS TO GOD *

Read Psalm 145

God’s Poetry, Our Praise... in the light of the Psalms.

Imagine the disciples sharing this psalm together after the resurrection, consider the praise offered then — and still be offered now — in response to the divine poetry of God’s love.

As people ourselves in that long chain of generations mentioned in verse 4, what are we finding in this psalm today? What stands out to you? What emotions do you feel reading it?

Read 1 Corinthians 12-13:3

The Holy Spirit's poetry.

Check out Jim Steel’s beautiful song A Body that picks up on these themes.

You could say that the gifts of the Spirit are poetry in motion. Like words on a page or verses spoken aloud — the gifts are more than the sum of their individual parts. It’s not simply the gifts themselves but how they come together. Just like how a poem isn’t just a series of words — it’s about how the words spark off each other to make a whole. Discuss!

How do you see the various gifts of the Spirit interlinking together? Think of examples of situations where the gifts come together to minister to people?

Read Ephesians 2: 1-10

Our poetry.

We are a collective craftsmanship of our Makar God, wrought by divine grace (verses 4-7). Makar is a traditional Scots word for poet. A poet is at root a ‘maker’ someone who makes things by taking separate pieces and putting them together as a new whole. In some ways these verses the take pressure off us a bit, the miracle of grace is not down to us (verses 8-9). But we have an opportunity to respond to God’s gift with our own creativity. To be makars too, God has crafted us and crafted us to do good things, to create in turn. Take time to discuss the imagery in this paragraph.

Why do you think God gave us the gift of imagination and independent thought to respond as we choose to the gift of grace?

* SEEDS TO SOW: These are open-ended and optional prompts and are designed for people wanting to develop their own resources in response to the themes. Perhaps if you are using this material as a group you could use these prompts to inspire a time of prayer, or drawing, or creative writing? They are a short and sweet, simply a starting off place for you and your imagination. Tailor and develop as suits your group.