worship tricks [first series]

no 18: angel

the video angel by massive attack from their dvd eleven promos. it is a fantastic video. we were reflecting on response to sept 11 and the need to move beyond fear to life. the video plot (shot in very moody black and white) is that a lone figure is wandering at night through an urban multi storey car park. as he turns corners more and more people start following him. he ends up running out of the car park chased by hundreds of people until he is cornered against a wall. then he turns to face his fear rather than run from it and after staring for a while he takes a step towards the people chasing him. the camera pans back and there is a huge mass of people who turn and run as he starts to chase them. i have used it with the reading possibility people written by the late late service which is avaiulable in the booklet words from the late late service which you can download from andy thornton's page of late late resources. here is the reading. i sometimes use it from the line 'do not act out of fear'. (i have also used it with the track do not be afraid which is the next worship trick)


Listen, we're talking about a break out.
A break out from the prison of self-repeating fear ...

We're not talking about religion or a moral code, tonight we're talking about liberty for the captives. For you and me. For people held captive by fear, by ignorance, by prejudice, by paranoia of others.

There are two ways only: Love and Fear.
There are two desires: to protect and build walls, or to liberate into new possibilities.

We are the possibility people.

We are the people God wants to meet and liberate.

To liberate from fear and self-protection in relationships.
To liberate into a new space of possibility and purpose.

That new space is the Realm of God. Present every moment of our lives. Poised, pregnant with redemption and liberation. Touching every moment that is NOW.
Every moment of the present is a moment of eternal life.
Every time it is NOW is God's time.
It's not religion, it's not church, it's the outpouring of the Spirit into the world.

Invite God into your NOW time.
NOW today, NOW tomorrow.
NOW is the time of the Salvation, NOW is the time of Liberation.
NOW is the time of New Creation, NOW is the moment of the new possibility.

We are the possibility people...

Do not act out of fear.

Do not act out of fear of yourself and the bad that remains in you. Do not run from it.
Give it to God. Perfect love drives out fear.

Do not act out of fear.
Do not act out of fear of others in your daily lives.
They are God's even if they do not know it.
They may twist and turn in the discomfort of themselves, putting the weight of their burden onto you, but they are God's. Your moments with them are possibility moments.
Love them. Resist their evil.
Care enough to confront, but do not act out of fear of them.

Do not act out of fear.
Do not act out of fear of the society around you.
Do not lock your doors and perpetuate the cycle of fear.
Find your vocation and break down the walls that exclude the realm of God from your community.
We are loved.
We are offered new possibilities.
Resist the paranoia, resist the consumerism, resist the racism, fascism, snobbery and escapism.
We are loved.

Do not act out of fear.
Do not act out of fear for the end of the world ...hiding away from the complexities of a world Hell-bent on destruction.
We are loved.
The love of the Creator breaks into out NOW moments asking us to love the world He made, the world She mothered into being.
Love life. Love the world.
Resist evil, resist destruction, resist exploitation, resist injustice, but do not give up.
There is no God in escapism. God is liberating our interactions with new possibilities.
We are the possibility people.
This is the possibility world.
Create. Love. Intervene.
Receive the Holy Spirit of Healing, of Passion, of Desire, of Liberation.