Singing Redemption - Week Three
November 16, 2025
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Punk prophecy! — Songwriting that give us a glimpse of another world
Prophets, punks and poets have given us glimpses of another world for thousands of years. Music helps us to see the world around us differently and stirs us; galvanising us to act. The heavenly reality of the Kingdom is sometimes most clearly caught through song.
SEEDS TO SOW: What songs challenge you? And what songs have shaped how you see the world?
Read Isaiah 65: 17-25
Visions of redemption.
This prophecy is a striking vision of restoration and transformed relationships.
Q: Take a moment and share with each other songs and hymns that highlight the message of peace and transformation in this reading. You can use the internet or any nearby hymn/song books to help you think of ideas!
Read Psalm 146
Punk psalm.
You could argue this is a punk psalm because it 1) critiques the establishment, 2) is full of passion and 3) is short and bolshy!
The back to basics, counter-cultural ethos of punk has been channeled by the church down the years through plainsong — a stripped back simple form of unaccompanied worship. Now, there might not on the face of it seem to be a lot in common with a cluster of singers belting out psalms in a cathedral nave and a handful of punks in a basement kicking over amplifiers… but both represent attempts to peel back the layers to get at the truth and in doing so to create moments of transcendence.
Psalm 146 is worship but it’s also gutsy, political and hard edged — not qualities we always associate with contemporary worship songs.
God does not make the neat distinctions we do between secular and religious culture — discuss how spiritual truth is often found outside what we tend to call ‘worship music’. Sometimes the songs on the radio are more psalm-like than the songs we sing in church.
Q: What supposedly ‘secular’ songs have given you fresh insights about God, life and faith?
Q: Then discuss how these songs can inspire and shape how we do worship together.
Read Matthew 5: 1-12
Singing the beatitudes.
These words are a radical, counter-cultural, challenge: it’s Punk Jesus!
Q: How do we develop and encourage new generations of creative artists to help us articulate the beatitudes in the 21st century? That more might not only learn about redemption but learn to feel it too.
Q: What stories can we share, or insights can we give, to inspire them to pick up a pen, a poster and a plectrum?
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