Finding God (Again) in Surprising Places

I also went to a worship service via Good Morning America this past week.

On Friday morning, U2 performed songs from their latest CD, “No Line on the Horizon” to a gigantic crowd at Fordham University in New York City. Five years after “How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb,” they’re at it again.

“The future needs a big kiss/Winds blows with a twist/Never seen a moon like this/Can you see it too?” These words from “Get on your Boots,” a grittier, kinda-feels-out-of-place-on-the-disc song (there’s always one – like “Vertigo” last time around), get the service started. A song that extols the beauty of humanity (“You don’t know how beautiful you are/You don’t know, and you don’t get it, do you?”) amidst the many wars and atrocities that face our globe (“Rockets at the fun fair/Satan loves a bomb scare…I got submarine/You got gasoline/I don’t want to talk about wars between nations”). A playful song, no doubt, but with some good lines that can easily blow by you if you’re just trying to have a good time: “Here's where we gotta be/Love and community/Laughter is eternity/If joy is real.” There was a man who once said he was “surprised” by Joy (his name was C.S. Lewis). And there in the grit, in the chiming chords, in the talk of wars and bombs, there’s a prayer: “Let me in the sound/Let me in the sound, now/God, I’m going down/I don’t wanna drown now”).

Then the four-some move to the soulful, “Magnificent,” echoing the sounds from one of their earliest hits, “Gloria.” This is simply and totally a worship song. “I was born/I was born to be with you.” In the next lines, Bono describes the existential life of the believer, filled with the uncertainty of what’s to come: “...In this space and time/After that and ever after I haven’t had a clue.”

The wounded love of the Savior dying for us on the cross wounds us as well. And yet, only in this deep wound is there the healing that we need, like the painful scrapings of Aslan’s claws on Eustace’s dragon scales in Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The chorus exclaims: “Only love, only love can leave such a mark/But only love, only love can heal such a scar.”

U2, which first formed in high school, cracked a few jokes to the Fordham crowd, joking that they were so happy they finally made it to college. But truly, Bono’s career has been marked with singing (and a whole lot of social activism!). He croons: “I was born to sing for you/I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up/And sing whatever song you wanted me to.” His talents are a gift from God. And so, in joyful thanks he offers these gifts back up to God: “I give you back my voice/From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise.” Sounds like an exegesis of Psalm 100.

The crowd is bathed in the lines of the chorus over and over again. Then, the song ends with the truth that, one day there will be a great gathering of people from every tribe and nation and tongue. It will be a gathering of festivities, celebration, thanksgiving, and most importantly, worship. “Justified till we die, you and I will magnify/The Magnificent/ Magnificent/ Magnificent.”

For the third song in the set, Bono prefaces it: “This song is dedicated to all of you college students, as I know this is probably the theme for most of you. Its called ‘I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight.” As the crowd roars, Bono looks up into the sky (he’s at a Catholic university), for a moment of confession: “No disrespect, Father.”

Phyllis Tickle, author of The Divine Hours, once said, “More theology is conveyed in, and retained from, one hour of popular television than from all the sermons that are also delivered on any given weekend in America’s synagogues, churches, and mosques.” If her perspective on pop culture is accurate (and oftentimes, I believe it is), Bono encapsulated all the books on apologetics in one line: “How can you stand next to the truth and not see it?” And yet, this song is also a song about doubt, about not being totally sure this life will meet its intended destination. Like Christian constantly being waylaid with doubt in Pilgrim’s Progress, the chorus rings: “It's not a hill, it's a mountain/As you start out the climb/Do you believe me, or are you doubting/We're gonna make it all the way to the light/But I know I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight”

Each day, each step we take in this life, amidst the pain, the evil, the atrocities we see and hear of, amidst the dark nights of the soul, we tell ourselves, amidst all the constant assurances we receive, “I know I’ll go crazy if I don’t go crazy tonight.” We’re all looking for the “part of me in the chaos that’s quiet.” Bono asks the question we’re all thinking: “Is it true that perfect love drives out all fear?” (…then why do I feel this way… then why did this happen?…). And yet, he knows what he doesn’t need are trite clichés or reminders that God will never leave you nor forsake you. He sings: “Baby, baby, baby, I know I’m not alone/Baby, baby, baby, I know I’m not alone.”

Ultimately, the answer again is an existential one: Our assurance is garnered when we live out the gospel, when we be the change in the world that we want to see, when we live as the ambassadors to the world Christ has called us to be: “Every generation gets a chance to change the world/Pity the nation that won't listen to your boys and girls… Oh, but a change of heart comes slow.”

After the songs, the band members sit down for some Q&A. One of the hosts of GMA asked, “How is it, that, amidst all these rough times, these economic struggles, you can sings songs with such a good message, with such positive energy?”

Bono responds, “You know, Gospel music is great, but we prefer to sing music that is honest. Rock ‘n Roll always involves a bit of the Blues.”

A bit of a critique of Gospel/CCM… but a true one. I mean, really. This past week, I decided to check out some CDs from the library of a few recent albums of ‘Christian’ bands I used to listen to when I was in high school. Needless to say, I gave the discs one listen while I was cleaning the bathroom.

After the interview ended, U2 provided the crowd and viewers one more song: "It’s a Beautiful Day." And, indeed, it was.