Origin: Parallel Universe June 30, 1996
Theme:
Fire – some of its symbolism in the Bible. An encounter with God through the symbolism of fire.
Mood:
Slow moving, lots of silence and space.
Setup:
Central circle of 8-12 TVs with large live gas flame inside circle.
No tables – groups of chairs around central ‘fireplaces’ of some kind eg woks or big candles.
Punters given 5 matches on arrival (taped on card)
Large screen at front with flame video loop, Video Mixer, Fire Extinguisher, Matchbooks on TVs, Collection of ambient and techno tracks for ‘play as you go’!
Gear:
Running order:
1. (7.30pm) TVs – fire, runs continuously, other video mixed over.
Sound – Soundtrack ex The Piano, by Michael Nyman
Screens – logos?
FX – ambient level up, no flame
2. (8.00pm) FX – drop ambient, light local fires/candles, light flare
TVs – clips of fire from ‘Backdraft’ 8-10 min
Sound – ‘Kim’s Dirt’ ex Dirty 3, Sad and Dangerous
Screens – title of service
Theme 1 The Fire of God’s Presence –
TVs – fire
Sound
Screens – ‘Presence’ x3
FX – flame fx on centre screen
- Scripture Reading – Exodus 3: 1-5 Burning Bush. Sound – down.
4. Rant 1. (See below)
TVs – fire
Sound – ’track 1 and 15 ex Passion, Peter Gabriel
Screens – ‘Presence’
FX –
5. Response – all light one match simultaneously from local fires/candles
Say ‘The fire of God here with us’
Screens – ‘The fire of God here with us’ x3
Theme 2 The Fire of God’s Acceptance
Screens – ‘Acceptance’ x3
TVs – Terminator 2 clip (1.10 end of vid)
Sound –
- FX – light brazier
7. Scripture Reading – Isaiah 6/1-7. Burning coals on lips.
Sound – down
- Carry coal around in tongs
- Rant 2. (See below)
10. Silence
11. Response – all light one match simultaneously from local fires/candles
Say ‘The fire of God’s acceptance’
Theme 3 The fire of God’s Revealing
TVs – Fire
Sound –
Screens – ‘Revealing’
FX —
- Scripture Reading 1 Corinthians 3:11-15
Sound – down
12. Rant 3 (See at end of Curators notes)
- Response – ‘Purify my Heart’ song lyrics read as ‘hard-edged’ poem rather than soft worship-song lyrics.
Punters asked to think about what needs burning off their life.
14. Response – all light one match simultaneously from local fires/candles
Say ‘The fire reveals’
Screens – ‘The fire reveals’ x3
Theme 4 The fire of Suffering
TVs –
Sound –
Screens –
FX –
- Scripture Reading 1 Peter 1/7.
Sound – down
- Track – ‘Shadow of the Fire’ ex Derek Lind, Slippery Ground
Screens – slides of suffering etc.
- Rant 4. (See at end of Curators notes)
- Response – all light one match simultaneously from local fires/candles
Hold match until burns right down
Say ‘The Fire of Suffering burns us all’
Theme 5 The fire of Passion for God
TVs
Sound – techno
Screens – ‘Passion’ x3
FX
- Scripture reading Jeremiah 20: 7-9
Sound – down
- Rant 5.
21. Track – Pixies, ‘I’m digging for fire’ ex Bosa Nova
Screens ‘I’m digging for fire’
- Response – all light one match simultaneously from local fires/candles.
Say ‘Fire – a symbol of God’s passion within me’
- Invite punters to come forward to TVs, put hand into circle of ‘fire’ and take a matchbook. Stay standing for benediction.
- Benediction re fire.
- Notices?
Rant 1: The Fire of God’s Presence (Exodus 3/2)
Take off your shoes.
We stand before the fire of God’s presence, the mighty furnace of creation. Here is the engine of the universe, the blinding eternal flame which flings out stars like sparks.
The fire terrifies us.
White-hot and roaring, thundering with consumption. Driving us back against the wall, cowering from its ferocity. Covering our faces with our hands to escape the pure penetrating light that pierces everything. Sheltering from the blast of heat which shrivels the juices in our mouths.
The ground shakes under our feet. The air is sucked out of us into the fire. The sky is dark with black smoke which rises endlessly.
We want to run but there is no where to go. We want to hide but there is no shelter anywhere. We want to cry but our lungs are empty.
There is only the fire; the fire and the darkness; the fire and our crippled spirits; the fire and the presence of God; the fire and God; the fire is God.
Burning and roaring and consuming and creating.
Turn your eyes away while they are still in their sockets. The one who looks on God must die. Must die. Look and die. The fire. The burning. The light.
The voice. The voice of God. Flaming out from the centre. God speaking. God burning. Fire in your heart; fire in your blood; fire in your veins. The fire of God. The fire burns. God is here. We are here. We must burn.
Rant 2: The Fire of God’s Acceptance (Isaiah 6/7)
Through charcoal eyes we see him coming. White silk-fluttering wings. From the midst of the fire, from the heart of the flames; rising towards us. Flying from the fire, from the heat and the light and the roaring.
Burning, but not consumed; flaming, but not incinerated; radiant, but not scorched. The messenger of God, a flying tongue of fire. Streaming out from the inferno, rushing towards us.
Stay away from us! Leave us alone! Keep the light away from us!
You don’t have to show us for what we are. We know what we’re like. We have to live with ourselves; with the lies and the compromises and the indifference. We are the butt-end of humanity, the cynics and the procrastinators. We live in the gloom because our eyes are dim. We have nothing to do with the fire.
But still he flies on, this incandescent blur, this smudge of whiteness. And in his hand, a coal of fire. Red-hot, burning, glowing, thumping with heat. Coming at you. Out of the fire. Coming with the coal, to get you.
And he smothers you in his whiteness, and the coal is on your lips. Searing skin-stripping charring heat. Burning deep into your flesh, through layer after layer until it reaches the core. The core of you, and it’s burning, man, blazing in your gut.
And then the voice.
“Because the fire has touched your lips, you are clean. Clean and cleansed and innocent. Feathered and fathered and forgiven. Purged by fire. Whole and healed and held. You have kissed the flaming coal, and God is within you.”
Rant 3: The Fire of Revealing (1 Corinthians 3/11)
It’s a time for being honest. This world is full of shite, and there’s no end to it. People trying to sell things, and tell you things. Preachers and politicians and used-car dealers, coming at you all the time. Like they expect us to believe them.
Lies and half-truths, rip-offs and scams and scandals. And the TV is chattering in the corner. Bodies piling up and bellies sticking out and children dying. Just a word from our sponsors, we’ll be right back after this message, this show is brought to you by Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Rupert Murdoch and the Church of Scientology. Sit back and enjoy the show.
We’re full of shite. All of us. Every last one of us. Shite coming out our ears. Pretending that we’re good. Pretending that we’re interested. Pretending that we care. Pretending that we love. And all the while we’re looking for the angle, checking the bottom line, sussing the possibilities. Hiding the darkness on the inside. The deceptions, the compromises, the anger, the aggression, the prejudice.
There’s no hiding from the fire. The fire shows all. The fire knows all. The fire reveals all. The fire will search you. The fire will sift you. The fire will probe you.
The cheap stuff burns, baby. The straw and the chaff and dry grass; it goes up in flames. It is nothing, and it becomes nothing in the purity of the flames. The shite will become ash, when the fire purges it.
But the good remains. The steel in your heart, the words of marble, the thick concrete commitments. The goodness and the truth and the love. These things remain.
The fire comes to show what’s what. To reveal what’s hidden. To sort out the shite from our lives.
Rant 4: The Fire of Suffering (1 Peter 1/7)
Lord God, you are above and beyond all things,
Your nature is to love.
You put us in the furnace of the world
To learn to love you and love one another.
Father, we sing to you in the furnace
Like the three Jewish children
The hope and the doom of the love of friends
Is eating up the marrow of our bones.
We suffer. We hurt. We are in pain. We have loved and been disappointed. We have hoped and been disillusioned. We have trusted and been abandoned. We have forgiven and been misunderstood.
The pain of our living is unspeakable. The cost of humanity, the agony of existence. We are struck down by cancer and AIDS. We are ravaged by car crash and earthquake. We are tortured with sexual abuse and violence. We are afflicted with depression and schizophrenia. We are wasted by starvation and genocide.
In the furnace of suffering there is no future. There is no gratitude for the fire which burns and afflicts us. There is no comfort in what might yet be. There is only the furnace and the fire and the pain.
And Jesus asked them, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptised with baptism with which I am baptised?”
And the answer was a long time coming.
Rant 5: The Fire of Passion (Jeremiah 20/9)
Burning with passion. On fire with desire. Flaming with fervour. The fire of God has fallen. The fire is on our heads, in our hearts, in our guts.
Ripping through the paper walls of apathy, popping the windows of reserve, consuming the frames of indifference. The fire is in our blood, in our arteries, in our brains, pumping through our bodies.
When the fire falls, there is blazing and heat and light. Here in the darkness, where the fire falls, there is passion and zeal and abandon. Where the fire falls, there is life and love and passion.
Come down, fire of God. Fall on us, fire of God. Kindle the flame, fire of God. Burn us and brand us and inflame us and consume us. Set us ablaze so we flare and roar. Intensity. Ardour. Rapture. Burning with life.
The word of the Lord is a fire in my heart and a hammer in my bones. May the fire embrace us. May the fire deliver us. May the fire purify us. May the fire enliven us. May the fire roar. May the fire spread.
Fire of God, we welcome you.
(Rants written by Mike Riddell)
Description of a Cafe Church (Sydney) service based on this Parallel Universe service
Ok. Where do I start? I figure that the experience we have just had owes a
lot to the 2 of you, so I want to tell you something. God knows what he is
doing, that’s for sure.
It’s raining, of course. Been grey and wet most of the weekend. Last night,
Tim and I huddled in the backyard (loose use of “yard”). He built a wood
fire in this wire cage / circular manger that he had hand-fashioned. We set
my Mum’s Hi-8 video camera up on a rickety old tripod, and shot an hour and
a half of blazing … down to glowing coals.
We get to the church early. We set up a bit table for all our “bits”. Tim is
handling all the technology. I will be doing the words. Tim builds a fire in
his brazier outside the entrance of the building. He is loving it.
Tim and Glen and Ruth and me are praying when the first of the people put
their noses through the doors. It begins.
This night was totally unadvertised. The Menu has expired, and the new one
is yet to appear. Record turnout night. About 50 dudes. And, what’s more
interesting, is that people from about 3 or 4 different churches
coincidentally chose this particular night to do some reconnaisance,
gathering ideas for new initiatives within their own people. Weird. Our own
pillars of the church are with us. Good vibe.
I am feeling totally inadequate, as usual. My prayer is that tonight, we
will meet with God. I desire God to make his presence felt in this place, I
want my people to be transparent again before our Creator. Take off your
shoes … this is holy ground. I pray. I wait. I do some photocopying
upstairs before the start of the focus time. On the way back down the
stairs, i kneel on the landing. Oh, God. Oh God….
It’s time. The gathering of the tribes. I am really happy coz i see that
some of our new attenders have brought their friends, and because I have
spotted some old Cafe Churchers that i haven’t seen in many moons.
All the announcements happen up front. The end of the evening is reserved
for prayer and stillness and gentle yarning…
At Cafe Church we use poems and metaphors and various kinds of images, and
sounds and other things … to try to express our journey, and our searching
through life and faith. God does the same thing. Tonight is FIRE. God and
his impact in our fragile world … in the events recorded in the Bible, and
in the words of Jesus we find many symbols and images and metaphors … God
trying to get through to us about what he thinks and who he is. Tonight we
look at 5 different episodes involving fire.
Connect at your level. Some of the passages may be familiar, but will be
expressed in new ways, so that we too may find something new….
On the tables are little folded papers with 4 of the passages printed.
Each table holds a candle, and a specially logoed matchbox for this night.
I will invite participation throughout. Get involved where you wish.
And so we begin.
Prepare to worship…..
Let us recognise the lives that we are in, the weeks that we have had, the
moment all around us. Let us seek stillness, in each other’s presence, and
in the company of God himself….
The slide on the wall reads “Fire in the Dark”.
Tim begins a track from the CD “L’Apocalypse des Animaux” (Vangelis.
wonderful). After a time i pray out loud, asking God to meet here with us.
Tim fires up the dataprojector and a massive fire begins licking across the
wall.
New slide “Fire of God’s Presence”. I read Mike’s words… “Take off your
shoes… We stand before the fire of God’s presence…” At the conclusion of
these first piece, I invite the people to take a match, ignite it from the
candle on the centre of their table, and say together “The fire of God here
with us”.
These phrases and the titles are slides : white text on black, projected
just over the video fire.
For phase 2 “Fire of God’s Acceptance” I invite everyone outside. As I read
of Isaiah’s coal kissing encounter, Tim carries a burning coal around the
group. I hand out 3 candles, and ask the people to pass them on, saying the
words “the fire of God’s acceptance”…
It isn’t raining very much!
Back inside for James and “The Fire of Revealing”. James is really mad and
very theatrical. He is passionate and wild. He rips into these words. While
he does, Tim flashes up a great series of images — advertisements, tv stuff,
news shots of destruction, conmen, people … At the end, when James is
explaining that all the crap gets burnt up, he flames the paper from which
he has been reading, and waves it around.
Matchlighting : the fire reveals.
The Fire of Suffering.
Peter Gabriel’s “Zaar” moans from the speakers.
Slide of the Mike’s words appear on the wall. I ask everyone to read them
and contemplate them. It is difficult to live, and to escape pain. If we
follow Jesus… well… I invite everyone to say these words together. “Lord
God, you are above and beyond all things, your nature is to love …. We
hurt….” These words, such words that follow. As i read the list of our
afflictions : cancer, AIDS, car crash, depression, sexual abuse,
schizophrenia … I think about these people around me. Yes indeed. I am
glad to be acknowledging the sufferings that i know they have had … we have.
I complete the reading :
“… and the answer was a
long
time
coming.”
Last stage : The Fire of Passion.
The image of the fire continues to blaze before us.
I read the opening stanzas. The people read together the conclusion “The
word of the Lord is a fire in my heart, and a hammer in my bones…. Fire of
God, we welcome you.”
We ignite our last matches.
I pause. I’m searching for something. What needs now?
I say : If i began to sing a song unaccompanied, would people know it?
“In our darkness, there is no darkness… In you oh Lord, the deepest night
is clear as the day light. In our darkness … ” Beautiful lilting of sounds
arising from the people, over and over, and around and around…
May you take away something sacred and holy and new… go with God….
And so, the Lord is revealed. In our presence He is present.
(Cathy Kirkpatrick)