"What if God is even greater than we think?"

Cathleen Falsani shares on her blog that in the runup to the Anaheim U2 shows, her church (Little Church by the Sea) invited U2's chaplain, Jack Heaslip, to preach. She also shares a recording of the sermon that she made, the sound system having not worked that day. If any readers here have not heard him speak, or have only heard that brief Elevation Tour blessing that went around, you could take a few minutes to check it out.

[Update: @U2 have blogged about this with more complete information.]

"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.

Advent and the blues...

United Church of Christ pastor RJ borrows from a couple of U2 songs, Bono's preface to the Grove Press edition of the book of Psalms, and Sarah McLachlan in sermon notes for Dec 12 in his post Advent and the blues... Thanks to reader Jeff for the heads-up.

And all the nations shall stream to it....

For any of you preachers out there who are already preparing for Advent 1, Steve Lindsley has a nice U2 connection with the Isaiah 2:1-5 reading. I had some trouble finding an eschatological vibe in the Vertigo Tour iteration of "Streets," and Steve's remarks about the flags are helpful.

While we're considering sermons, Tim Neufeld has a post on a sermon he recently preached using "Still Haven't Found." I especially like the litany of questions.

What Love Has Done

If you didn't get enough Easter on Sunday, a reader writes to share that a church in Austin TX had Easter weekend services that drew on U2's work. (Podcast should be here. I have not had time to preview it.)

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.

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.

Presbyterian war and peace

Someone has pointed out that the 2008 Christmas message from the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand drew on U2's "Peace on Earth." Would our favorite Zen Presbyterian, or perhaps his dad, be pleased?

Christmas series, “When Love Comes to Town”

The Beachside Church in Florida, USA announces their iteration of what since 2006 has nearly become the traditional "focus on U2 songs in the weeks before Christmas" December series culminating on Christmas Eve, using what has nearly become the traditional playlist for this kind of series. Cause apparently, as we would say in Boston, U2 are wicked Christmasy.

Special offer: If your church is using U2 soon and you base a message around A)"Staring at the Sun," B)"Acrobat," or C)"Love is Blindness," I will mail you a prize... or buy you the beverage of your choice at the U2 academic conference in May.

Water, water everywhere … nor any drop to drink

Mark Meynell of All Souls Langham Place blogs about a Sunday focusing on the world water crisis with a presentation that used U2's "Wave Of Sorrow." The sermon itself is on this page. Even if you don't care about somebody using "Wave of Sorrow," you should click through to the post to read the statistics on the global need for clean water and what gets spent on that versus on, well, other things.

Another sermon series....

Edgemont United Methodist Church is in the middle of a sermon series on U2 songs. The site lists songs and what scripture they are paired with. In an introductory post called "in it but not of it...", Pastor Eric Bagwell gave his rationale for undertaking a "Gospel according to U2" series.

"Rock Band: U2" sermon series

Thanks to reader Cynthia for letting me know about a July sermon series from True North Community Church on Long Island (New York, USA) using U2's story and work in conversation with the Psalms. Drawing on Walter Bruggemann's orientation-disorientation-reorientation paradigm, the series moves through U2's career over four weeks. There is audio for all the messages at the link above.

If you don't enjoy highly breezy homiletics you may be put off initially, but from what I've sampled there's some very good stuff once you get past the breeze -- Pastor Bert Crabbe is obviously much better informed about the band than many people who attempt a sermon series based on U2's work (able to quote from Flanagan, for example, and full of funny imitations of Christian comments on the band in the late 80s); further, he has heartfelt points to make that relate to his U2 material more than superficially.

Lyrics to life

Those of you who read @U2 will have noticed in yesterday's Off The Record a comment about the author's pastor using "Beautiful Day" in a sermon. Sherry Lawrence, who wrote the piece, was kind enough to send along a link to the church's site, where you can hear the sermon (the link is only good this week), which alludes briefly to the song and then moves on to talk about the Biblical character Naomi.

sermons on the city

The folks at New Hope Church in Calgary are always alert to opportunities to draw attention to their pastor's habitual use of pop culture in preaching. A staff member wrote me to suggest I might link to two recent sermons on the theme of "Godopolis: the spiritual truth of the city." One of them features "City of Blinding Lights" and the other features "Where The Streets Have No Name." While I did glance at the PDF notes for #1, I haven't had a chance to give either sermon a listen, but readers may want to.

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."

Oscar the Pastor weighs in

Since we started collecting material for the book in late 2002, I sometimes worry that now, 5 years later, the chances are pretty low of my coming across any sermon interacting with U2's older material that doesn't choose the usual songs and ring the usual changes on them. Well, hang on. How about a Christmas Eve sermon using "Lemon"?

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?")

Thanks to alert reader Dana for letting me know about the (wait for it) "You Too" sermon/service project series currently going on at Hollywood United Methodist Church. Every Sunday, the message draws on a U2 song, and then there is a service project inviting the whole congregation to get involved in outreach. (This week is a dinner for the homeless, next week is lobbying for afforable housing, etc.) The church has a sermon archive page here. The songs included come from smack in the middle of what has now become the usual narrow playlist for events like this, but there's always the possibility of a new spin on something.

All of this can be yours

As Lent Year C begins and liturgical Christians reflect on the narrative of the temptation of Jesus in the desert from Luke 4, here's John van Sloten from New Hope Church in Calgary preaching on "U2 - Vertigo and God" using the same Gospel. This sermon dates from 2005; thanks to the reader who pointed it out. There is a PDF of his notes as well as some MP3s of varying quality. Some may remember I linked a more generic U2 sermon from this same church quite some time ago.

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.)