This is a repost of an Advent blog series I did in 2003: the theme for Advent 4 was "UNION."
Welcome all wonders in one sight!
Eternity shut in a span.
Summer in winter. Day in night.
Heaven in earth, and God in man.
--Richard Crashaw (1613-1649)
Despite what you've seen on TV or in the shops, this week the news is not birth, or babies, or shepherds, or stars. The real news is "UNION" - the marriage in Jesus of opposites, "without mixing, without change; [yet also] without division, without separation." That's the classic Chalcedonian definition of how Jesus is both God and human, but it's also a description of marriage.
Earth marries heaven as the Word is made flesh, and so our song is "When I Look at the World." It's a prayer that reveals a touchingly unfeigned admiration of Jesus:
I see an expression so clear and so true
That it changes the atmosphere when you walk into the room
What grips the narrator is not only Jesus as the Truth, as clarity, the one whose felt Presence changes everything; it's Jesus's steady ability to take into his open heart absolutely every moment of human suffering (and joy, but the ability to attend to suffering is in focus here):
When there's all kinds of chaos
And everyone is walking lame
You don't even blink now, do you
Or even look away
This point of union between God and man is a heart of compassion.
Naturally, we strive to emulate anyone we admire that deeply: "So I try to be like you, try to feel it like you do." But the singer's prayer reveals a discovery that he can't, that his efforts are "no use... without you." To be like Jesus, we need Jesus himself. Only by letting God graft us into the Union he embodies can we find the fruit of that Union manifest in us.
And so the song draws to a close still yearning for this marriage, this Union, with a heartfelt, almost teenage-romantic cry to the Beloved: I can't wait any longer!
I can't wait any longer
I can't wait till I'm stronger
I can't wait any longer
To see what you see
When I look at the world
All wonders in one sight. Heaven in earth and God in man.
....It's 4 Advent and we can't wait any longer.
Showing posts with label advent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advent. Show all posts
12.20.2009
12.13.2009
Advent blog repost 3
This is a repost of an Advent blog series I did in 2003; the theme of Advent 3 was "SOURCE."
Lookin' for to save my, save my soul
Lookin' in the places where no flowers grow
Lookin' for to fill that God-shaped hole
The word of the day is "SOURCE"; the song of the day is "Mofo."
All of us have the "God-shaped hole" U2 sing about here. But not all of us are so desperate as the narrator to fill it, to hear the "sound that's gonna drown out the world," to see "the face I had before the world was made." Some of us have our thirst for the Ultimate ripped open early, and the wound is always with us; others pile trash on it our whole lives to keep from having to confront the emptiness.
This song screams the way we all would if we were willing to be fully human. It screams for the Source, for God, albeit in terms suggested by the dimensions of one particular human wound ("Mother, you left and made me someone.") It drives at a meeting with "baby Jesus under the trash." Whether you are one of the wounded or one of the trashed, there's still time to look for him.
Lookin' for to save my, save my soul
Lookin' in the places where no flowers grow
Lookin' for to fill that God-shaped hole
The word of the day is "SOURCE"; the song of the day is "Mofo."
All of us have the "God-shaped hole" U2 sing about here. But not all of us are so desperate as the narrator to fill it, to hear the "sound that's gonna drown out the world," to see "the face I had before the world was made." Some of us have our thirst for the Ultimate ripped open early, and the wound is always with us; others pile trash on it our whole lives to keep from having to confront the emptiness.
This song screams the way we all would if we were willing to be fully human. It screams for the Source, for God, albeit in terms suggested by the dimensions of one particular human wound ("Mother, you left and made me someone.") It drives at a meeting with "baby Jesus under the trash." Whether you are one of the wounded or one of the trashed, there's still time to look for him.
12.06.2009
Advent blog repost 2
This is a repost of a blog series I did in 2003. The theme for Advent 2 was "STRETCH."
"STRETCH" - what the word means is to make room, to change yourself so that you can accomodate or connect with something else -- something that, before you stretched yourself, was formerly too much, too far, or too unusual. Christ born in poverty was a stretch for some people. God born at all is a stretch for more.
The first glimmer of the stretch in U2, for me, is 11 o'clock Tick Tock (which qualifies here for its very Adventy title, too.) They're what, 18 or 19 as they write these almost inane words?
It's all hints, with U2 lyrics this early... but when I listen, I imagine the very beginning as setting up a conflict that endures for the rest of the song: "It's cold outside, but it gets so hot in here." Inside, the "boys and girls collide" to music you're offering them so they can escape from the outside world, where you know perfectly well "the children [are] crying"; shouldn't a moral person be telling the crowd that "it's time to go" do something about their plight because "we haven't long"?
That is the stretch that is at the heart of the U2 vocation -- having a heart for rock 'n' roll at the same time you have a heart for God's heart. Continually stretching to make room for both is, IMHO, a large part of how this band stays so fresh. And it does keep you on your toes, after all, to repeatedly discover -- and shouldn't this be true for all of us, now and again -- that all you can say for yourself is
We thought that we had the answers;
it was the questions we had wrong.
Keep stretching.
"STRETCH" - what the word means is to make room, to change yourself so that you can accomodate or connect with something else -- something that, before you stretched yourself, was formerly too much, too far, or too unusual. Christ born in poverty was a stretch for some people. God born at all is a stretch for more.
The first glimmer of the stretch in U2, for me, is 11 o'clock Tick Tock (which qualifies here for its very Adventy title, too.) They're what, 18 or 19 as they write these almost inane words?
It's all hints, with U2 lyrics this early... but when I listen, I imagine the very beginning as setting up a conflict that endures for the rest of the song: "It's cold outside, but it gets so hot in here." Inside, the "boys and girls collide" to music you're offering them so they can escape from the outside world, where you know perfectly well "the children [are] crying"; shouldn't a moral person be telling the crowd that "it's time to go" do something about their plight because "we haven't long"?
That is the stretch that is at the heart of the U2 vocation -- having a heart for rock 'n' roll at the same time you have a heart for God's heart. Continually stretching to make room for both is, IMHO, a large part of how this band stays so fresh. And it does keep you on your toes, after all, to repeatedly discover -- and shouldn't this be true for all of us, now and again -- that all you can say for yourself is
We thought that we had the answers;
it was the questions we had wrong.
Keep stretching.
12.01.2009
Adventskalender 2009
Staying with the Advent theme, U2tour.de has an online Advent calendar up starting today. It's a sort of quiz.
11.29.2009
Advent blog repost 1
This is a repost of a blog series I did in 2003. The theme for Advent 1 was SEEK.
The obvious candidate for "SEEK" is "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," which is precisely why I'm not using it. Instead, I want to turn the image inside out and think about God's search for us. After all, those who traveled to seek the newborn Word could only do so because his own quest had brought him into the flesh first. So the song of the day is "Drowning Man." Put these words on God's lips in Advent and see what they reveal:
I'll cross the sky for your love
Give you what I hold dear
God who hung the skies crosses them, lovesick for his lost people. Christ, his own Self, the dearest gift, is surrendered into the fragile arms of a peasant woman.
Chorus and verse, over and over, the same message: the One we are seeking has already come out in search of us, and is only waiting for us to accept the offer. "Take my hand...hold on tightly," God calls repeatedly; "if you can," he promises to "be there" with a "love [that] lasts forever."
The obvious candidate for "SEEK" is "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," which is precisely why I'm not using it. Instead, I want to turn the image inside out and think about God's search for us. After all, those who traveled to seek the newborn Word could only do so because his own quest had brought him into the flesh first. So the song of the day is "Drowning Man." Put these words on God's lips in Advent and see what they reveal:
I'll cross the sky for your love
Give you what I hold dear
God who hung the skies crosses them, lovesick for his lost people. Christ, his own Self, the dearest gift, is surrendered into the fragile arms of a peasant woman.
Chorus and verse, over and over, the same message: the One we are seeking has already come out in search of us, and is only waiting for us to accept the offer. "Take my hand...hold on tightly," God calls repeatedly; "if you can," he promises to "be there" with a "love [that] lasts forever."
11.28.2009
Repost of Advent blogs
I thought it might be fun to repost some pieces I put up 6 years ago when this blog had just started, as part of a grid blog on Advent themes viewed through the lens of U2 songs. I'll put one up each of the Sundays of Advent, beginning tomorrow.
12.09.2008
Lumia domestica, looking for light under the kitsch
Rather off topic, but I can't resist what seems to me a fairly obvious Advent/Christmas thematic connection here. On Flickr, lots of lovely shots of Willie Williams' current exhibition at Wallspace, All Hallows on the Wall in London. "A life-long fascination with kitsch drew Williams to the ugly and discarded glassware at the heart of each piece in the exhibition. The transformation into a sublime and meditative environment exemplifies Williams' chief concern – the artist's responsibility to discover beauty in unlikely places, rather than to accept societal 'givens' dictated by fashion, advertising and junk TV."
12.18.2006
Baptist
As Advent continues, here's an interesting find:a 1992 "U2 and John the Baptist" reflection published by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carandolet in their periodical "Spirit." Marred by a few typos, but worth a read. And people think Christians weren't talking about U2's work during the ZooTV era!
12.13.2006
Hear it every Christmas time
"Peace on Earth" seems to be the U2 song most widely used in the church (at least by preachers who post their material) this Advent. Thanks to Mark for sending me this link to another instance in his parish Christmas letter. Like Tripp, whose 1 Advent sermon I linked last week, he draws a parallel with a well-known poem by Longfellow. (Incidentally, as long as we're making reference to poetry, let's recall that the oft-cited line "hope and history won't rhyme" is essentially nicked from Seamus Heaney.)
Another briefer Advent reference to the same song comes up in this recent essay at The Ekklesia Project.
Another briefer Advent reference to the same song comes up in this recent essay at The Ekklesia Project.
12.12.2006
"Midnight is Where the Day Begins"
Two more Advent and U2 links: first, a suggestion for Advent meditation by way of a U2 performance from Milan, and second, a brief homiletic piece which passes by way of "Lemon," yes, "Lemon." I do believe that's a first.
12.10.2006
:::catalyst:::
Interested to learn today that there is a second church doing a U2 series in December, catalyst in Kent Ohio, and oddly enough the series has the same title as the other one we've covered, "When Love Comes to Town." I sort of now have to half wonder if there is a worship planning resource out there that suggested this, since it also appears they are using at least some of the same songs as Granger. [Update: see the comments for a post from the folks at catalyst: no resource, an entirely independent decision.]
12.04.2006
conjectural navel gazing: heaven on earth
Tripp writes to share his 1 Advent sermon using "Peace on Earth." There must be something very Advent-y about that song, since the sermon on it by Raewynne in our book is also from Advent.
[Update later: here's another liturgical use of the same song on the same day from The Story in Nashville TN.)
[Update later: here's another liturgical use of the same song on the same day from The Story in Nashville TN.)
11.29.2006
Biblische Ausbildung on U2
[Update to the below: there's yet another Biblische Ausbildung U2 post now, on "The Wanderer," reading it together with Rob Vagacs' take on the song from Religious Nuts Political Fanatics, Bonhoeffer, and Ecclesiastes.]
I marked and lost track of these brief reflections, with accompanying ZooTV-era video, on "Where the Streets Have No Name" by Stephen Cook of Virginia Theological Seminary. The post focuses mostly on the "city" imagery and identifies the band as being "something of a favorite among seminary professors." Fortunately, the same blog covered "Beautiful Day" this week, tying it in with the Revised Common Lectionary reading for 1 Advent from Jeremiah 33, and I've remembered I meant to send readers over there to have a look.
I marked and lost track of these brief reflections, with accompanying ZooTV-era video, on "Where the Streets Have No Name" by Stephen Cook of Virginia Theological Seminary. The post focuses mostly on the "city" imagery and identifies the band as being "something of a favorite among seminary professors." Fortunately, the same blog covered "Beautiful Day" this week, tying it in with the Revised Common Lectionary reading for 1 Advent from Jeremiah 33, and I've remembered I meant to send readers over there to have a look.
12.14.2005
MarkCyberCafe: One minute Advent sermon
Here's another small Advent offering, this one a blend of two sources. It's just called Peace On Earth - U2 (Yaconelli Remix).
12.11.2005
Now and Not Yet
A very brief reflection from a New Zealand blogger, which I'm linking because it's got a nice Advent theme -- and because it chimes with a conversation I was having with an email correspondent who mentioned admiring U2's "healthy understanding of inaugurated eschatology and the mission of Jesus." Whenever a theologian puts U2 and eschatology in the same sentence (an emphasis I understand Ned Gorman shared at his Covenant event in St. Louis as well) you can count on me to perk right up.
On a similar topic, Hopeful Amphibian, who has recently bid farewell to blogging, did an Advent Jukebox, which among other things featured "All Along the Watchtower."
On a similar topic, Hopeful Amphibian, who has recently bid farewell to blogging, did an Advent Jukebox, which among other things featured "All Along the Watchtower."
11.30.2005
Every day I've faced the same choice. Despair or plant hope. That's the Advent choice.
Steve at e~mergent kiwi preaches an Advent sermon on hope in unexpected places using Simeon, Anna, and the Madonna del Parto. There's a U2 thread throughout, but nicely weaving three things in rather than picking just one. Good practical ending too.
11.27.2005
incarnation as the beginning of a new song
As we move into Advent, here's a brief post linking U2's "War" and "Yahweh": It feels as though the not yet of the already not yet is beginning to be found.
12.22.2003
One more Advent sermon
Among the Christian groups our U2 book unfortunately does not have represented are any of the historic Peace churches, such as the Church of the Brethren. Which makes me all the more happy to have happened on, and now to be able to share with you, this Brethren Advent sermon from only 2 weeks ago which draws on "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."
Excerpt:
The road God paved will not lead to the mall, to the special gift, to the reach and grab and push and shove of December. It doesn't lead to weariness. It doesn't lead to the warmth of our Christmas traditions, as wonderful and important as they are. It doesn't take us to the "after Christmas let down" that many feel. It leads us further... to the source of our longing.
There is more anticipation leading up to Christmas than at any time of the year, even among those who claim not to have a drop of belief in their system. Why? People know in their depths that Christmas is about something they do not have. They may not have words to describe it, but it is still strong enough to flock folks into church pews that are vacant the rest of the year.
Excerpt:
The road God paved will not lead to the mall, to the special gift, to the reach and grab and push and shove of December. It doesn't lead to weariness. It doesn't lead to the warmth of our Christmas traditions, as wonderful and important as they are. It doesn't take us to the "after Christmas let down" that many feel. It leads us further... to the source of our longing.
There is more anticipation leading up to Christmas than at any time of the year, even among those who claim not to have a drop of belief in their system. Why? People know in their depths that Christmas is about something they do not have. They may not have words to describe it, but it is still strong enough to flock folks into church pews that are vacant the rest of the year.
12.21.2003
Union
[grid blog :: advent 4]
Welcome all wonders in one sight!
Eternity shut in a span.
Summer in winter. Day in night.
Heaven in earth, and God in man.
--Richard Crashaw (1613-1649)
This post is my last contribution to the Advent grid blog.
Despite what you've seen on TV or in the shops, this week the news is not birth, or babies, or shepherds, or stars. The real news is "UNION" - the marriage in Jesus of opposites, "without mixing, without change; [yet also] without division, without separation." That's the classic Chalcedonian definition of how Jesus is both God and human, but it's also a description of marriage.
Earth marries heaven as the Word is made flesh, and so our song is "When I Look at the World." It's a prayer that reveals a touchingly unfeigned admiration of Jesus:
I see an expression so clear and so true
That it changes the atmosphere when you walk into the room
What grips the narrator is not only Jesus as the Truth, as clarity, the one whose felt Presence changes everything; it's Jesus's steady ability to take into his open heart absolutely every moment of human suffering (and joy, but the ability to attend to suffering is in focus here):
When there's all kinds of chaos
And everyone is walking lame
You don't even blink now, do you
Or even look away
This point of union between God and man is a heart of compassion.
Naturally, we strive to emulate anyone we admire that deeply: "So I try to be like you, try to feel it like you do." But the singer's prayer reveals a discovery that he can't, that his efforts are "no use... without you." To be like Jesus, we need Jesus himself. Only by letting God graft us into the Union he embodies can we find the fruit of that Union manifest in us.
And so the song draws to a close still yearning for this marriage, this Union, with a heartfelt, almost teenage-romantic cry to the Beloved: I can't wait any longer!
I can't wait any longer
I can't wait till I'm stronger
I can't wait any longer
To see what you see
When I look at the world
All wonders in one sight. Heaven in earth and God in man.
....It's 4 Advent and we can't wait any longer.
Welcome all wonders in one sight!
Eternity shut in a span.
Summer in winter. Day in night.
Heaven in earth, and God in man.
--Richard Crashaw (1613-1649)
This post is my last contribution to the Advent grid blog.
Despite what you've seen on TV or in the shops, this week the news is not birth, or babies, or shepherds, or stars. The real news is "UNION" - the marriage in Jesus of opposites, "without mixing, without change; [yet also] without division, without separation." That's the classic Chalcedonian definition of how Jesus is both God and human, but it's also a description of marriage.
Earth marries heaven as the Word is made flesh, and so our song is "When I Look at the World." It's a prayer that reveals a touchingly unfeigned admiration of Jesus:
I see an expression so clear and so true
That it changes the atmosphere when you walk into the room
What grips the narrator is not only Jesus as the Truth, as clarity, the one whose felt Presence changes everything; it's Jesus's steady ability to take into his open heart absolutely every moment of human suffering (and joy, but the ability to attend to suffering is in focus here):
When there's all kinds of chaos
And everyone is walking lame
You don't even blink now, do you
Or even look away
This point of union between God and man is a heart of compassion.
Naturally, we strive to emulate anyone we admire that deeply: "So I try to be like you, try to feel it like you do." But the singer's prayer reveals a discovery that he can't, that his efforts are "no use... without you." To be like Jesus, we need Jesus himself. Only by letting God graft us into the Union he embodies can we find the fruit of that Union manifest in us.
And so the song draws to a close still yearning for this marriage, this Union, with a heartfelt, almost teenage-romantic cry to the Beloved: I can't wait any longer!
I can't wait any longer
I can't wait till I'm stronger
I can't wait any longer
To see what you see
When I look at the world
All wonders in one sight. Heaven in earth and God in man.
....It's 4 Advent and we can't wait any longer.
12.14.2003
Source
[grid blog :: advent 3]
This post continues the Advent grid blog, in which several Christian bloggers look at four themes. I'm doing so through U2 songs.
Lookin' for to save my, save my soul
Lookin' in the places where no flowers grow
Lookin' for to fill that God-shaped hole
The word of the day is "SOURCE"; the song of the day is "Mofo."
All of us have the "God-shaped hole" U2 sing about here. But not all of us are so desparate as the narrator to fill it, to hear the "sound that's gonna drown out the world," to see "the face I had before the world was made." Some of us have our thirst for the Ultimate ripped open early, and the wound is always with us; others pile trash on it our whole lives to keep from having to confront the emptiness.
This song screams the way we all would if we were willing to be fully human. It screams for the Source, for God, albeit in terms suggested by the dimensions of one particular human wound ("Mother, you left and made me someone.") It drives at a meeting with "baby Jesus under the trash." Whether you are one of the wounded or one of the trashed, there's still time to look for him.
This post continues the Advent grid blog, in which several Christian bloggers look at four themes. I'm doing so through U2 songs.
Lookin' for to save my, save my soul
Lookin' in the places where no flowers grow
Lookin' for to fill that God-shaped hole
The word of the day is "SOURCE"; the song of the day is "Mofo."
All of us have the "God-shaped hole" U2 sing about here. But not all of us are so desparate as the narrator to fill it, to hear the "sound that's gonna drown out the world," to see "the face I had before the world was made." Some of us have our thirst for the Ultimate ripped open early, and the wound is always with us; others pile trash on it our whole lives to keep from having to confront the emptiness.
This song screams the way we all would if we were willing to be fully human. It screams for the Source, for God, albeit in terms suggested by the dimensions of one particular human wound ("Mother, you left and made me someone.") It drives at a meeting with "baby Jesus under the trash." Whether you are one of the wounded or one of the trashed, there's still time to look for him.
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