Origin: Curtainraiser Conference Worship Wednesday 10 Nov 1999. Inspired by a service curated by Dave Tomlinson, Greenbelt Festival, August 1999.
Theme:
Rev 2/17 – “To those who win the victory…. I will give each of them a white stone on which is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it”. (Good News Bible)
“To every conqueror….I’ll give a clear, smooth stone inscribed with your new name, your secret new name”. (Message)
“To the one who prevails I will give a white stone on which is written a name, which shall be known only to the one who receives it”. (Handy)
Mood:
Setup:
Central round altar, (with communion stuff on it); series of 7 white cushions alternating with large white candles in a circle surrounding the altar; perhaps one or two slide images (fixed); UV light + candles only; incense.
Gear:
Altar, stones, candles, cushions, cushion covers, gaffer tape, candle plates, incense bowl, sheet screen, nylon cord, staple gun, slide projectors, black cloth, communion gear, incense kit, handouts, white paper cutout leaves + ties, pencils, tree, UV tubes, extension cords, PA/ Mixer and CD player, headphones, stones basket.
Music: Vertigo, Pitchblack (both non lyrical electronica albums), Moby, Play #13 14, Divine Works: Soundtrack to the new millenium, by Divine Works, Matrix: Music from the Motion Picture #4, Eucharist, by Proost.
Running order:
Rough
Times
Entry – TRACK:
handouts – sheet + leaf + pencil. All set up and running by 7.20pm if possible.
0.00
1.
TRACK: Matrix #4 (first 6.00)
6.00
2.
Reading – Revelation 3/20 — 22 (see below)
TRACK behind: Matrix #4, (+1.25)
6.30
3.
Reading — Revelation 1/12 –20 (see below)
TRACK: continues
7.00
4.
Welcome + Introduction (see below)
TRACK: level down
8.00
5.
Reading – Revevelation 2/17 (Handy)
8.30
6.
Story ex Charles Handy (Hungry for the Spirit p 89/90 ) re West Indian man and his son.
10.30
7.
Link re becoming what God intends us to become. (see below)
Followed by TRACK up in level for 30 seconds or so. Down for # 8.
12.30
8
Responsive Prayer “Loving God, for the events….” ex handout. (see below)
14.30
9.
Guided meditation “Ask, Seek, Knock”. (see below) TRACK behind:
TRACK continues during reflection time. (90 seconds)
19.00
10.
Poem ‘The Time Will Come’. (see below)
20.00
11.
Reading – Revelation 5/1-4 (who can solve the riddle?) (see below)
21.00
12.
Link re solving the riddles of life. (see below)
22.00
13
Reading Revelation 5/5 –10 (all say hymn section i.e. vs 9,10 in HO) (see below)
25.00
14.
Procession – Incense bowl: Mark, Bible:Jolinda, Bread:Warren, Wine Goblet: Jo
26.00
15.
Prayer Leaves – write prayer for self/others/world + tie on tree of life.
30.00
16
Eucharistic Prayer (part responsive)
32.00
17.
Communion – 2 servers + stones person circle kneeling punters. Wine-Jo, Bread-JM, Stones-WN
TRACK:
40.00
18.
Reading – Revelation 21/1-7 (see below)
42.00
19.
Concluding Thoughts
43.00
20
Blessing (ex Karay/Cityside)
21.
TRACK:
2. Reading Revelation 3/20-22 (slide/HO)
Jesus said,
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me.
To the one who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
Those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
3. Reading Revelation 1/12-20 (slide/HO)
I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden candlesticks,
And among the candlesticks was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.
His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.
His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.
In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.
I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
“Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.
The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden candlesticks is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches.
4. Welcome to worship this evening. The final November 10 of this century and of this millennium. We sit at the end of the Millennium among the symbols of the Apocalypse (7 candles) and are reminded that as Jesus has been present and active in the last millennium and the one before that, so he will be present and active at the end of time, and he is present now. We are here to listen for his word to us as his Church. To listen for his word to his world, and to listen for his word to us about ourselves. Relax, feel what it is like to be among the seven churches.
- Link “To the one who prevails I will give a white stone…on which is written a name, which shall be known only to the one who receives it”.
The implication of this verse is that finding out who I am, discovering the person God intended me to become, takes hard work and commitment. Finding your ‘name’ isn’t easy. This life is a continuous search for our white stone. Our real self. As we commit ourselves to following Jesus, we commit ourselves to becoming that person whom God sees already in us and whose name is already written on the White Stone. We could describe this journey as the ’life explored‘. Those who for some reason have given up or never begun on the journey as living a ‘life unexplored’.
We recognise that we do not travel this journey alone; that others travel with us and are used to help us explore our life and encourage us to prevail and become more of what God wants us to become. We remember those people and events that have helped shape us…
8. Responsive Prayer (in handout)
Loving God,
for the events that have shaped us into better people
WE GIVE YOU THANKS
for the people who have challenged, stirred, and inspired us
WE GIVE YOU THANKS
for those who have helped push back our boundaries
and who have strengthened us to take risks
WE GIVE YOU THANKS
for those who have uncovered for us deep and lasting truths
WE GIVE YOU THANKS
for new horizons and the longing to explore
WE GIVE YOU THANKS
for Jesus Christ
THE FIRST AND THE LAST
the One who was dead
YET WHO LIVES FOR EVER AND EVER
WE GIVE YOU THANKS O GOD.
(Source Unknown)
9. Guided Meditation
Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
It’s a mistake to treat these words from Jesus as some kind of magic formula for getting whatever we want….the real seeking behind these words is the seeking of a life journey; a life explored.….it’s not about gaining the upper hand over others, or acquiring material possessions, or achieving fame….it is about the inner journey of the heart….who do I want to be ?….what sort of person do I wish to be ?….how do I want to treat other people ? What kind of relationships do I want ?
To seek, or to ask, opens the door of our being so that we can receive. Unless we ask we cannot receive….
Spiritual journeys arise out of a decision to ask, knock, seek….and they are pursued by making asking, knocking and seeking the guiding factors in our lives…the prevailing factors…To the one who prevails will be given a white stone on which is written a name…Think about the areas of your life you want to explore…
10. Poem: The Time Will Come
(Derek Walcott, Carribean Poet, Nobel Prize Winner)
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the others welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was yourself.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
- Reading Revelation 5/1-4
Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals.
And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?”
But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it.
I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.
12. Life’s Riddles.
Who can unravel the scroll that is your life? Answer the deep questions of your heart? Solve the riddles of your life? Break the seals that will reveal all you are and all you hide?
Diving deep into life; experimenting with your life; struggling to find out who you are and what God has for you; and becoming comfortable with what you discover, isn’t easy, and it’s risky. Which is why many will never make the attempt and few will complete the journey.
Rachel Lindsay laments this in her poem:
It is the world’s one crime that its babes grow dull.
Not that they sow, but that they seldom reap.
Not that they serve, but that they have no God to serve.
The tragedy is not death. The tragedy is to die
With commitments undefined, with convictions undeclared and with
service unfulfilled.
An unexamined life is not a life with God.
13. Reading Revelation 5/5-10
Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! see, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the centre of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne.
And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
We examine our lives and listen for God’s word to us…(silence)
18. Reading: Revelation 21/1-7
- Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
- And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
- And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them;
- He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”
- And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
- Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
- Those who prevail will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my people.