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Category: Liturgy

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Feb92011

The Trial | Worship Idea

Each year all of the churches in town walk through to the town square and have a short act of remembrance on Good Friday.  Last year I had no idea what they were expecting.  I put on a Death Row shirt and slung a giant wooden crucifix over my shoulders and carried it at the front of the procession.  This year they asked me to do some form of bible reading in the Town Square when we get there.  It is a public performance really.  I suppose I’ll put on the convict outfit and hold a life-size cross whilst I do it this year.  I have rewritten John 19 (abridged) based upon The Message.  Please bear in mind that many of the phrases are easy to say in a broadish Yorkshire accent as I use the tools I’ve got.  Also, the bold parts will be practiced with a baying mob so that they don’t all shout them in unison.

The Trial (based upon John 19)

Pontius Pilate was the man responsible for governing Jerusalem.  He’d had Jesus publicly whipped because he was a troublemaker.  They were worried because too many people were following him. The soldiers who did it made a crown from thorns for him and rammed in down onto his head.  They kept giving him grief.  They had thrown a purple robe over him like he was royalty whilst shouting “Hail, King of the Jews!”.  Then they kept slapped him in the face.

Pilate went to the baying mob and said to them, “I present him to you, but I want you to know that I don’t find him guilty.  He hasn’t committed any crime.”

In a frenzy the crowd shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

But Pilate told them, “You take him. You crucify him. I find nothing wrong with him.”

Pilate did his best to pardon him, but the Jews shouted him down: “If you pardon this man, you’re no friend of Caesar’s. Anyone setting himself up as ‘king’ defies Caesar.”

When Pilate heard those words, he took Jesus outside into the square and sat down at the judgment seat.  It was noon on the day everyone was preparing for the Passover festival.

Pilate said to the Jews, “Here is your king.”

They shouted back, “Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!”

Pilate said, “You want me to crucify your king?”

The religious leaders answered, “We have no king except Caesar.”

At this Pilate caved in and sent him to be crucified.

They took Jesus away. Carrying his cross, they led him out of the city to the place they called Skull Hill.  Here they nailed him up, they crucified him with two criminals, one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

Pilate wrote a sign and had it nailed to the cross. It read:

   Jesus the Nazarene
   the king of the Jews.

Jan272011

Literally | A Fresh Expression of Wedding

A few colleagues were talking about weddings the other day.  They discussed things that they had been asked to do and whether they were prepared to incorporate them into the day.  It was a bit of one-upmanship.  Who had the most crazy request?  One said that they had been asked if they could wear reenactment outfits.  I said “what period”?  The conversation continued and I was told “They wanted to have a guard of honour at the door of the church when they left”.  “What period?” say I, “What type of reenactment?”.  It turned out to be Viking and Saxon reenactment.

I guess they weren’t expecting me to say “I used to do Viking Saxon reenactment and I was in a guard of honour at a wedding.  I also have a friend who married in a rifleman’s uniform AKA Sharpe’s rifles”.  When I say these kinds of things people often don’t know how to react.  In the last two days, all the old photos have started to appear on Facebook.  That is literally how I came to share with you this video that @revdrach sent me!

There are legal ramifications to a wedding and much of what is done is prescribed by law.  If I had a pound for every person who has asked me if they can “write their own vows” because they have seen it on Home and Away I could retire at 32.  Never the less, we live in a world that is looking for meaningful personalised experiences in all sorts of different ways.  When they turn to the church to have them, how do we respond?  61 million people have seen that video but how many would put their foot down and say no? 

My experience as a groom was that we walked out of church to this.  We looked at the congregation.  The metalheads were looking at each other and going “is it”?  I looked at Mrs Changingworship and an unspoken thing happened.  We ran.  The emotion was so overwhelming that we were now husband and wife that we ran down the aisle and left them to it in all of its punk glory!  We went to snog behind the church.  We were wedded.  We were now one.  And it was all about the three of us, me, her and God.

So what does it mean to be real with people as “The Church” when we come together for a couple’s wedding?  What can we do to convey the message that it is about the couple and God?  What facilitates their celebration of their love for one another in the presence of their creator?

I was fortunate:  I married the vicars daughter – literally.

Dec202010

So Meek and Mild They Executed Him

Christmas is a big moment for the Church.  This is the time of year in which people are more likely to visit us than at any other.  This is the point where people come to see what the church have to offer to their communities and the world around them.  We have some wonderful news to share, God’s heart was breaking so much that he was born as a baby boy and placed in the hay the animals were eating.  He was born into a world of pain, war, hunger and poverty to show us how it could be different.  He was born into a world to show us how to love and care for each other and to tell us to look after the least in society.  Mary understood this before he was born as she sang:

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
   he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
   but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
   but has sent the rich away empty.

Every year I agonise about the music we use at Christmas.  To pick something that people know well enough to sing.  Something that speaks of the incarnation that can be played with integrity in a band is a difficult task.  People often talk about popular “secular” music not speaking of the “true meaning” of Christmas.  For example, if we were to sing this Chris de Burgh song as we try to tell the world God’s story, I’m sure the extra terrestrials would confuse the issues.

Over the past month I have attended many carol services and I have come to the conclusion that I have been mistaken in the role the church are to play at Christmas.  Whilst I thought we were trying to give account of God’s incarnation, all around me people are singing “O Little Town of Royal David’s City”.  We are happy to perpetuate the Victorian ideals and social engineering of past centuries.  I need to know my place within the created order and must not step outside of my defined social background.  Children must be seen and not heard.  “Christian children all must be, mild, obedient, good as he”.  Unfortunately this myth does our children no favours as it places unrealistic expectations upon them.  It also facilitates those who want to complain about young families in church because “in my day…”  Unfortunately this also portrays Jesus in an unrealistic manner.  A baby who was born on a silent night without crying who lived a life so meek and mild that they nailed him to a cross.

It was recently pointed out to me that “people outside the church don’t take the Christmas story seriously, they treat it like a fairy tale”.  I disagree.  The people inside the church don’t take the Christmas story seriously, they treat it like a fairy tale.  Is it any wonder that the people who hear us singing “I love Thee, Lord Jesus! Look down from the sky” and “when like stars His children crowned all in white shall wait around” spend the rest of the year saying “pie in the sky when you die”.  Who can blame them?  They are just repeating our story as we have recounted it.

Next year I think I may include A Spaceman Came Travelling in the repertoire.  It is easier to try and explain aliens than to try and recant your previous explanation of the afterlife.  It is certainly more believable.

Jul212010

Redemption | Alternative Hymnal

Skin are one of our favourite bands and this is from their new album, breaking the silence. Appologies for the live version – skip the first 30 seconds.