"Thin Places" and Powderfinger

Other colleagues have written about and designed liturgy around the celtic notion of 'thin places' or places where any space between the sacred and the secular is 'not really there.'

I had been reflecting on this last week and remembering that I don't think there is a gap but rather it's our experience of the world, worship and God. The 'thin places' can be a surprise, are not under our control and are something I try to help people see from our culture and context when they least expect it.

To this end in recent weeks I have been showing people the clip for Powderfinger's "Burn Your Name" with it's location of an asian market festival letting fly 1000s of paper lanterns!! and I've since seen it in the media in various ways and hoped that those at ACOMP, Adamstown Camp and my Presbytery colleagues might have seen that...

So tonight I'm tuned into the ARIA awards [with it's millenial flavoured presentation right across the outdoors of Sydney's Opera House] and what song should Powderfinger play for their final TV performance.... but "Burn Your Name"...

It's about a girl I guess, but could be a 'worship song of confession, redemption, adoration and at least has a mood of vulnerability and honesty!! I sit on my lounge [yet again in tears] wishing we had the connections and langaueg to share faith with that rawness and naturally... a thin place between creativity, God and God's people...

I'm not even describing what I am trying to say very well but it was a gift for me to listen and I hope someone somewhere whose heard me banging on about it in recent weeks was watching and thought 'hey isn't that the song........ wow!!........'

I look for these thin places wherever I am... not just inside church building.... I encourage you to do likewise...

“Burn Your Name”

I was stumbling right by

Like a wreck I came to you

So I staggered through the night

Seeking out your rescue blues

Gonna burn your name right across the sky

So I never forget what the feeling's like x 2

I want every single soul to know

That I love you for what you are

So I sound the bells that praise your precious heart

So tomorrow will arrive

And I burst a broken light

And a spell will hold us back

Shattering like glass

I want every single soul to know

That I love you for what you are

So I sound the bells that praise your precious heart x 2

Burn your name right across the sky

So I never forget what the feeling's like x 4

I want every single soul to know that I love you for what you are

So I sound the bells that praise your precious heart x 2

Gonna burn your name x 2

Universal Music 2009 Powderfinger ‘The Golden Rule’