The Gospel of U-2 - Sermon Oct 2, 2005, by Jim Burklo, Sausalito Presbyterian Church
In the Name of Love: the Spirituality of U-2
To reveal the heart of the gospel, I invite you to explore with me the songs of a very famous Irish rock and roll band – U-2. They are a group of Christians who are not at all ashamed to be Christians, who are unabashed about putting a whole lot of biblical references and Christian spiritual values and images in their songs, and yet they anger and frustrate a lot of Christians. Why? Because they don’t advertise themselves as Christian musicians, and they don’t work the Christian music circuit, which they’d be thrown out of anyway because their lyrics don’t mirror the orthodoxies of evangelicals and fundamentalists. Their lyrics are reminiscent of the words of Jesus and the stories about him in the Bible.... they are open-ended, they ask more questions than they give any answers, they grapple with the paradoxes of life, they are mystical and can be understood in more than one way, they are about experience rather than dogma, they inspire visions of peace and justice in the real world, and wholeness for body and soul. It is intensely ironic that the so-called “Christian music” industry has no use for this most profoundly Christian of all rock bands.
These people are not just nominal Christians – these guys are serious about practicing the way of the Christ. Maybe you saw the news coverage a few years ago of Bono, the lead singer for U-2, touring the most impoverished areas of Africa with the Secretary of the Treasury of the US, trying to inspire him to cancel the debt of African countries that are hopelessly mired in red ink owed to rich Western nations, African nations desperate for cash to provide the most basic essentials for their people. It was something of a tragicomic journey, with Bono exercising all the fruits of the spirit as best he could while traveling with the uptight and not-terribly-charitably inclined Treasury Secretary – but in the end there can be no question that Bono and U-2 had a major role in successfully pressuring the US and European and other nations which recently wrote off a major chunk of third world debt. Check out the U-2 website, which heavily advertises Amnesty International, the campaign for human rights in Burma, the third-world debt relief campaign, Greenpeace, and other groups.
It is no accident that U-2’s performers are Irish – citizens of that many-storied land, that land where tragedy is heartily celebrated, that land where poetry still matters and myth still has a cherished place, where fantasy and fact freely mix in the misty air. And of course the deep and rich affinity between the Irish and the Americans has contributed to their immense popularity in this country, sealed forever when they played after Sept 11, 2001, projecting the names of the dead onto a huge screen behind their stage, Bono whipping open his leather jacket to reveal himself clothed with an American flag.
So let us hear and meditate upon the Gospel According to U-2.
Once the band took a trip out to Joshua Tree National Monument, east of LA out in the desert. There is a big area near the town of Joshua Tree that I’ve visited a number of times.... it was subdivided back in the ‘50’s – you could “homestead” out there for next to nothing as long as you put some kind of minimal structure on your land. So there were miles of desert carved up with dirt roads, a few of the plots with tiny 10-foot-square shacks on them – streets with no names, houses with no people. A promised land whose promise has yet to be fulfilled.
In this song, “Where the Streets Have No Name”, there is resonance with the vision of the new Jerusalem that descends from heaven in the book of Revelation, chapter 21 and 22 – a city that is open all the time, a city lit day and night by the divine flame of light, a city where a bright river floods through the middle... where the streets need no names, because no one who enters can be lost – a city we yearn to build in a place of dust and rust....
Where The Streets Have No Name (best of, #7)
I wanna run, I want to hide
I wanna tear down the walls
That hold me inside.
I wanna reach out
And touch the flame
Where the streets have no name.
I wanna feel sunlight on my face.
I see the dust-cloud
Disappear without a trace.
I wanna take shelter
From the poison rain
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name.
We're still building and burning down love
Burning down love.
And when I go there
I go there with you
(It's all I can do).
The city's a flood, and our love turns to rust.
We're beaten and blown by the wind
Trampled in dust.
I'll show you a place
High on a desert plain Where the streets have no name Where the streets have no name Where the streets have no name.
We're still building and burning down love Burning down love. And when I go there I go there with you (It's all I can do). In the Bible we have a mysterious book called the Song of Solomon – it’s a sexy love poem about the lust of a man and woman for each other. And they are unmarried, by the way. It’s in the Bible because it can be read another way than its obvious surface meaning, which is pretty blatant. It can also be read as an allegory of the relationship between the soul and God. This imagery of human lovers representing the relationship of the soul to its divine Source is universal in world religions. The bhajans or devotional music of Kabir in India was full of this imagery. As was the poetry of Rumi, the Muslim Sufi of Afghanistan. As is the imagery in this and many other songs by U-2 – who can tell if the love-making is between humans, or between the soul and God – and, in a profound sense, what’s the difference, anyway? Love And Peace Or Else (atom, #4) Lay down Lay down Lay your sweet lovely on the ground Lay your love on the track We’re gonna break the monster’s back Yes we are… Lay down your treasure Lay it down now brother You don’t have time For a jealous lover
As you enter this life I pray you depart With a wrinkled face And a brand new heart
I don’t know if I can take it I’m not easy on my knees Here’s my heart you can break it
I need some release, release, release
We need Love and peace Love and peace
Lay down Lay down your guns All your daughters of Zion All your Abraham sons
I don’t know if I can make it I’m not easy on my knees Here’s my heart and you can break it I need some release, release, release
We need Love and peace
And this song also makes reference to the biblical roots of the current conflicts in the Middle East, for which the song is a prayer for peace – peace among the sons of Abraham – Isaac, representing Israel, and Ishmael, representing the Arabs – peace for us all.
And the song is a deep confession about the difficulty of prayer, of communing with God, of opening the heart: “I’m not easy on my knees – Here’s my heart and you can break it – I need some release ....” Saint Paul himself said it: “We do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words...” (Romans 8: 26) And another reference to this passage in Romans chapter 8 appears in their song “Yahweh”, which of course is as biblical a title as you can get. “Always pain before a child is born...” rings with the message of Romans 8: 22 – “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in the travail (of childbirth) together until now”.... The early Christians believed that the world was going through an experience like childbirth – pain that would precede the coming new age of the kingdom of Love. And the song goes on with a litany of hope for a city on a hill – a reference to Jesus’ words that a “city on a hill cannot be hid” – a city that shines into a broken-open heart: “Take this city, If it be your will, What no man can own, no man can take, Take this heart, And make it break”.... U-2’s lyrics keep returning to this theme: that the heart must break so that love can come through. Just as the gospel reminds us that it was through Jesus’ broken body that love came through, it is through broken bread that our souls can commune with each other and with God. Yahweh (atom, #11) Take these shoes Click clacking down some dead end street Take these shoes And make them fit Take this shirt Polyester white trash made in nowhere Take this shirt And make it clean, clean Take this soul Stranded in some skin and bones Take this soul And make it sing
Yahweh, Yahweh Always pain before a child is born Yahweh, Yahweh Still I’m waiting for the dawn
Take these hands Teach them what to carry Take these hands Don’t make a fist Take this mouth So quick to criticise Take this mouth Give it a kiss
Yahweh, Yahweh Always pain before a child is born Yahweh, Yahweh Still I’m waiting for the dawn
Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up The sun is coming up on the ocean This love is like a drop in the ocean This love is like a drop in the ocean
Yahweh, Yahweh Always pain before a child is born Yahweh, tell me now Why the dark before the dawn?
Take this city A city should be shining on a hill Take this city If it be your will What no man can own, no man can take Take this heart Take this heart Take this heart And make it break.
“In the Name of Love” is a hymn to all who lay down their lives for love – people who died in the struggle for justice, to overthrow the powers and principalities of oppression and domination and racism – one man named Jesus who was betrayed by a kiss, the very symbol of love, and died for the sake of love – one man named Martin Luther King who died when a shot rang out in the Memphis sky - Jesus said: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15: 13). What more can a woman or man do for others than this? U-2’s gospel is one of action – one that can be costly – it can cost you your life to follow the love that is the Christ.
Pride (In The Name Of Love) (best of, #1)
One man come in the name of love One man come and go. One man come he to justify One man to overthrow.
In the name of love What more in the name of love. In the name of love What more in the name of love.
One man caught on a barbed wire fence One man he resist One man washed up on an empty beach One man betrayed with a kiss.
In the name of love What more in the name of love. In the name of love What more in the name of love.
Early morning, April four Shot rings out in the Memphis sky. Free at last, they took your life They could not take your pride. In the name of love What more in the name of love. In the name of love What more in the name of love.
In the name of love What more in the name of love. In the name of love What more in the name of love.
Love came to town one day. Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem and was greeted with open arms, and a few days later things were different. As U-2 puts it: I was there when they crucified my Lord I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword I threw the dice when they pierced his side But I've seen love conquer the great divide.
Love turned it all on its head, it conquered the great divide between life and death, love denied and love applied. And love didn’t come to town just once, in one way. The gospel happens over and over again, every time love comes to town again, in a new and surprising way: When Love Comes To Town (best of, #12) I was a sailor, I was lost at sea I was under the waves before love rescued me. I was a fighter, I could turn on a thread Now I stand accused of the things I've said.
When love comes to town I'm gonna jump that train When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame. Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down But I did what I did before love came to town.
Used to make love under a red sunset I was making promises I was soon to forget. She was pale as the lace of her wedding gown But I left her standing before love came to town.
I ran into a juke-joint when I heard a guitar scream The notes were turning blue, I was dazed and in a dream. As the music played I saw my life turn around That was the day before love came to town.
When love comes to town I'm gonna jump that train When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame. Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down But I did what I did before love came to town.
When love comes to town I'm gonna jump that train When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame. Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down But I did what I did before love came to town.
I was there when they crucified my Lord I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword. I threw the dice when they pierced his side But I've seen love conquer the great divide.
When love comes to town I'm gonna jump that train When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame. Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down But I did what I did before love came to town.
Nobody made you do it No one put words in your mouth. Nobody here taking orders When love took a train heading south. It's the blind leading the blond It's the stuff, it's the stuff of country songs.
Hey, if God will send his angels And if God will send a sign And if God will send his angels Would everything be alright?
God's got his phone off the hook, babe Would he even pick up if he could? It's been a while since we saw that child Hangin' round this neighbourhood.
See his mother dealing in a doorway See Father Christmas with a begging bowl. And Jesus' sister's eyes are a blister The High Street never looked so low.
It's the blind leading the blond It's the cops collecting for the cons. So where is the hope and Where is the faith and the love? What's that you say to me Does love light up your Christmas tree? The next minute you're blowing a fuse And the cartoon network turns into the news.
If God will send his angels And if God will send a sign Well if God will send his angels Where do we go? Where do we go?
Jesus never let me down You know Jesus used to show me the score. Then they put Jesus in show business Now it's hard to get in the door.
It's the stuff, it's the stuff of country songs But I guess it was something to go on. Hey, if God will send his angels I sure could use them here right now Well, if God will send his angels...
Where do we go? Where do we go?
Jesus asked, having eyes do you see? He asked that question again and again. Because he could see that his followers couldn’t see. We might have our eyes open, but we only think we see – so often we don’t perceive, we don’t understand. To get into the kingdom of heaven, said Jesus, you must enter as a child. Innocent, wide-eyed, open, emptied of your ego and emptied of your assumption that you know and understand. We’re blinded by the city of blinding lights. Can we open our inner eyes and really see who we are and what we are meant to be? City Of Blinding Lights The more you see the less you know The less you find out as you go I knew much more then than I do now
Neon heart dayglo eyes A city lit by fireflies They’re advertising in the skies For people like us
And I miss you when you’re not around I’m getting ready to leave the ground….
Ooh ooh ooh Ooh ooh ooh
Oh you look so beautiful tonight In the city of blinding lights
Don’t look before you laugh Look ugly in a photograph Flash bulbs purple irises The camera can’t see
I’ve seen you walk unafraid I’ve seen you in the clothes you made Can you see the beauty inside of me? What happened to the beauty I had inside of me
And I miss you when you’re not around I’m getting ready to leave the ground
Ooh ooh ooh Ooh ooh ooh
Oh you look so beautiful tonight In the city of blinding lights
Time… time Won’t leave me as I am But time won’t take the boy out of this man
Oh you look so beautiful tonight Oh you look so beautiful tonight Oh you look so beautiful tonight In the city of blinding lights
The more you know the less you feel Some pray for others steal Blessings are not just for the ones who kneel… luckily
And the song ends with that wonderful reminder that the experience of God is not just for the properly religious – blessings are not just for the ones who kneel – we’re blinded even by religion, so much of the time -
“Until the End of the World” is another song that blurs the distinction between human erotic love and the yearning of the soul for God. “I reached out for the one I tried to destroy” – this line reminds us of the story of Jesus – the very people who reached out to him for love and healing turned on him to destroy him on the cross. “I took the money, I spiked your drink”, it says – hints of Judas who took the money to betray Jesus, then drank with him at the Last Supper – then came the spikes on the cross. Love gone sour, love gone bad, sorrows that learn to swim – but the Christ will forgive our betrayals, wait for our love, until the end of the world.... there’s more to the story. Until The End Of The World Haven't seen you in quite a while I was down the hold, just passing time. Last time we met it was a low-lit room We were as close together as a bride and groom. We ate the food, we drank the wine Everybody having a good time except you. You were talking about the end of the world.
I took the money, I spiked your drink You miss too much these days if you stop to think. You led me on with those innocent eyes And you know I love the element of surprise. In the garden I was playing the tart I kissed your lips and broke your heart. You, you were acting like it was the end of the world.
In my dream, I was drowning my sorrows But my sorrows they'd learned to swim Surrounding me, going down on me Spilling over the brim Waves of regret and waves of joy. I reached out for the one I tried to destroy. You, you said you'd wait till the end of the world.
“Beautiful Day” is a song of hope, with a reference to the biblical story of Noah’s flood – when the flood was over, a dove came to the boat holding an olive branch, and a colorful rainbow made it a beautiful day-- let’s not destroy the earth again - let’s not ruin the beautiful day – let’s cherish the earth and its creatures and people – don’t let it get away....
Beautiful Day The heart is a bloom, shoots up through stony ground But there's no room, no space to rent in this town You're out of luck and the reason that you had to care, The traffic is stuck and you're not moving anywhere. You thought you’d found a friend to take you out of this place Someone you could lend a hand in return for grace
It's a beautiful day, the sky falls And you feel like it's a beautiful day It’s a beautiful day Don’t let it get away
You’re on the road but you’ve got no destination You’re in the mud, in the maze of her imagination You love this town even if it doesn’t ring true You’ve been all over and it’s been all over you
It's a beautiful day Don’t let it get away It's a beautiful day Don’t let it get away
Touch me, take me to that other place Teach me, I know I’m not a hopeless case
See the world in green and blue See China right in front of you See the canyons broken by cloud See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out See the bedouin fires at night See the oil fields at first light See the bird with a leaf in her mouth After the flood all the colours came out It was a beautiful day A beautiful day Don’t let it get away
Touch me, take me to that other place Reach me, I know Iím not a hopeless case
What you don’t have you don’t need it now What you don’t know you can feel it somehow What you don’t have you don’t need it now You don’t need it now, you don’t need it now Beautiful day
The Gospel of U-2 rings true with St. Paul’s description of Jesus (Phil 2: 7): that he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant..... he gave it away... These lyrics are from “Last Night on Earth”: Last Night On Earth She feel the ground is giving way But she thinks we're better off that way. The more you take, the less you feel The less you know the more you believe The more you have, the more it takes today
You gotta give it away You gotta give it away You gotta give it away Give it away You gotta give it away You gotta give it away
The gospel of U-2 is not one with a tidy ending and a neat, crisp, complete theology. Not at all. Their search goes on. Just because they believe in the Christ, that doesn’t mean the journey has ended. I believe in the Kingdom Come, Then all the colours will bleed into one, Bleed into one, But yes, I'm still running.You broke the bonds And you loosed the chains Carried the cross of my shame Oh my shame, you know I believe it. But I still haven’t found What I’m looking for....” I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (best of, #4) I have climbed the highest mountains I have run through the fields Only to be with you Only to be with you.
I have run, I have crawled I have scaled these city walls These city walls Only to be with you.
But I still haven't found What I'm looking for. But I still haven't found What I'm looking for.
I have kissed honey lips Felt the healing in her finger tips It burned like fire (I was) burning inside her.
I have spoke with the tongue of angels I have held the hand of a devil It was warm in the night I was cold as a stone.
But I still haven't found What I'm looking for. But I still haven't found What I'm looking for.
I believe in the Kingdom Come Then all the colours will bleed into one Bleed into one. But yes, I'm still running.
You broke the bonds And you loosed the chains Carried the cross of my shame Oh my shame, you know I believe it.
But I still haven't found What I'm looking for. But I still haven't found What I'm looking for.
But I still haven't found What I'm looking for. But I still haven't found What I'm looking for.
U-2 believes in the Kingdom Come, when all the colors will bleed into one. A kingdom that is here, but yet to come. A oneness that is here, and yet out of our grasp. A Christ in which we can believe, without pretending to come close to fully comprehending. A gospel that reflects the poetic, mythic, lyrical, rocking and rolling truths of our souls.