U2 Sermons

Lessons

2009-07-10T20:57:00.003-04:00

Jonathan Blundell shares a list of 10 spiritual lessons he has learned from U2, drawing on songs as far back as "Rejoice" and as recent as "Breathe." He asks his readers for additions, and I thought I'd make a few, focusing mostly on things it seems to me are especially characteristic of the band's message (i.e. not generic spiritual truths). Here's a quick list of some prominent U2 Lessons off the cuff (more input welcome):

-- "When I was three, I thought the world revolved around me. I was wrong." Or, to quote Rick Warren, "it's not about you." The de-centering of the ego, of the presuppositions, of the self-drama, is lifelong work. One of the good, tedious and therefore useful ways to work towards this is fidelity in community. "If I want to live, I've got to die to myself one day." Another is a sense of proportion in a world in which, say, your icemaker breaking one afternoon is not on a scale with 6000 people dying the same day of malaria. (Also cf the recent interview in which Bono talks about being allergic to people who have one painful thing happen to them and walk with a limp for the rest of their lives.)

-- You could cite so many songs for this one: Surrender is exquisite. Do not be confused by this fact and conclude that surrendering in and of itself is good. Who or what you surrender to is all-important. And yet you must surrender.

-- Listen to what you want. Speak it out until you get to a true statement. When you do, God will be there. "What do you want?" from ZooTV. "I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside." "I want... I want you... I want you to be back tomorrow." "You want heaven, heaven in your heart." "Looking for to fill that God-shaped hole." And then, the mature "I want the lot of what You've got and I want nothing that You're not."

-- "I wanted to meet God and you sold me religion," "love is big... but love is not what you're thinking of," and again, a zillion other lyrics and interviews: Religion is to be distinguished from God. The former is probably about as likely to be an idol and a force for division and hatred as not. Confusing the two can be lethal.

-- "We eat and drink while tomorrow they die," (which I still think is the most brilliant Bible allusion in the entire U2 oeuvre) "with the real battle yet begun: to claim the victory Jesus won." Also related is Bono's: "If you are not committed to the poor, what is religion? It's a black hole." Being a follower of Jesus entails implementing Jesus' victory in the real world. (See next point)

-- KINGDOM NOW! Let's have a little bit of the age to come NOW! Inaugurated eschatology NOW!

-- And finally, a point of personal privilege: When agony comes to you, process it in a mode as similar to "One Tree Hill" as you can muster. Don't give up until you've seen its resolution all the way out at the outer ring. (See above point)

U2 - Mofo / Top Chrétien

2009-07-09T07:35:00.000-04:00

The French-language site Top Chrétien posts a U2.com video of "Mofo," along with a moving reflection on the song's spiritual message from a reader who lost his mother to cancer.

The Hype and The Feedback 2.0

2009-07-07T08:28:00.001-04:00

Most readers will probably know that the academic conference on U2 has been rescheduled for Durham NC, October 2-4. The list of accepted papers/presentations is now available on the web. Check it out... and make plans to attend.

Sound and Light

2009-07-06T13:28:00.000-04:00

The folks over at Interference asked if I might expand my comments here on the Claw into a brief article for them. If you'd like to read the results, here they are. Thanks guys! Thanks also to @U2 for linking the same U2 Sermons material in this week's OTR.

The Arch via the Claw

2009-07-03T16:36:00.001-04:00

U2.com has a piece up today explaining "what an archbishop is doing in a rock'n'roll show." You can also see a video of the pre-"Streets" cameo by Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986-1996, whom U2.com refers to as "the world's most famous clergyman." This made me smile wryly (and not only because I dislike the word "clergyman.") Although I'd agree he might be in the top 5 or 10.

Es Ist Rot

2009-07-01T08:50:00.006-04:00

And while I'm having fun, my favorite sincere Twitter moment from last night (winner in the comedy genre was "Kinder mit Masken auf dem catwalk. Kein Kommentar.") I had been reading earlier in the day about the neurophysiology of ritual, and the author remarked how neurologically vital it was, if a sense of awe were to be experienced by participants, for ritual to carry patterned, permanence-evoking repetition of visuals and movement. Yeah.

architecture class

2009-07-01T08:35:00.002-04:00

I should have added this last night: the lights and so on on the top spire on the Claw are designed such that, when in use, it turns into a finial. (Here are a lot of finials for comparison.)

son et lumière

2009-06-30T21:56:00.004-04:00

I had planned not to follow anything about the actual concert today until full good-quality audio became available in the next couple days, but became so interested in witnessing the scene unfold on Twitter, along with discovering the several sources for live cell phone streaming video and pictures, that the sense of event pulled me in. I'm very glad now I followed it, and all I want to say at this point is that the obvious star of the show is the Claw.

Willie Williams has so much more than outdone himself... I mean, just stunning beauty that leaves you gasping. For me it brings to mind first the son et lumière shows one sees staged on summer nights with some of the great European cathedrals as their screens (sample video here), and second, Willie Williams' own previous works with churches or cathedrals as his canvas: e.g. the mirrorball at all Hallows, or his Easter Vigil installation at Canterbury Cathedral. Except now, there are none of the intrinsic limitations of trying to do light-art on an aging, unchangeable building. Willie has a cathedral designed to his own dimensions and specifications, and he can make it do tricks.

Of course you have no real sense of a show from bits on YouTube and cell phone videos -- but my reaction to what I've seen is that the band themselves came off as more completely in the role of servants to the overall process than ever before. Astounding. Is this rock 'n' roll?? (However, lest I sound too glowing, it's 2009 and you can't play "One"?)

Opening night in Barcelona

2009-06-30T14:02:00.000-04:00

"Originality consists in returning to the origin." - Gaudi

2009-06-21T15:38:00.004-04:00

Wait... somebody out there is proposing that Catalonian hearers consider an analogy between The Claw and Gaudi's Sagrada Familia? Oh, yeah. That would be Bono.

Where are You in "cedars of Lebanon"?

2009-06-17T08:18:00.002-04:00

I usually don't link more than once or twice when someone's posting a series on U2, figuring you can all follow it yourselves if you like. However, I thought since there is little else going on relevant to the topic of this blog at the moment, I might draw out one point in the closing installment of Steve Stockman's NLOTH series, a post on "Cedars of Lebanon." Most of what I've heard said about that phrase "cedars of Lebanon" has simply commented (accurately) that it's a term widespread in the Bible, with a variety of implications -- such that the lyrics would be using it mostly for Middle Eastern ambiance. Stocki suggests instead that perhaps a particular one of its meanings is actually in view: the way Isaiah and other prophets use a comparison to "the cedars of Lebanon" to indict human pride, and particularly linking such pride with waging war and destroying enemies. If this were so, it would help put the last verse about not being defined by enemies in a more tightly knit context with the overall setting/theme of the song, and might also lend the phrase "Where are You in the cedars of Lebanon?" a ring of something classically U2 that's almost completely absent on NLOTH: the lament genre. Comments on this idea, readers?

Drawing their fish in the sand update

2009-06-12T07:54:00.000-04:00

Some of you may already have seen that the archive of Bible references in U2 songs has been updated. It now includes No Line as well as some recent extra tracks on the album remixes and elsewhere.

Stadium Prophets and Psalmists

2009-06-09T07:34:00.003-04:00

At the UCCF Theology Network site, you can download a talk called "U2: The Stadium Prophets and Psalmists" given at a recent meeting of the European Leadership Forum by Mark Meynell, a name that will be familiar to readers here from previous links. It's in PDF. Though largely on an introductory level, there are some nice stops along the way: I quite like the charts (Bono personas, U2's articulations of human experience, more) and the section on distinctions between a poet and a preacher (especially its closing comment, so a propos to this band: "of course it gets confusing when poets do start to preach."

U2 Academic Conference site announced

2009-06-06T20:05:00.001-04:00

Like many folks, I was disappointed when the economic downturn forced the postponement of the U2 conference. However, an announcement was made yesterday that The Hype and The Feedback is coming to Durham, NC Oct 2 -4, 2009. The host is the H. M. Michaux School of Education at North Carolina Central University in Durham. North Carolina Central is the nation’s first public liberal arts college founded for African-Americans. And another really cool thing about this: U2 are playing Raleigh on the 3rd, and the conference program is being designed so we can all attend (if we, uh, want to) and then have the next day to reflect on the experience. Hope to meet many readers there!

"U2 does it again"

2009-06-05T19:00:00.000-04:00

Dick Staub, who interviewed me back when Get Up Off Your Knees came out, offers some comments on NLOTH. Not sure where the connection of "White As Snow" with King David comes from; haven't heard that one before....

U-asana-2

2009-05-31T20:50:00.004-04:00

An anecdote from an interesting quarter, not unrelated to spiritual themes: The June 2009 issue of Yoga Journal features material on the use of non-traditional music in yoga classes, specifically live music, DJs, or playlists from rock albums. One of the interviewees, Michael Franti, discusses practicing to U2, specifically mentioning "The Sweetest Thing," which he used after losing his father, and he found "helped me cry, reminisce, let it all out, and heal" on his mat.

a random NLOTH review

2009-05-26T16:20:00.000-04:00

The folks at Empire Remixed today repost a review of NLOTH by the Rev. Julie Golding Page. Not entirely sure I think the disorientation/orientation paradigm works for this album as well as for some others...

Welcome to our new look

2009-05-22T09:42:00.002-04:00

As will be immediately evident, I've finally bit the bullet and updated the template for this blog. I'd been resisting doing so for literally years, mostly because of having to switch to the Blogger comment system, thus losing all our internal dialogue going back to 2003 (although I have archived the old comments separately, you will see that every post displays a rather depressing "0" now). However, the downsides of not upgrading finally got to be too much -- permalinks had stopped working, inconveniencing everyone who wanted to link a post, and the old comment system offered virtually no spam protection, making for more and more work for me to keep the comboxes clean. So here we are....

Kicking at the Darkness – Bruce Cockburn Weekend « Empire Remixed

2009-05-15T16:37:00.000-04:00

PSA: Get Up Off Your Knees contributor Brian Walsh will be offering a workshop looking at the work of Bruce Cockburn, including a worship service using his music, on May 23-24 near Ottawa. "This one-day workshop will be an opportunity to explore with others the connections between faith, music, beauty and brokenness in the place where Cockburn’s musical and spiritual journey all began."

marks and layers

2009-05-13T17:03:00.004-04:00

Thought I would pull this out of the comments: Steve Taylor, whom I still look forward to meeting at the U2 Conference whenever it happens (kind of hoping we'll be in the same session since we're both giving papers focusing on U2's live work), offers some thoughts on the "Magnificent" video. While I agree that the connection of the visuals with the text is somewhat tenuous, we read the video a bit differently, as I think we do the song and the "the sound" concept, and maybe the album... but that's what makes it all fun.

Ah! bright wings

2009-05-06T07:52:00.004-04:00

Some quick comments on the "Magnificent" video:
1. ...Another performance video?
2. Bono is just shameless, isn't he?
3. I'm immediately taken with the way everyone on camera seems endlessly to be trying to invite our gaze in the same direction I commented about in this post on the stagecraft in the Letterman performance of the song: up! UP!
4. The ecstatic desert dancers are a nice touch, out there dancing with/to the sun. I'm not sure members of the traditional Sufi orders wear red hoodies much, but I get the point.

And 5! Those white sheets; one thinks of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, but of course their wrapping encloses scenes in a more static mode, and this is all about dynamism. Struck by the way different aspects of the sheets communicate over the length of the video: we move from "there is more here than you know, and it's alive," to all different modes of revelation as the sheets come away (some of the moments are dramatic, eye-catching, others so shy and retiring they're missed by people right next to them, and in a couple the white fabric actually seems to be whisked away, playing hard-to-get as soon as we've glimpsed it), to the realization that the sheets themselves are as fascinating as the material stuff they were covering. As the video progresses, it's hard for me not to think of John 3:8 -- the sheets turn into a way to help us discern the movement of the wind, which is going on all the time, in constant interaction with the world we maybe initially thought they were obscuring but which, in fact, they are enlivening.

I'm especially moved by the scene where a crowd of people outside the Fez medina are absorbed in their own activities and remain completely uninterested as this gorgeous, living, visualized wind passes right over them. Twas ever thus.

And: how nice that we get to see the red-hoodied desert dancer arrive in town to meet all that blinding white dynamism in the air face to face.

Finally 6. It so makes me think of Gerard Manley Hopkins:
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil...
...Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

2009-05-04T21:31:00.001-04:00

stolen from Fresno Dave

[EDIT: Don't miss Mark Meynell's remix of the idea here.]

"voice that gave my life a rhyme, a meaning"

2009-05-01T14:26:00.004-04:00

A bit off topic, but unique enough that I would like to share it anyway; here's a transcription of a poem handwritten by Bono that is on display at the Billy Graham Library but that I don't believe has been available online before:

"The journey from father to friend
is all paternal love's end.
it was sung in my teenage ears
in the voice of a preacher
loudly soft on my tears [years/fears?]
I would never forget this melody line
or its lyric voice that gave my life a rhyme,
a meaning, that wasn't there before
a child, born in dung and straw
with The Fathers love and desire to explain
how we might get on with each other again...."

for The Rev. Billy Graham (that preacher)
Ruth and all the Graham Family
from Bono (March 11 2002)
with much love and respect....

Spirituality, lament, and social justice

2009-04-30T19:28:00.000-04:00

Greg Stevenson at Caritas ventures a nomination for U2's Most Theologically Interesting Song. Do you agree?

For New York City area readers....

2009-04-27T18:02:00.004-04:00

If you're in the NYC area, we're asked to announce that Mockingbird Ministries (http://mockingbirdnyc.com/) invites you to attend BONO AT THE END OF THE WORLD: A Theological Journey Through the Lives and Music of U2 on this coming Wednesday, April 29 from 8-9:30pm at The Cave at St George's - 209 E 16th St.(down the stairs on 16th St. between 3rd Ave and the square, at St. George's Episcopal Church). The Rev. Nathan Hart, whom some of you will know from this blog's comments section, is teaching the class.