The Friday Fix

Author: inertus

  • Good Friday Playlist

    Tom writes:

    Good Friday. How does one offer thoughts and feelings through music that might be appropriate on this of all days? Well, on this occasion, by offering a playlist, not a single song, and by offering it as part of a possible reflective liturgy.

    Eight years ago, as a minister in Cornwall, I decided to try and offer a creative way into the Passion of Christ, and particularly the last sayings of Jesus on the cross. What eventually came into being was a service called, ‘Outro’. Its structure was simple – an opening and a closing prayer, bookending a repeating sequence of a scripture passage followed by a piece of popular music. Seven times repeated, in fact – one for each of the last sayings.

    I’ve reflected on that worship experience a great deal since, including a published article (https://www.wesley.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/09-osborne.pdf), and even for a while ran a regular service at one of my churches in Essex, using the same pattern to reflect on a variety of themes (we called it ‘Ink-R-n8’). I know that while it may not work for all, it certainly works for some, including those who might not initially expect it to – one congregation member for Outro came most unwillingly, yet expressed to me afterwards how very glad they were they had.

    So now I offer it here, in a rather different setting. I offer the following as a way of engaging:

    – Find a Bible and mark the seven readings.

    – Sit in a comfortable space – maybe a regular prayer seat, maybe somewhere outside, wherever, just make sure you’re comfortable, with access to your Bible and the playlist.

    – Start by offering a quiet prayer to God – that you would know God’s presence, and that you would be enabled to hear God speak, through the words of scripture, the lyrics of the songs, the feelings the music might evoke.

    – Read the first reading. Do so slowly. Perhaps do so out loud.

    – Pause.

    – Play the first track on the playlist.

    – Pause.

    – Read the next reading.

    – Pause.

    – Play the next track.

    – Repeat the above four steps until you reach the end of the readings and songs.

    – Pause.

    – Finish by offering a further prayer to God. Offer to God all that you have experienced in the reading and listening, and ask that God would enable you to carry those experiences with you as you journey through Good Friday and Holy Saturday to Easter Day – and beyond!

  • The ‘Good Friday Fix’

    Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

    The Friday Fix on Good Friday usually tries to somehow reflect the sentiment of the day.

    This year, we will be sharing a playlist that has been curated by Tom Osbourne. The playlist will help you to contemplate the Passion of Christ by listening to and reflecting on seven songs that relate to the final words spoken by Jesus.

    The Fix will drop a little earlier than usual – at 0900 – so that you might have the time and space to prepare and listen to the playlist as it suits you.

  • ‘Forwards’ –  The Alarm 

    Jane writes:

    The Alarm were a band of my youth. A band that the people I hung round with loved and played a lot! A band that seemed to have something to say, and often with a faith bias.

    Their album Strength was a must-play and the memories that went alongside – beloved t-shirts, unexpected turns at Greenbelt, sweaty gigs in that sweatbox known as ‘The Hummingbird’ in Brum – are all indelibly inked on my soul.  This was 1985 or thereabouts and as you can tell, it’s a while ago now.

    Imagine my joy then when I heard a familiar kind of sound on my release radar playlist. Could it really be them. Well, yes it was!

    A new single from a new album due for release this summer

    ‘Forwards’ was the cry and already the rallying style of this band was evident once again

    Whoooaaa Whoooaa

    I’m certain that they have been making music over the years but my own encounters with them have been through retrospective tours and Mike Peters, their lead singer, reliving those glory days. This though felt a fresh reminder of where music could take you.

    Mike has been unwell with leukemia for many years and last autumn was no different to that. Even now though, he looks forward to helping others through creating a new wellness space alongside creating new music

    Living for today. Trying to find a way forwards

    On and on and on

    Illness, grief or patches of immense despondency can lead us to get lost. People express often a sense of stasis when nothing seems to move and treading the water seems an effort.  Life running in slow motion.  This can often be true of society too.

    My life is out there somewhere

    I’ve been crawling through the wreckage trying to get myself back home to you

    …..I’ve been searching for the way

    I have no way of knowing of course, whether this is a rediscovery of self, the truth of faith or a desire for a better world. It is, though, clearly about working out what comes next.

    As people of faith we believe that God is part of that equation. Jesus declares “I am the Way”. If we can do one thing today, we may want to give a little thought to what the future holds for us – “The way forwards” – and give a heartfelt nod of thanks to those who stir us up like The Alarm. Play it loud and search for the way at the top of your lungs!

    The Alarm are obviously still making new music  https://thealarm.com/

  • ‘Into Temptation’ – Crowded House

    Mandy writes:

    After writing ‘Into Temptation’, Neil Finn (the lead singer of Crowded House) found himself in an awkward situation.

    He wrote so convincingly about the lure of a woman in a new blue dress that his wife Sharon thought he was having an affair and he had to work hard to convince her that the song was not in fact, based on his own infidelity.

    It was actually inspired by an experience in a motel in New Zealand where Finn observed a men’s rugby team partying with a women’s netball team. Back in his room, he thought he heard a knock at his door, but when he looked out he realised a woman was going into the room of the rugby player next door.

    And so the song begins…an exploration of that split second between anticipation and decision, possibility and reality, lust and regret.

    Humanity is displayed in full force in this song. Being with the woman in the new blue dress can’t do any harm…can it? After all “a muddle of nervous words, could never amount to betrayal”

    There is a moment that perfectly sums up the fleeting promise of a glance:

    “As I turned to go, you looked at me for half a second. With an open invitation, for me to go into temptation”

    Temptation can be a slow-burning thing but sometimes it is that split second, that look, that glance, a tiny thing which can charge the atmosphere and change the course of an evening, of a life.

    Finn, who had a Catholic upbringing, also explores the nature of regret and guilt. Again, his songwriting goes right to the heart of human experience:

    “The guilty get no sleep, in the last slow hours of morning.

    Experience is cheap – I should have listened to the warning.

    But the cradle is soft and warm….”

    The world tips on its axis, burdened by guilt and there is no redemption to lighten the mood at the end.

    In a sense this song could be described as a classic cautionary tale – don’t do this, kids – don’t give in to the temptations around you, otherwise things will go badly wrong.

    It rests in perfect contrast to the abilities of Jesus to resist the temptations put before him by the devil during his wilderness experience, often explored in Lent.

    So why does it work? It expresses the fallibility of humanity, the capacity that we all have to make a split second decision that could be amazing or catastrophic. Neil Finn invites us into that split second and challenges us to reflect on what temptation means for each one of us.

    Find out what Crowded House are up to at https://www.crowdedhouse.com/

  • ‘Mamma Said’ – Mica Paris

    Rachel writes:

    It’s 25 years since my mum died, not long after I became a mother myself. Her cousin and sister, ‘the aunties’, stepped in to try and fill the huge hole that she left and became a big part of our family life. Aunty Alice died the year that Mica Paris released her album ‘Gospel’ in the midst of Covid and last week was Aunty Pam’s funeral.

    We daughters, and now our own daughters, recognise the mother’s love shining through these words of encouragement, not trying to pretend that everything is alright – it hardly ever is – but rather knowing that everything will be alright; that we are never alone, however much it feels that way and that this too will pass. 

    I try not to constrain our mighty God by my own limited human understanding. God is more than Father. God has both a mother’s tough love and practical advice that tells it how it is, but also an impossibly deep compassion in witnessing the pain and suffering of her children.

    God knows and sees it all. And encourages us not to give up, to welcome in the new day that is coming. For there is promise, there is hope, and there’s always a light inside that will carry us safe home.

    Mama said “Don’t worry where the sun is gone,

    You can’t see it shining when everything feels wrong;

    Don’t you know your darkest hour’s only 60 minutes long…

    And tomorrow’s on its way.”

    Mama said, “Don’t give up today.”

    I know this night is weighing heavy on your heart

    You’re beaten and broken and the world seems so dark

    You never thought that you could ever fall so hard

    But you’re not as alone as you think you are

    I know you’re lost, can’t see the light

    But the brightest stars need the darkest night

    This storm will pass if you hold on tight

    A new day is waiting on the other side

    Don’t you know the darkest hour’s

    Coming just before the dawn

    And tomorrow’s already on its way

    Mama said, “Don’t give up today!”

    Sometimes it’s hard to see any way out

    The weight of this world keeps on dragging you down

    So tired and lonely you can’t carry that load

    But there’s a light inside that’s going to carry you home

    Find out more about Mica Paris at https://www.micaparis.com/

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  • ‘This Place’ – Jamie Webster

    Gill writes:

    A few years ago, I did some work with, and about, ‘Clergy Children’. This included grown-up children, of which I am one. One of the key themes that cropped up for every single person was that of having an itinerant life – we moved where our clergy parent took us. For some, this was distressing and unsettlingly; for others, it was exciting and liberating. I was the latter – I’ve loved and taken to heart every single place that I called home for a while.

    Here comes the ‘but’ – BUT I have never really been able to call anywhere my ‘hometown’. I was born in North Devon (which I’m very proud of) – but I’m not from there. The rural Midlands was a fabulous place to be a child – but I’m not from there. I identify most of all with North West England and it’s the nearest to what I call home – but I’m not from there. As an adult, I’ve spent over 20 years living on the East Coast of England – but I’m not from there.

    So, for me, this song is a bit of a challenge as I can’t quite sing the words genuinely.

    This place is where I’m from
    Familiar faces, and the accent’s like a song

    Ed Sheeran has a similar sentiment in ‘Castle on the Hill’ where it’s all about familiar faces and places. It’s something that I can, and can’t, identify with. I honestly don’t know what it is like to have been born and brought up in the same place. And then to stay and live your life there as an adult. I think I can imagine what it might be like, but I certainly don’t have the experience to know.

    Perhaps this might be a disadvantage for me. I guess that everywhere I have lived, there aren’t friends or family around the corner. Creating a support network in each place takes effort and as you get older, communities seem less likely to welcome the ‘in-comer’. Not because they deliberately exclude, but because they are so established – making space for new people with their gifts and baggage takes effort too.

    I’ve mentioned (probably more than once) in a Friday Fix that Liverpool has a special place in my heart. Even though I’m not from there, it was one of the places that really felt like home for a time. If you hadn’t guessed already, Jamie Webster is from Liverpool. It might be 25 years ago since I lived there but I get a sense of home when I hear him singing about the Liver Birds and St George’s Hall – and that it will forever be his saving grace. This I can identify with.

    But when I think about the birds and George’s hall
    And when they tried to knock us down, and we stood up tall
    This city will forever be me saving grace
    So no matter where I am
    I’ll raise a glass to this place
    So, raise a glass to this place

    Itinerant preaching has always been a key feature of Methodism, and following the model set by Jesus, John the Baptist, Paul and the Apostles. Jesus left his ‘hometown’ of Nazareth (although he was born in Bethlehem and spent some of his childhood in Egypt, but I guess his family were Nazarenes…) to reach out and preach along the shores of Galilee and on into Jerusalem. He never really went back, and his friends became like family to him.

    So perhaps I’m not at a disadvantage. Maybe friends became like family in all the different places I’ve lived, just like Jesus’ friends did. All of these places have helped shape me into who I am today too. Each place has taught me things about myself and about life.

    Another advantage, I think, is not getting caught up in town rivalries. I can’t understand the rivalries between Sunderland and Newcastle, Liverpool and Manchester, Cardiff and Swansea, Derby and Nottingham, Black Country and Birmingham, etc. I don’t understand why some towns and cities are ridiculed or rubbished either. Liverpool has had a really unfair reputation over the years but it’s just like any other city – full of talent, hopes and dreams. Other places where I’ve lived have also have negative images too.

    This place has cries and screams
    But there’s plenty of people
    Building hopes and dreams
    So here’s to the ones working behind the scenes, a-hum
    Gives me a smile, gives me a shiver
    When I think of being stood on the river
    Everyone’s on the take
    But this place, she’s a giver

    All this takes me back to Nazareth, a town that was rubbished too. Jesus may have moved away from there but I don’t think he was ever embarrassed to have grown up there. ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Nathaniel asked in John 1:46. Nathaniel who was caught up in local town rivalry – coming from Cana of course…

    So this song might remind us that we should all be pleased with where we come from. These are the places that have provided space, relationships and opportunities; places that have shaped us. Whether we’re from ‘all over’ or one town only, can anything good come out of Skelmersdale? Kabul? Grimsby? Dundee? Aleppo? Omagh? Preston? Mogadishu? Bangor? Baghdad? Portsmouth?….What do you think?

  • ‘Bulletproof’ – La Roux

    Alison writes:

    In 2009ish La Roux arrived in my awareness, she won a Grammy and was very very cool. Recently this song of hers has been in my play list again

    “Tick, tick, tick, tick on the watch

    And life’s too short for me to stop

    Oh baby, your time is running out“

    My dad died in January and I was determined to deliver the work I’d committed to, despite having been ill with fatigue for months the year before. The jury is out as to whether that was foolish or not. But certainly my sub-conscious attitude was

    “This time, baby, I’ll be bulletproof

    This time, baby, I’ll be bulletproof

    This time, baby, I’ll be bulletproof

    This time, baby, I’ll be bulletproof”

    Then after weeks of crying and getting to the stage where I was so tired I couldn’t work out how to log on to some online learning portal, I finally took time to rest. 

    What did Jesus do when he found out a relative of his had died?

    “When Jesus heard this [John had been murdered], he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place”

    Matthew 14.13

    This failure of mine to rest isn’t new. I’ve crashed and burned a few times in my life including as a much younger woman. 

    “This time, baby, I’ll be bulletproof

    This time, baby, I’ll be bulletproof

    This time, baby, I’ll be bulletproof

    This time, baby, I’ll be bulletproof”

    What were the patterns Jesus had from his early working life? 

    “In the morning while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed”

    Mark 1.35

    I’m learning to be present in the patterns of the year. I love to spot a new season coming. I’m very keen on full moons and swimming outdoors and really want those two to happen at once sometime soon. When I do these things I’m much better at rest. 

    In Mark 4 Jesus is shown to be teaching using metaphors from nature, and then what does he do? 

    Leaving the crowd being him…

    Mark 4. 35&36

    I’m learning to take space for the rest and the life affirming moments and space. 

    Jesus however did this often

    “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray”

    Luke 5.16

    So my prayer this lent is to be present in some simple life affirming moments. 

    I’m accepting Jesus’ invitation to step away and pray. I’m praying in these ways and others. 

    I’m hoping that maybe this time I’ll learn that I’m not bulletproof

    Check out La Roux’s YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/@larouxofficial/featured

  • What Do You Have Up Your Sleeve?

    If you think you have a Friday Fix ‘up your sleeve’, then it’s time to set it free and send it to us!

    Seriously, we’re always looking for contributors, new and old – and it would be nice to have a couple appear in the inbox over the next few weeks. Just drop Gill an email with your thoughts on a song (that isn’t religious as such) at thomasg@methodistchurch.org.uk.

  • ‘Hi Ren’ – Ren

    Today’s Fix is an article by Nick Horgan for the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity (https://licc.org.uk/). Nick is happy for it to be shared here too.

    Nick writes:

    ‘This is a soul splitting open and exploding into art.’ – Ari Grossman

    I’ve been watching complete strangers shed tears, at a loss for words, or opening up about their own mental health struggles, prompted by their first viewing of one song.

    I’ve been watching reactions to ‘Hi Ren’, a video performance by independent musician Ren. It’s a nine-minute exploration of the artist’s struggle with self-doubt – compelling in its delivery, deceptive sophistication, and raw honesty. By the end, we are in no doubt this is a life lived, not imagined.

    What ‘Hi Ren’ does so well is explore the lie that we are constantly told by the world, the flesh, and the devil (1 John 2:15–17) – you’re not good enough, so just give up.

    He puts that devilish whisper on the screen, rather than keeping it in his own head, and in doing so exposes the falsehood that it’s only happening to you, and no one else will understand. It’s a hard watch, as he is bullied, mocked, and accused by a voice that seeks to control, coerce, and diminish his God-given talents. It’s a powerful performance, which engages viewers to the final line.

    Tears have been shed as viewers recognise their own hidden thought life in Ren’s, their own struggles with that other voice. Although it starts as a struggle with himself, the source and reality of that voice is ultimately the devil, exposed in a boastful rant.

    Hope makes a powerful appearance in the song, too. This is possibly the source of the video’s popularity and ability to connect with viewers. Hope from knowing that someone else has felt the way you feel, that they’d believe you if you told them.

    How do we put Jesus at the centre of this desire for hope? How can we bring hope to the mental health epidemic of isolation and anxiety? It’s with the truth that Christ died for all, regardless, so everyone can be whole, healed, and forgiven.

    Are we authentic? Do we hide our self-doubts and failings?

    Can we open up a conversation with friends and colleagues about whether this song affected us, and invite them to respond?

    If there’s a voice whispering ‘it’s not worth trying’, you know who that is and you know that he’s been overcome.

    The world seeks our authenticity. Whether with fellow believers, relatives, colleagues, or social companions, we can demonstrate Spirit-led compassion and commitment to those he has put in our lives as we draw alongside them.

    Find out more about Ren at https://www.renmakesmusic.co.uk/