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?")

"The gift artists bring to the church may be no greater than anyone else's... but we need them desperately."

Simplify, Engage, Inspire is a blog leading up to a contemplative youth retreat, "The Altar," in Kansas in late September. Its owner has been posting about one of the speakers, Ian Cron, who has a novel out called Chasing Francis, in which a megachurch pastor loses his faith and goes on a pilgrimage, seeking to discover more about St. Francis of Assisi. A recent post on the arts quoted this novel, including the main character's "letter to Francis" telling the saint about a post-9/11 U2 concert.

It reminded me of the sermon in our book in which pastor Amy Lincoln describes her own experience at one of those same Madison Square Garden concerts. (If it won't load for you, try "full screen.")

What's your playlist?

A missionary in Togo, West Africa shares his 15-song "U2: Worship" playlist, with comments on each of the songs. (Nice to see "Three Sunrises" on there.)

Prepare Ye: Sing the blues

An ELCA seminarian posts a few reflections on the Psalms, including a link here and some other U2 content.

The things that happen on mission trips

Worth a link not for anything it says about U2's music, but purely for historical value, the as-yet-untold story of how one committed 1985 World Vision volunteer in Ethiopia inspired another.

Neon Bible: "A vindication and a majestic return"

Although it has occupied a lot of mental real estate for me this spring/summer, I don't think I've said much about Arcade Fire's Neon Bible on this blog. However, Books and Culture has now published a review by faith and culture writer David Dark that I feel like I'm entitled to link here, not just because of the several U2 namechecks, but on pure principle. Also contains some magnificent stuff on Funeral.

33 1/3 on Achtung Baby: exclusive excerpt from Stephen Catanzarite's book

While this blog has its origins in promoting our U2 book, I'm pleased to present today part of a different one. Here's a snippet from the section on "One" in the forthcoming book Achtung Baby: Meditations on Love in the Shadow of the Fall by Stephen Catanzarite. It's delightful to see extended musical as well as lyrical analysis (and I've had to cut several paragraphs from each for length here.)

"One" begins gently. In contrast to the ballyhoo and heavily processed sounds of the previous two songs, it is austere, even raw. You can almost smell the wood and feel the steel of the instruments, nearly taste the grit of a long day—or perhaps an even longer night—in the singer’s voice. This is a love song that reaches beyond romance, a kind of postmodern blues ballad that rises swiftly and powerfully above the banal.

Melancholia is in the song’s DNA, a certain darkness that is built right in to its chord structure. It is written in the key of C, a key so familiar to Western ears that it can quickly dissolve into musical treacle. A kind of tension in the arrangement of "One" never allows that. Nothing says "bittersweet" quite like a solid A-minor chord on which the song begins and to which it frequently returns...

The verses and choruses are not as obviously repetitive or distinct from each other as is typical of a pop song. Two main chord progressions cycle into and out of each other throughout the song, and all the other elements work around them. This structure, combined with the absence of a sustained lyrical hook, prevents the song from ever turning into an anthem. At its heart "One" is an elegy.

* * *
Lyrically, "One" is a conversation. It is the kind of conversation lovers often avoid having, those that can quickly overwhelm the peace and tranquility of even the most stable of households. Though its title suggests unity, the lyrics speak of difference. One of the many consequences of the Fall is the disintegration of our natural unity. We are at enmity with God, with each other, and with ourselves. In a Fallen world, love is not cheap, it does not come easy. Consider what the Bible has to say about love, in the words of the Apostle Paul:

"Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

Try not to let the familiarity of those words get in the way of what they have to say. These are not the romantic couplets of a greeting card. These words, like love itself, present us with a challenge. They call on us to reach beyond ourselves, beyond our selfishness, to rise above our fears, and to overcome our weakness. Not just for our sake, but for the sake of others. "One" boldly confesses that it is practically impossible to live up to that challenge. Yes, love is patient and kind, but we are jealous, arrogant, and rude. Even in adversity love truly does endure, but we want everything to go our way—and we bitch and moan the minute that does not happen. Like all good poetry, "One" shows rather than tells us how easy it is for the bitter to overcome the sweet.

The book is out next month and is available for preorder now.

Off topic, but perhaps a point of personal pride

The new issue of "Q" features a "Cash for Questions" with the Edge for which readers were invited to submit inquiries. As we say in the southern USA, I'm tickled to discover today that my question was used for the article. And no, I was not the person who asked "what does God look like?" (Nice philosophically sound answer, though.) Mine is about cheese.

Sound, Structure, Spirit

Some time ago e~mergent kiwi posted a piece with a short list of things he learned from Bono about worship leading. More recently, the Aquidneck Island Worship Network offered a piece with a similar title: "Lessons Learned From U2 for Leading Worship", but a more technical and thorough focus on precisely what about the band's music and show design facilitates encounters with God at their concerts (and why the sound of U2 has been borrowed by so many worship bands). Also has a nice section on why true liturgical music can't be pre-recorded.

Among the several points made:
--"A well-defined ambient and atmospheric sound... facilitates the soul in meditation on a focal point. It encourages a sense of something beyond or beneath the seen world - faith in an unseen Reality... In the case of U2, the Irish-influenced drone harkens to Celtic spirituality, which not only carries a feeling of spiritual grounding in tradition, but also feels consistant with Bono's lyrics.
--"U2's consistent lyrical emphasis on real world issues with transcendent sounds instructs the soul in being in the world but not of it. It's missional. It's catalytic. People who resonate with this element of the music want the Kingdom of God to be at hand. The good news is that IT IS!
--"Integration of ambient music with spoken word is a technique used commonly in a lot of churches. Bono frequently uses the instrumental refrains of songs as platforms to speak out on an issue. ...the verses sung, the lingering sounds and melodies are still in the air, and there is a beautiful pedestal for Truth to stand on... It penetrates us deeper. It becomes harder to remain ambivalent."

And many more. Worth a read whether you're a presider, music leader, or just someone wondering about the sonic technique behind the "work of the people" vibe at a U2 show.

"radikalt"

Thanks to Haralds strøtanker for the link.

Spider-Man embodies certain biblical values; Samson is just mentioned in the Bible.

Completely off topic: Greg Stevenson, whose U2 posts I've linked before, has just put up a great faith-and-culture reflection inspired by seeing a Samson action figure for sale. The Samson and Spider-Man comparison is a must-read.

The U2Source archive returns

The U2Source audio archive, dormant for quite some time, has revived and is worth a visit. Readers here might especially enjoy an Unforgettable Fire-era interview with Bono. His comments are paired with relevant U2 songs (most of which have been edited out, but you can tell what they were.) Some interesting remarks about violence, the sacredness of human beings among God's creation, the notion that God's love must include giving people the freedom to reject God, and mother/divine love in "I Will Follow."

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.

Update

Goodness, is it July already? Obviously, it's a down time in terms of anyone doing any new theological reflection (as opposed to "heard it 20 times already" reflection) on U2's work. If anyone has any links to prove that wrong, do send them in!

Public Service Announcement

I expect that this may not be available for very long, but for those who have not seen it, the video of Bill Hybels' interview with Bono as broadcast at the Willow Creek Leadship Summit last summer has been put up in several parts on YouTube, beginning here.

The Brian Eno word for the day is "teleological"

There's not too much to say about the various reports about U2's time songwriting in Morocco, but I did have to smile at the coy U2.com writeup of their attendance at a Festival of Sacred Music concert: "Turns out the Ensemble are the most famous classical Iranian group in the world and they deliver a virtuoso performance on the kind of percussion and string instruments rarely played in the West. Parissa herself is a mesmerising Arabic soul singer, totally lost in the music, hands raised heavenward in mystic praise even though no-one has a clue what she’s singing about." Come on, dude, who are you kidding? Everyone in the place knew what she was singing about, and if you didn't all you had to do was Google Rumi (the author of the texts); he's only the most famous Sufi mystic poet in the world.

"That's where the gifts come alive"

Here's a recent reflection from a Glasgow church planter on teams and how they function, using U2 as an example.

33 1/3 takes on Achtung Baby: "the zeitgeist of our fallen world"

Continuum has announced that forthcoming in their series of 33 1/3 books on seminal albums will be Achtung Baby by Stephen Catanzarite. The author's nascent blog is here; judging from it he will be drawing on a Roman Catholic perspective as well as prior training in writing (and music! hurray! Far too much of the philosophical/theological material on U2's art bizarrely stops short at the lyrics) for his work.

I have to say I am pleased to hear him comment there that "it is not a book about U2... it is also not, properly speaking, about the album Achtung Baby. It would be much more precise to say that the book is about what the album is about (or at least what I believe the album to be about)."

You can read an excerpt from chapter 1 at the Continuum 33 1/3 blog I linked above. (HT: Scott)

Countdown to Sunday

At the time they originally were going on a couple years back, I highlighted some u2-related conversations about preaching over on Chris Erdman's blog Odyssey (one of my pointers was here). Those, and many other, posts by Chris have now grown and morphed into a book, for which I happen to be one of the blurbers. You can take a look at it and preorder on Amazon if you care to.

[edit: link fixed, sorry.]

Google trends

The Beatles are consistently less popular than Jesus. The same is true for U2, thank God -- except A) briefly around the time of the release of HTDAAB and B) in Ireland, Slovenia, and New Zealand. (Ireland? I'm looking at you.)