Vol 6, Num 6 :: 2007.03.23 — 2007.04.06
1
enters and lights a fire in the middle of the space, singing
In the desert, a voice is calling
Prepare the way for Messiah’s coming,
A stone that makes men stumble
And a rock that makes them fall.
2
enters and pours red water into a hanging recepticle above the fire, singing
Let all mortal flesh keep silence
And with fear and trembling stand
Ponder nothing earthly-minded,
For with blessing in his hand
Christ the Lord to earth desecendeth
Our full homage to demand
kneels
3
enters and pours red water into a hanging recepticle above the fire, singing
King of kings, yet born of Mary
When of old on earth he stood
King of kings in human vesture,
In the body and the blood
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food
kneels
4
enters and pours red water into a hanging recepticle above the fire, singing
Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way
As the light of light descendeth
From the realms of glorious day
That the power of Hell should vanish
As he clears the dark away
kneels
1
pours water likewise, singing
At his feet the six-winged seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces from the presence
As with ceasless voice they cry,
“Hallelujah, hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Lord most high!”
still standing, speaks
His birth is in the wind tonight
I can hear or see but almost feel
His cradling hay
I wonder at this fatalism
That he was born
In a wooden box
And I think that I am being passed over
By the rippling echoes
Of what happened that night
Still vibrant in this broad pond of time
The wind chimes
The metal hooks on the barren flagpole
Into an atonal host of heaven
Somehow
It says something of an
Incarnation
I had almost forgotten
Beneath the skin
I painted
On the wooden angel
His wings were hollow
For $1.30 at the craft store
They don’t fill them with the glory
That costs a son
Listening to this wind tonight
I can feel his wings
Buoyed over a middle eastern landscape
So different from what we’ve made it
And I wonder if I painted
The curving line of his mouth
The wrong direction
1
singing
I remember you
I remember that
4
You were born in the darkness,
Uncomprehended,
Star-lit and stable
You were gracing.
1
I remember that you fled in darkness,
Taking with you only mother and son.
I remember that you left in darkness
The skies went black for you,
And you cried out.
3
I remember the tearing
How you were ripped untimely
from your father’s tomb
How the blood-filled curtain
spilled its tassles
And the name of God was forever changed
I remember the pain
2
I remember the lashing
Lashing out
Lashing down
The lashing of hide on skin
I remember the lashing
song: “Crucifixus” by Antonio Lotti
1
Father, forgive them.
3
He shall wash His feet in the blood of the wicked.
2
He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to
wicked the third and fourth generation.
4
Yes, I hate them with a pure hatred.
1
Father, forgive them.
gong
3
What is it like, waiting ot die?
Not scratching days on some cell wall
And counting sloppy trays, with no sky
To mark as the days scratch back in all
Their pain, each cry and anguished call,
But free, under a pleasant sun,
At lunchtimes, on walks, while climbing trees,
Knowing that there is nothing you’ve done
But growing with a knowledge of an ending, sending pleas
To an intimate Someone from unskinned knees,
To greet each morning and bury each night
As a numbered day, to be shadowed by
The closing block of your mortal light?
What is it like, waiting to die,
When life is bright in your tearless eye?
Apparently, it is something like an eyeless hurricane —
All calm and all rage — driving the world sane.
placing their hands on the water
1
This is my blood.
3
This is my blood.
2
This is my blood.
4
This is my blood?
1, 2, 3
begin a loud repetitive drone
4
sings, “Of the Father’s Love Begotten”, first verse, half-audible above the drone of the others
1
Today, you will be with me in Paradise.
3
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
4
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
2
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
1
Today, you will be with me in Paradise.
gong
song — “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”, 4-part harmony. Each part gradually drops out, leaving a non-melody line by the end.
2
Unchanging God who changes me
I am stuck and distracted in man
blind my eyes
and bore my mind to silence
3
God in my Heart
I am too much in life
grab my shoulder
and smile with serious eyes
4
teach me to do faith and be peace
and always to be alive
and never forgive me too much
without a temperance of this pride
1
singing
I remember you
I remember that your body was broken
I remember
3
I remember the pain
so present
so piercing
that I could remember it as it happened
unpreparable
unpreventable
pain
like tinfoil in a womb
quiksilver in a wound
I remember pain
beyond specifics
but never abstract
a case of mistaken fidelity
punished by pain that would not leave
I remember grinding
of teeth and joints
the bones straining
and wishing to break
I remember being denied
I remember the pain
my screaming skin
my bleeding lungs
my pain
I remember
4
the smell of the pieces
burnt when the house fell,
out back behind the new,
built of strong timbers
and spaces of freedom.
we, tired and smiling
in the dewing grass,
nails in beams
and what they hold,
and the wreath from the door
as the crown of the pyre.
piercing the side
of my marshmallow
and smelling blood and water
above the mint and smoke.
leaning in and
catching my hand
as they sing and I nod:
you are the flame
1
Behold your mother. Behold your son.
3
Father will be divided against son and son against father. Mother will be divided against daughter and daughter against mother.
2
He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. He who loves son and daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
4
Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.
1
Behold your mother. Behold your son.
gong
song: Death of a Son by Michael Card
3
I stare into another day
The thing with feathers has flown away
That which springs eternal
Has dried
Faith and love may still remain
But not without this pain
Was this what you felt
When you died
Or was there a higher plan
In the end, were you more than a man
Or less than a god who has fallen
Below
Or am I blinded because I will not see
What you left for me
In the shadow of a broken tree
A prayer or two
Ago
1
singing
I remember you
I remember that your body was broken
I remember that your blood was shed
I remember
2
I remember the lashing
2 and 4 alternate, 2 repeating this line, 4 speaking a number of the names of those in the audience/congregation…
1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
4
Behold I am with you always, even until the end of the age.
3
I will never leave you nor forsake you.
2
I have been young and now old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken.
1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
song: The Silence of God by Andrew Peterson
2
Why can I not learn this twice
To keep my hand behind a glove
Bare, I cry these tears of ice
1
Suffer Alone, Suffer Alone
3
I gave myself too full in love
I cried your tears to break your vice
But man is dust and God above
1
I will to break the taunting drone
4
Sin again, a flood the price
I wanted you to be the dove
I drown beneath your own device
1
Suffer Alone, Suffer Alone
I will to break the taunting drone
song: O Sacred Head, 4-part
1
You once spoke me words and I listened to you
You once wrote in letters I could read with my hand
You once made me promises and showed they were true
You once told me I’d understand
You once wrote in letters I could read with my hand
You once had my heart and my soul and my mind
You once told me I’d understand
You once said you weren’t hard to find
You once had my heart and my soul and my mind
You once were clear and full of light
You once said you weren’t hard to find
You once made me think that I knew what was right
You once were clear and full of light
You once made me promises and showed they were true
You once made me think that I knew what was right
You once spoke me words and I listened to you
1
I’m thirsty.
3
He who believes in Me shall never thirst.
4
And brought them water out of the rock for their thirst
2
But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
1
I am thirsty!
gong
3
is this my God,
bleeding there,
falling into human pieces?
Is this my saviour,
dying in agony
before anything has changed?
is this the one i trusted,
leaving me,
and taking a thief?
is this my king,
so defeated,
so frightened and lonely?
is this the master plan,
the destiny:
to die like any man?
is this my God?
1
singing
I remember you
I remember that your body was broken
I remember that your blood was shed
I remember that you didn’t have to do it
2
what language shall I borrow
to thank you man of sorrows
who never said a mumbling word
erkamka na mene mene
crucifixus rex coelesti
alle heiden sabbac thani
eleison agnus dei
though I speak in the tongues
amen and angels
sing you to
the rest is silence
I place my hand over my mouth
song: Ride On to Die by Michael Card
1
It is finished.
3
We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever.
4
And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.
2
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment.
1
It is finished.
gong
2
I will not write a poem
I will not sing a theme song
I will not buy a flag
I will not use a slogan
I will not clap and cry
I will not make new gods
I will not feel safe
I will not stop weeping
1
singing (from the Finale of Godspell)
Oh God, I’m bleeding
Oh God, I’m bleeding
4
singing
Oh God, you’re bleeding
1
singing
Oh God, I’m dying
2,3,4
singing
Oh God, you’re dying
1
singing
Oh God, I’m dying
1
singing
Oh God, I’m dead
2,3,4
singing
Oh God, you’re dead
Oh God, you’re dead
Oh God, you’re dead
1
Father, into Your hands, I commit my spirit.
Suddenly, the glass recepticle above the fire drops, shattering. The water douses the fire.
Visit this iMix page for samples and purchase of recordings for the songs referenced in "Requiem for a Broken God". Please contact the author if you plan to use this piece for performance.
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