Confession

Steve Collins

'confession' was written as a prayer for the grace service at reimagining worship in hackney. the service was about the senses, and this prayer about the misuse of the senses. we had linked images, eg advertisements, up whilst it was read.

white lines
blowing through my mind
and all the while i think of you
you said

hello boys are you pleased to see me?
we said
lord, when did we see you naked
and not rewind the video

you said
some people bleed internally
for lack of anyone to touch them
and pronounce them clean
we said
some people are just asking for it

you said
it's a lovely day
come outside and smell the flowers
we said
there was a drunk on the train tonight
we could hardly breathe
don't these people ever wash?

you said
hey baby
we could make beautiful music together
you said
you could at least phone
we said
we're sorry there's no-one here to receive your call at present
please leave your name and telephone number
and we will get back to you as soon as possible

you said
if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off
If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out
with the remaining hand
because you can't, you won't, and you don't stop

you said
take, eat - this is my body
drink it all of you - this is my blood
we said
this product will only aid weight loss
as part of a calorie-controlled diet

you said
the eye cannot say to the hand "i don't need you"
or how are you going to reach out?
you said
the head cannot say to the feet "i don't need you"
or how are you going to dance?

we said
we are the body of christ
but it's not quite nice to talk about bodies
especially in church
if you wanted us to be holy
why did you invent sex?

you said
i gave up my body
to murder and resurrection
to put all this mess right
i can start changing things right now, if you want
we said
yes please