Tom writes:

I well remember both occasions that I took the module on Liturgy & Music as part of my postgraduate worship studies. The first time I was on the slide into a major depressive crash, and the week of lectures did nothing to help, despite being a lover of music.

It seemed the week was full of auditors who were attending because they loved traditional “church music” – with a sense of elitist snobbery and perfectionism infecting almost all our conversations. My depression meant I failed to submit the required assignments, so two years later I re-took the module. On this occasion, we were asked to bring a piece of music with us that spoke to us of worship and faith.

Remembering the last time I’d attended, I deliberately took a secular piece. Once the week was over and I was researching my essay, I discovered the piece I then wished I’d taken instead – ‘Nazorean’ by Deuteronomium.

Were I able to have my time again with that first group of fellow students, I would sit them down and have them listen to ‘Nazorean’. This is no Tallis or Gibbons, Bach or Mozart, Rachmaninov or Pärt, yet the song is no less a devout and orthodox creed than those you would find in the work of classical composers more associated with religious work.

At 200 bpm and in a deep growl it recounts the credal description of Jesus’ death and resurrection and declares the singer a follower of Christ. It is a declaration of faith in a place and in a style that I suspect many might deny it could possibly exist.

My usual rock listening has generally only flirted with the edges of metal music. As with all genres nowadays, metal can be divided into many sub-genres, one of which is known as Death Metal – lots of high-speed bass drumming, pounding power chords, and growling lyrics of a usually somewhat macabre and/or nihilistic nature. Such music is particularly popular in Finland, to the extent that there is a further sub-genre of Finnish Death Metal. And, within that, one finds an even smaller genre – Christian Finnish Death Metal! This is the sub-sub-sub-genre of Deuteronomium.

‘Nazorean’, and indeed the whole album, ‘The Amen’, from which it comes, forms the manifesto for why I believe this blog matters – the Church, while declaring the love of God for all, and acknowledging that God is present everywhere, too easily and too often writes off certain parts of life and culture as beyond the pale, as antithetical to good theological thinking and faithful listening.

Yet it is my experience that it is precisely in those places that we find God revealed in new and challenging ways. If God can ignore the idea that material flesh is somehow beneath the divine and come to us incarnate in Christ, then God can certainly come to us in musical forms that we might have written off as disturbing, nihilistic, profane, and even, yes, satanic.

If we are, like Deuteronomium, to be followers of Christ then we have to be open to encountering him in the places we have previously written off – and that includes secular, popular music, including Death Metal, whether or not it’s of the Christian Finnish type or not!

Marc writes:

I found this one whilst planning an Act of Worship for a Secondary School… on “Resilience” believe it or not…

Resilience isn’t mentioned in the Bible. I tried to find a Greek word as to what it means so that I could check in the geeky apps and things I use to make sure.

The word that came back was this one… ελαστικότητα (Elastikótita)
However you pronounce it, that first bit is where we get our word “Elastic” (I could tell that without looking it up)

So what have I learned?

Let’s think about Elastic vs Plastic…

Both can be moulded and shaped by the world around them.

Plastic tends to need heat and energy in order to make it take shape, and then when you take the heat away it will stay the shape that it has been moulded to. You can often re-apply heat to a plastic shape and then re-shape it again, but the more you heat and cool it, the more brittle it becomes in its set state. The more likely it is to break.

Elastic moves with the input of energy; it changes shape, changes tension and adapts, but always returns to where it was before. It’s kind of like Elastic Man.

​Plastic things need certainty and consistency after being moulded in order to maintain their form and not get weakened and brittle, elastic things get brittle when they’re not used. If they’re not regularly flexed, or are left too long in a stretched position, then they become brittle and snap.

Anyway, resilience is about this whole “elastic” thing…

So where does it feature in the Bible? Directly? Nowhere. Resilience isn’t a word used in the bible in English, Greek, or Hebrew.

And in the way that I’ve heard Christianity talked about lots in the past, I have often wondered whether the concept of it is even there. The “similar” words that sometimes get used to replace resilience in the Bible are perseverance… endurance… long-suffering… tolerance. They don’t quite cut it for me.

They imply being rigid, immobile, standing against and putting up with things. Letting them bounce off you like they aren’t really things.

That’s not to say that a better “elastic” idea of resilience isn’t in the Bible. I think it is, in stories and even in what God calls people to be, but I think it’s uncomfortable and ignored.

The closest I can get to what I think resilience is is in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 –
“We are under all kinds of pressure, but we are not crushed completely; we are at a loss, but not at our wits’ end;  we are persecuted, but not abandoned; we are cast down, but not destroyed.”

To me, this is about resilience because it’s not trying to deny the difficulty, but to allow for flexibility in line with the tension.

I think for me there are 4 key steps to being resilient:

Step 1: Don’t pretend everything is ok.
Don’t try and be immovable plastic. That never ends well. Allow for hurt and for flow. For pressure and change.

Step 2: Have faith in your capacity to stretch.
You got this. Yes, it’s difficult, but you, with the support of others can weather the storm. Resilience is about trusting that you will not snap with added pressure and tension.

Step 3: Be confident* that you can bounce back (*That’s my definition of Hope)
Just like elastic, being stretched isn’t a permanent design. It might last a little while, but your body, brain, spirit and soul know deep down how your life is supposed to be. It is doing its job when it is stretched, but it is also doing its job when it returns to form. Listen to your body, in line with your mind, soul and spirit.

Step 4: Know, grow, and show Love
If you can identify love, friends, divinity and family, then you are already well on your way to resilience.

​But why these four steps? 1 Corinthians 13:13 says

“Three things will last forever–
faith, hope, and love–
and the greatest of these is love.”

Ultimately resilience isn’t something you do on your own. It’s a together thing. A family thing. A community thing.

Find out about Katy Perry at katyperry.com

Jane writes:

Oh how very real this seems sometimes. Just a song title describing exactly what’s going on inside your head. I came across it on one of those walks with the earphones planted firmly in my ears providing the perfect chance to discover new music amidst old favourites.

This is a song that comes with both a fabulously distinctive voice, spare sound and a certain kind of lament. Then it does the thing I love most. Builds and builds and builds. It’s a song aware of its own shape and style which brings a
desire not to lose it in the multitude of choices provided by modern-day music listening.

I’ve been tired since 1994.

I don’t feel like this all the time of course but there are some days when you feel that there’s a relentlessness to life, the universe and everything, and with good reason. I suspect too that for some people life is a treadmill and that there is no possibility for proper respite.

The pace of working life caused by the gig economy and the desire for 24/7 retail and service. The need to be up when the rest of the world is awake. The unseen carers holding down jobs and looking after loved ones so they can sleep but unable then to get any rest themselves. The support services in hospitals, care homes and other “round the clock” care providers. It’s a list that you could probably extend yourself.

I can’t remember how it feels to be bored.
I’m still dancing with pressure and fear.
And made from myself,
There’s nothing I wish but to disappear.

The lyricist suggests that sometimes the anxiety and the pressure is of their own making. Maybe even their own choosing. Whatever is going on for them is, in their view, turning them into a faded flower and they’ve had enough.

I’m starting to fade away,
I’m too young to fade away,
No I just can’t fade away !

Research says that the good old “me time” is of increasing value and that the importance of finding some way to exploit what gives you life is the key to improved mental and physical health. Burnout is now a word we hear in
many more professions and our communities of faith are no different.

In fact, Sanctuary Mental Health says that “One in four people will be affected by a mental health challenge at some point in their lives, yet the stigma surrounding these experiences often prevents faith communities from responding compassionately and effectively.”

In the stories that humankind shared about their origins, there is one that tells of a set of guidelines for life. Christians know it as the Ten Commandments and among them there is one that says this:

“8-11 Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God. Don’t do any work—not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days God made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day”

Finding time to value yourself, those you love and keeping at least one day precious is a story as old as time. It seems that it’s not easy and for people of faith it gets tangled with their duty towards church attendance but God sees how critical it is to rest. To keep something holy. Kadosh. Kodesh. Set apart for a specific purpose.

The world does too. So whether it’s the weekend or a random half day somewhere let these words from Last Train inspire you to release the pressure – or help someone else to – and take the rest option. Walk up a hill, paint a
picture, read a book, dance with a loved one, or sit silently. The choices are yours.

You can find out more about Last Train here https://www.lasttrain.fr/home/

And Sanctuary Mental Health here https://sanctuarymentalhealth.org/uk/#

Gill writes:

My 17-year old self might look upon the life her middle-aged self is experiencing and say ‘Well, who knew that life in the 21st Century could feel like you’re living in 1984.’ And by ‘1984’, I obviously mean the book by George Orwell that 17-year old Gill kind of enjoyed at ‘A’ Level but was a bit too immature to quite grasp the politics, social commentary and let’s face it, prophetic visions, that Orwell described.

It feels to me that week by week, month by month, year by year, Orwell’s novel makes more and more sense, and disturbingly, elements of it feel more real too. Take this week, for example, when more than one public figure has used words and said things that have disturbed, angered, and provoked. I am sure I can sense that they are manipulating and dividing people by the words that they are choosing to use.

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” said George Orwell.

Words can be used as weapons. They can also be used to bring people together. To fire people up. To motivate. To manipulate. To show love. To share hate. They can sow seeds of thought that impact positively and negatively. A homophobic attitude might be cloaked in language that comes across as legitimate; a comment about whether a woman is the sort you’d chat up in a bar or a statements in official government documents labelling people with the ‘N’ word. The use of such words and language by public figures and places give permission for them to be used in everyday life to oppress, denigrate and degrade our neighbours, friends and family.

Words like violence
Break the silence
Come crashing in
Into my little world
Painful to me
Pierce right through me
Can’t you understand?

‘Enjoy The Silence’ is one of the most popular songs by Depeche Mode (it was voted Best British Single in the 1991 Brit Awards) and it reminds us about the damage that words can do. Even when we love people, there are times when we can’t stop ourselves sniping, gossiping, talking behind their backs or responding passive-aggressively (just a few examples).

No wonder the narrator of the song prefers to sit and hold their beloved in their arms, in silence. Letting the moment calm them, reassure them and dwell in the feelings of love. If we enjoy the silence, we can feel safe in the space that words – even well-intentioned ones- are not going to come in and disrupt.

Vows are spoken
To be broken
Feelings are intense
Words are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Words are meaningless
And forgettable

The Epistle of James has quite a bit to say about the use of words. We’re confronted by the image that the tongue can be like the spark of a fire that leads to the devastation of a forest. Just one small word can lead to destruction.

I find this in my work as a Place for Hope Practitioner. Place for Hope is a charity that ‘accompanies and equips people and faith communities so that all might reach their potential to be peacemakers who navigate conflict well’. What you often find at the heart of a conflict or challenging situation is a conversation or an exchange of words that was the catalyst that has reeked havoc through a community or into a relationship.

The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, also had thoughts on the words that we utter. He wrote quite clearly about the expectations of what a Methodist should be like. These thoughts should apply not just to Methodists but to anyone who is a Jesus Follower. Here’s what he says:

“He cannot speak evil of his neighbour no more than he can lie, either for God or man. He cannot utter an unkind word of any one; for love keeps the door of his lips. He cannot speak idle words. No corrupt communication ever comes out of his mouth, as is all that which is not good, to the use of edifying, not fit to minister grace to the hearers. But whatsover things, are pure, whatsover things are lovely, whatsoever things are justly of good report, he thinks and speaks, and acts, adorning the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in all things.” (The Character of a Methodist by John Wesley)

It’s a challenge isn’t it. We love to talk and natter. We love a good craic. What we say can build people up; can encourage and can be the thing that changes a life.

Perhaps enjoying the silence is also about that moment we can take before we utter our words to one another. A moment when we can consider how what we are about to say might be received. A moment to recognise that the person before us is created in the image of God.

Enjoy the silence.

You can find out more about Depeche Mode at http://www.depechemode.com.

Jane writes:

Oh, what joy a new song is! A new artist. A new take. Sometimes they surprise you so much and just enter your ears without invitation. This is one such song that appeared on Spotify ‘cos I’d started out with something else.

I was initially attracted by the voice of this artist, and the simplicity and emptiness of the sound, but then the lyrics kicked in and I wondered what it was all about. Digging around, it seems to be dedicated to the singer’s Grandma. An explanation of the “wordless promises” to someone loved at the end of their lives. The hand-holding and the close affection.

Anyone who has had the privilege of sitting at the bedside of a loved one during those days will know the profound impact of it. What to say and what not to. How to behave and how not to. What to express and what to hold in. The value of your physical presence and theirs. The need to be sure that they know you care and for me, most profoundly of all, what to pray for and when.

Life’s circle and balances seem all too hard to navigate when time is obviously at a premium and in those precious moments maintaining communication, no matter how small or limited, is like a hidden treasure. The last vestiges of love evident in the need to keep contact through voice, or expression, or breath.

How then do you talk to God about the situation and what do your prayers contain? Peace. Thanksgiving. Desperation. Acceptance. A need to be sure it will be the right thing, the right way at the right time. A bit of rage. A request or a deep-seated knowing. I love the way the songwriter accepts that prayer is a two-way thing here and is in need of its comfort as much as their loved one.

Eventually, of course, the inevitable happens but for me, this song sums up those last few precious days and hours when “sitting on the edge of the bed” is what is of value, and holding a hand says more than any words can.

No experience is the same as any other but this song touched me with its honesty – so on this occasion, it seems best to share the whole set of lyrics. Make of it what you will, but know that the value of the instinct to pray in such tough circumstances is precious beyond words.

I’ve never seen wrists so thin

I’ve never seen your hair without the curls that you put in

Your eyes flutter when you talk about the places that you’ve lived

But Dublin’s different now and you miss your best friend

You say she’s waiting

I sit at the edge of the bed

Baby, I’ll pray for you if you pray for me

The radio’s on, but the signal’s weak

Oh, please, keep talking

And I’ll keep listening

I’ve not been so good at visiting

Regretful now that time is always slipping

You’d tell me I’ll regret many things

This will be the least of it so embrace

Life’s chеcks and balances

You hold my hand

I make wordless promises

Baby, I’ll pray for you if you pray for me

The radio’s on, but the signal’s weak

Oh please, keep talking

And I’ll keep listening

She says she loves to hear the birds sing

In the back of her flower garden

She says she loves to hear the birds sing

It’s what keeps her going

When the day is dying

When the day is dying

When the day is dying

Baby, I’ll pray for you if you pray for me

The radio’s on, but the signal’s weak

Oh please, keep breathing

And I’ll keep listening

You can find out more about Ailbhe Reddy here http://www.ailbhereddy.com/