Origin: Cityside Baptist/Parallel Universe, Sunday 17 September 2000
Theme:
To provide space and a setting in which punters can listen to and respond to God as they reflect on Rembrandt’s painting ‘The Return of the Prodigal Son.‘
Mood:
Reflective
Setup:
Full width rear projected screen at one end with 4 cushions in front of it and altar with communion elements nearby. Incense and candles burning. Five stations set up around the space. (These could be around different rooms in a building, in which case each station would need to have an image projected in some way either on a screen/wall, or on a television)
Gear:
Handouts and cushions for each station, rag strips?
Tracks: ’It’s Your Time’, Steve Apirana, ex It’s Inevitable, ambient backing ex The St Paul’s Labyrinth: The Instrumental Mixes by Proost (www.proost.co.uk)
Main handout – Reading Luke 15: 11-32, background info to the painting, prayer of thanksgiving
People – 2 servers, door.
Slide set of Rembrandt’s ‘Return of the Prodigal’. (Available from St Pauls Multimedia Resources, www.pauline-uk.org) This set has a picture of the main painting and of several details from the painting.
(A further resource is Henri Nouwens’ book ‘The Return of the Prodigal Son: a Story of Homecoming’ (Image Books, Doubleday: New York, 1994) which is based on his interaction with the painting.)
Running order:
Arrival
Track: anything ambient.
Welcome slide central on screen, Main slide (full picture).
(+ 5 minutes)
Read Luke 15/11-32 (The Message)
Monologue re Background
‘The Return of the Prodigal Son’ was painted in 1669 by Rembrandt van Rijn, a native of Leyden in the Netherlands. It was probably one of the last paintings that he completed before his death. It is a very large painting (244cm high by 183 cm wide) and is hung in the Hermitage Gallery, St Petersburg.
The painting describes the return of the prodigal son in the parable that Jesus told and it is a powerful tribute to Rembrandt’s own faith. It was painted at the end of a long life of suffering and many losses including that of his beloved wife, Saskia, and his only son Titus, at the age of twenty seven.
Explain order of service:
Stations established around the room, guide sheets at each. Move around and take as long as you want to at any station. Cover all, one or none.
When words of institution are said then communion elements will be available by kneeling on one of the cushions in front of the screen. Leave your rag as you receive bread and wine. Service is open ended. You may leave whenever you want to. Tea/Coffee available in other room.
Stations available (25 minutes)
Turn on all stations (slides, TVs)
Communion: 2 Jugs – port, grapejuice. 40 glasses. Pour own. Bread only served.
Punters come forward and kneel on cushion at front of main screen, 2 servers move between screen and cushions. Leave cloth in pile at front.
+ 15 Minutes (if Communion at fixed time)
Track ‘It’s Your Time’, ex It’s Inevitable, #15 Steve Apirana,
Station Notes (Prepared by Mike Riddell)
Elder Brother Theme: Locked Out
Introduction
The elder brother looks on with a mix of envy and sadness. He is an outsider to the events; shut out through his own refusal to join in. Many of us share that experience of exclusion, sometimes through our own priggishness and self-righteousness, and sometimes because of circumstances beyond our control. When we are honest and search our heart, we often find that there are parts of us which stand aloof and outside the warm circle of God’s love. This may be an opportunity to become aware of those estranged elements of our being; to name them and bring them into the light.
Some Meditations
Like many men of his generation, Dad wasn’t one to display feelings freely. I can’t recall one kiss, hug, or overt statement of love for me…
Owen Marshall
*****
We are lost in the sense of the person who suffers from amnesia, and wakes in strange surroundings, having forgotten who they are and why they are there. We are lost in the sense of the child separated from its parents, uncertain and frightened of the world. We are lost in the sense of being foreigners in the universe, not knowing the language or the customs, and having no friends. If you don’t feel this lostness, then it is of no value for me or anyone else to try to convince you of it. If you do, it is of no value to try and hide it from yourself. The awareness of being lost is an indication of grace. It is the beginning of understanding, the disturbing dream which leads to consciousness.
Mike Riddell
*****
Today a technological age intensifies an acute sense of success and failure. A disposition to get on in the world and to compare oneself with others are inculcated from childhood. Anyone who does not succeed according to society’s standards feels condemned and is disappointed not to have someone else’s gifts. Comparisons sterilise. Wishing for another’s abilities induces us to become incapable of discovering the gifts in ourselves. Discredit yourself and up come sadness and discouragement.
Brother Roger of Taize
Ritual
Take one of the scattered pebbles and hold it for a time, imbibing it with those elements of yourself which are excluded. Then place it at the foot of the candle as a sign of bringing your whole self to the light.
Hands on Back Theme: Embrace of Love
Introduction
It can be difficult in these times to find touch that carries no other agendas. The father’s hands resting on the weary back of the Prodigal Son represent unconditional acceptance. Maybe the son had done things which hurt his father deeply, but all of that is forgotten in the relief of having him home again. Many of us are desperate to know that sort of welcoming embrace, but we stay away through our own sense of guilt. And all through the days of our loneliness, the one we seek is watching out the window, awaiting our return. Consider what it is like to be the father, waiting for the one who has left us.
Some Meditations
And, Oh I believed you were here:
Sometimes my heart could see you!
Oh I believed in you, somehow could sense you near me.
I have longed to say so many things to comfort you,
to hold you safe and welcome in my arms.
In the long and silent moment when the stars appear,
to speak the love which keeps you from all harm,
and gathers you and holds you still, guarding you from fear
while the loneliness and darkness disappear.
Tom McGuinness
*****
I desired often to know the Lord’s meaning. And he said to me: ‘Wouldst thou witten my Lord’s meaning in all this? Wit it well. Love was his meaning. Who showed it thee? Love. What showed he thee? Love. Wherefore showed it thee? Love.
Julian of Norwich
*****
Let us consider the Christian story. God made the world out of the deep night. And he looked upon it with a love compared to which the love of a parent or grandparent is only a pale, tiny flicker. He looked on man, and he thought: ‘I want this relationship to continue. I want to suffer his pains for him. I want to provide for him, both physically and spiritually. I want to be part of his identity…God made us out of love. He preserves us by means of love. According to the Christian belief, he suffered our pains with us, preferring to carry on his own back the effects of our misuse of freedom, rather than to remove the freedom which is the source of our capacity to love him and love one another.
James K. Baxter
Ritual
Light a candle for someone you know who is isolated and lonely, and who needs the touch of love.
Or
Kneel in front of the projected picture, so the father’s hands rest on your shoulders. Receive the Father’s blessing.
Feet of Prodigal Theme: Journey of Pain
Introduction
In our desire to escape from love, we often travel through the bleak country of pain before finding our way back. The journey through dark days takes its toll on us. In this section of the painting we see the evidence of the Prodigal Son’s expedition in his worn shoes and bruised feet. He has been on a voyage away from God and a voyage toward God. It gives us the chance to think about our own direction, and also to contemplate the pain and cost of the decisions we have made. We bring our past with us as we kneel.
Some Meditations
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does, in fact, please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this
you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore, I will trust you always though I may seem
to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Thomas Merton
*****
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? there was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
T.S. Eliot
Ritual
Dip your finger into the bowl of salt and taste it: remember the tears that you have shed over the course of your journey.
Resting Head Theme: Refuge
Introduction
To find a place of rest is a rare thing in the world. We are surrounded by demands and expectations, and feel the pressure to do things and be things. Our souls long for refuge; a quiet space where we need do nothing. In the embrace of God, with our heads pressed close against the divine breast, we can perhaps find the comfort and restoration we are looking for. Here there is healing for all our hurts.
Some Meditations
Rock of Ages cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee.
Augustus Toplady
*****
Lyrics to ‘I still haven’t found What I’m looking for’ by U2
Ritual
Lie on your back on the floor and look at the image on the ceiling.
Father and Son Theme: Welcome Home
Introduction
Not everyone has a happy home life, but most people have a sense of home as some place where we are known and embraced. The Prodigal Son rejected his father and left him in the far distance to get some space for himself. But now he has returned to the only place he can call home. Perhaps we feel a long way from our true home, and yearn for familiar voices and smells. It may be that in our spiritual journeys we have struck out on our own, sure that we know better than those who came before us. Are we ready for a homecoming?
Some Meditations
Our hearts are restless, O God, until they find their rest in thee.
Augustine
*****
Only wanderers like us know the discomfort of being so far from the place where we belong. Who can describe the way we know ourselves and what we mean, and the muddled hints that are all we can convey to other people? How do you describe the sheer joy of being alive which never quite empties the vaults of remorse; the longing for something that only grows stronger when goals are achieved; the strength of goodwill and the weakness of efforts to enact it; the love for those we leave behind and the inability to stay with them; the hunger to hear our own language spoken, and by a voice we know?
Mike Riddell
*****
It is years now since I left the house
Where you keep looking for me still.
Day by day I change my custom,
Seldom sleep twice in the same bed.
Where I shall be tomorrow
And what face wearing
You might as well ask the wind.
You will find me only in yourself.
Charles Brasch
Ritual
Immerse your hands in the bowl of scented water as a gesture of being welcomed into your place of belonging.
Note: Two non-stationed versions of this service can be found under Section 5 d.