"In the beginning, God pulled the sheets off...."

There've been a few interesting postings leading up to and in the wake of U2's recent concerts on the West Coast of the USA. First, at New Hope Church in Calgary (which we've linked before here in conjunction with various pop culture homilies) June 5 saw a message that examined the overall arc of the Christian narrative (creation, fall, redemption & return) via the lens of U2. (The page linked simply lists some Scripture references paired with lyrics, but you can listen to MP3s of the sermon itself.) There are some interesting comments on "White as Snow" and a Communion rite using "Moment of Surrender" along the way. Pastor John Van Sloten also included some reflections on how the concert fed into the preaching experience on his blog.

Recent audio

The podcast of my interview on the Greg Glatz show in conjunction with U2's concert in Winnipeg on Sunday is available online now. (The direct MP3 link is here.)

Celebrity is currency

The Other Journal podcast has a session on celebrity featuring Cathleen Falsani & Jeff Overstreet. There is some interesting, thoughtful U2 content from both Falsani and Overstreet in an overall interesting piece on why celebrities matter culturally and why our tendency to idolatry shapes how we view people who are famous.

Update to today's first post

Update: A working version of the video from "Creative Community" is now up.

Stability, conflict, mission

Here is an iTunes podcast link to download my address at Gordon College's Convocation a week ago entitled "Creative Community: Lessons from U2." There is a YouTube version here, but there's some problem with the video file and part of the middle of the talk is missing.

As I say in the address, it is rather out of character for me to deliver public statements about U2 that focus on anything but their artistic output -- and frankly listening back to it feels odd. But it was interesting to try looking not at U2 as a topic, but at a topic (community) that I thought would be relevant specifically to a college-age Christian audience, while drawing examples from U2. Thanks again to Gordon for the invitation.

Sermon using Moment of Surrender

I have not had time to listen to more than a few minutes of this sermon (and I'm having trouble getting past some of the speaking mannerisms, honestly, altho the pastor clearly does actually love the band) but Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri featured "Moment of Surrender" in the pulpit a few months ago as part of a message on conversion. Audio via streaming or download. HT to Fresno Dave for the link.

Recent audio by Jeff Keuss

Those of you who heard Jeff Keuss at the U2 academic conference (and maybe those who didn't!) might enjoy giving a listen to this 40-minute podcast by him called "U2 and the Future of Transformational Leadership." It's on iTunes, taken from a recent event at Seattle Pacific University. (I haven't had a chance to listen yet but everything I've heard him do on the band has been thoughtful and insightful.)

Somebody has checked their album release schedule

Crossroads Community Church in Enterprise, Alabama USA has just launched a month-long series drawing on U2 songs. This week, "Beautiful Day" in a snowstorm (some comments on the pastor's blog); next week, "Mysterious Ways." I have not had time to do anything more than glance at this, so no idea of the quality. If you're interested in checking it out, streaming audio will be here.

Audio of an older U2 lecture

While we all digest the "No Line" track version 2 and wait to see what we'll hear next...
Thanks to Doug who writes to say that an MP3 of a talk entitled "How to Dismantle an Atomic Band: U2, Celebrity and Christian Identity" by Ned O'Gorman from the Francis Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Theological Seminary is available online (scroll down). I posted about this when it happened in 2005, but I don't think any audio was made available then, so just in case some of you want to hear it...

The Kindlings Muse » Get Up Off Your Knees

Dick Staub has recently reposted an old podcast interview he and I did upon the release of Get Up Off Your Knees. Features a lot of me trying to remember what other contributors said in their sermons. Audio here. HT Thunderstruck.

imeem, you meme

Doing U2's MySpace one better, here's imeem exclusively streaming all three 2-disc deluxe editions of Boy, October, and War in their entirety for one week.

Incidentally, the live performance of "I Fall Down," track 12 on the bonus disc for October, is probably my favorite ever live version of that song, with copious heartfelt lyric changes that by the end almost verge on a sort of prophecy. If you want to get a visceral sense of the dislocation, anger, yet determination to persevere in faith that this band were going through duing the October period, just listen to this performance.

[edit: In fact, why not just embed it?]

"I thank thee, O Father, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes."

Hat tip to the @U2 blog for pointing out some recent posts to YouTube that document a very early phase in U2's history, radio interviews from before Boy. In addition to the one mentioned on their blog, the same user has posted the show where listeners are invited to pick the single for U2:3 -- as well as a two-part 1981 audio post which readers of this blog will also doubtless be motivated to check into. In it, Bono plays and reviews tracks from what was then Bob Dylan's new Christian album, Shot of Love with great enthusiasm and interest.

To a listener in 2008, it is hard not to notice that the themes of rebirth and starting over which are so prominent on U2's most recent album were already eliciting great energy from U2's lyricist in 1981. Part 1 of the Dylan review is here.

Where is the peace on earth?

From a preaching series called "Has God Failed?" at All Souls Church, Langham Place, Mark Meynell reflects on, and posts a link to, his recent sermon using "Peace on Earth" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

"Blessed are the meek who scratch in the dirt/ For they shall inherit what's left of the earth"

Not much has been going on relevant to the topic of this blog lately, but I'm happy to be able to invite you to drop over to U2.com for a look at a video of Bono talking through one of the heretofore-unreleased Joshua Tree-era songs, "Wave of Sorrow." It's apparently a reflection on his time with World Vision in Ethiopia, but the reason I post it here is because it's interesting to watch him explain some of the Biblical allusions while he's singing along with the track. Appearances are made by Solomon, the Beatitudes (both new ones and paraphrased old ones), Ezekiel 37, and more. Check it out.

One for the iPod

A blogger whose site has the unusual name of "Holiness Reeducation" offers a podcast (in the "just two guys shooting the breeze" genre) with the long title "The Spirituality of U2 and The Difficulty of Finding Excellent Contemporary Praise Music." It runs about half an hour, and after starting with some random comments about favorite songs/albums, moves on to a discussion of spiritual themes in U2's work, the danger of equating a song's narrator with its composer, and postmodernity. The bulk of the podcast, however, moves on to opinions about CCM and music written for corporate worship, which may be of interest to some of our readers as well.

Sermon using "One" -- "Restoring the Circulation"

A reader sent in this audio link to a recent sermon from Farmers Branch Church of Christ which launches by drawing in a fairly sustained way on "One." It's from a series on spiritual gifts. The Bible passage brought into dialogue with the song, and with the way church communities do and don't treat each other, is 1 Corinthians 12-13. (Has a nice community-focused treatment of "Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head?")