Some Questions
To get the most out of this week’s readings cast your mind back and see if you can identify one situation which rang bells for you or one group of people with whom you felt a certain kinship. Then ask yourself a few questions.
- How similar were the situations, and how different? Try making a short list. Use your own experience to enter into their feelings (rather than their ideas). See if you can work out what we would want to say to them. Imagine what they might be saying to us.
- At what points do we have to accept change? Where is it important to stand firm?
- Where in your environment do you find ‘the people of the land’? What do you think they had in common with Zephaniah’s ‘humble of the land’ (2: 3)? Discuss your conclusions with one or two friends to see how much common ground you can find there.
- Imagine Zephaniah as a cultic prophet facing change in your community. In the context of worship what would he be saying, and to whom?
- Beginning with your own experience draft a Song of Thanksgiving for the benefit of those to come.
Some Activities
- As a variation from discussing the problems of the world, involve a small group of people in writing a Song of Thanksgiving or simply list the features which you would expect to find in the dawn of a new day. Discuss their respective merits to prioritise them. Which are practical and realistic, and which not? Which could you tackle and get on with and which would you have to leave to others?
- This week’s readings have highlighted several different groups in society and the conflicts that went with them. See if you c n identify comparable groups in your own society. How similar, and how different, are the issues at stake and how best could the tensions that arise be resolved?