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"I've never seen more publicity around a single item that has gone missing than that laptop." -- Edge, on Bono's lost laptop, 2000 |
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"I've never seen more publicity around a single item that has gone missing than that laptop." -- Edge, on Bono's lost laptop, 2000 |
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Spinning Songs into Sermons: New Book Shows That Fans Can Preach, Too
@U2,
April 07, 2004
Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog. Editors Raewynne J. Whiteley and Beth Maynard. Cambridge, MA: Cowley, 2003.
If you are building a library of choice U2 literature to bequeath to the next generation, there's a new book that would be a good addition. You'll have to shelve it in your "Religion" section, however; not with the "celebrity biography" books, nor with the "partied-with-the-band-while-on-tour" books, or in the quasi-journalistic "behind-the-scenes-band portrait" category. If you enjoy this book on any level (or on several levels, as I did), I think it'll have a lot to do with you having come to terms with the fact that U2 has been, is, and likely always will be about big ideas. You'll understand why, for example, a U2 album cleverly misnamed Pop will be the furthest thing from ten to twelve trifling melodies backing lyrics of skin-deep sentimentality. You'll have come to terms with this aspect of U2, and you'll be okay with that. When writers look into this band's lyrics, many of them see religion. Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog (Cowley, 2003) engages the songs at this level, directly and deeply. Editors/Contributors Raewynne J. Whiteley and Beth Maynard have boldly stepped into Bono's limelight and have nudged him aside a little so that others can bring both U2 and God on stage. In this book, it's not Bono speaking about Christianity, but two dozen thoughtful fans speaking about how they see a U2 song coexisting with a Biblical passage or story, and how one illuminates the other and ultimately amplifies their common themes. Cowley Publications has as its mission "to provide books and resources for those seeking spiritual and theological formation." It is somewhat ironic, then, to have Cowley tempt us with this new book, and it's cruel of them to do it in so many ways. But it's an offer worth accepting. What remorse can there be, really, when you realize that for about $15, you get 26 sermons covering 19 different songs spanning the vast U2 catalog (going as far back as October)? You also get a wonderfully written foreword by Eugene Peterson, biblical scholar, translator, popular author and U2 fan, on why U2 should rightly be called modern-day prophets (hint: it has to do with the power of metaphor). And you get Maynard's "A Brief History of U2 for Novices" (if you are one), and Whiteley's essay on why there should be an intersection of pop-culture and scripture in your sermons and how you can make that happen (perfect if you're a preacher). There's even a ready-made six-week lesson plan for conducting a class on God and U2. If you need any more incentive to buy this book, royalties on sales go to TASO (The AIDS Support Organization) in Uganda. Have no fear about reading this book of sermons. These preachers know how to reach a crowd and they don't require you to know much more about the Bible than what you learned in your childhood Sunday School lessons. Not all of the entries are sermons, either, and none are long. Some are essays or speeches given outside a traditional church service. They are grouped into six thematic categories, with a song title and a short introduction setting the stage for each. The themes start with "October"/"New Year's Day," and "Until the End of the World" and proceed to "Staring at the Sun," "Desire," "Elevation," and "Fire." It seems the introductory pieces are meant to be preludes or overtures, to use musical terms, evoking themes in the upcoming section. All six are composed by Sarah Dylan Breuer, a singer-songwriter-teacher with graduate degrees in New Testament and the history of early Christianity. Breuer's comments both confused and intrigued me. I can't say I always understood what she was talking about, but for that reason I keep coming back to read them. They get a little clearer with each reading. It's been tough going but I appreciate the challenge. There's fire and brimstone in some of the sermons, to be sure, recalling the tension created in concert when Edge plays his guitar-turned-air-raid siren to signal the coming of "Bullet the Blue Sky" or when the cacophony gets almost too much to bear, right before it ends, in "Gone." And you can almost picture Bono pounding his pulpit when he pleads with us in "Please": "Get up off your knees." These sermons challenge us to do something with our lives, our politics, and our interactions with our neighbors. They don't squelch the spirit of either the song or the scriptures. But sermons are as much for comforting as they are for agitating. There's plenty of sweetness and light delivered in this collection, too. The sermons based on "Grace," "One," "Walk On," and "Where the Streets Have No Name" are just as encouraging and uplifting as I hoped they would be. They were true to the lyrics but also expanded my frame of reference for receiving them. I was glad to come away understanding more about a U2 song, rather than reading a replay of what I had already heard in the song itself. For example, Henry VanderSpek says about "Kite": "We are meant to grow toward full maturity...A key step in this journey is facing the reality of death, the reality of our own sin and pride, and recognizing our need for help to do so." David Friedrich is inspired by "The Playboy Mansion" to contrast pursuing false idols in worldly temples (or mansions) with pursuing God, as he's found working through Mary, the mother of Jesus, and us: "God called a young woman in the middle of nowhere to be a fitting temple to bring into the world God in human form...God continues to call people to be vehicles, temples, of the incarnation." Jamie Parsley finds the warning in "If God Will Send His Angels" that "[w]e too might miss out on the love God offers us in our lives when we are distracted by our possessions." You should be prepared to come across some passages in this book as profound and knotty as this one, from Stephen Butler Murray's message based on "Where the Streets Have No Name": "U2's refrain reminds us that in the midst of our vulnerability, it is the company of others that our identity is forged and our authenticity is realized. The mutuality at the end of the song refuses the solitary fear of the beginning: in the end, identity must be claimed, with the two voices of the song as one, refusing to be alone anymore."Maynard selects "Tomorrow" to present a compelling argument for why we shouldn't be afraid to go looking for the facts in life, even if they hurt us at first when we encounter them. We shouldn't be content to have a "secondhand relationship with God," Maynard says. As the narrator of the song defiantly answers a knock on a door, only to receive tragic news, he in turn grows in his faith that he will join whom he loves tomorrow. The same defiant impulse drives Thomas, the Skeptic, to demand to see the risen Christ, upon which he confesses his joyful belief. Maynard understands the "youthful enthusiasm" U2 displays in their song as a completely appropriate response to "the firsthand discovery of a kind of knowledge that is self-authenticating, and instantaneous, and indistinguishable from love." There were no surprising selections from U2's catalog. "Gone" and "The Playboy Mansion" might raise an eyebrow at first, but after a quick review of their lyrics the songs seem like two more logical texts out of which a sermon can be spun. I enjoyed this collection so much that it made me wonder what could be done with more of the catalog, such as "Acrobat," "Love is Blindness," "Last Night on Earth," "The First Time," or "The Wanderer"? I wish there was an index to the book by song title and Bible verse, but that's one of its few shortcomings. Each sermon does, however, note before it starts which song(s) and scripture(s) it draws upon. Though this book is not about the members of U2 or their performances, per se, there are enough personal accounts of what it was like to attend a concert, hear Bono deliver a speech, hear a new song, or introduce U2 to a friend to feed your primal fan appetite. These sermons are tributes to texts: U2 texts and Bible texts. They are "cover songs," if you will, from a host of smart and creative fans of the band and The Book who are from different professional walks of life. Some are writers, some are teachers, some are singers and artists. Many are involved in ministerial vocations. There is a high-tech sector worker, an online business owner, and an economist-turned priest, too. Most are of a Protestant stripe; one or two are Catholic or Anglican. Whiteley and Maynard are Episcopal ministers who enjoy mixing pop-culture with their work in local parishes. Each contributor celebrates the big ideas in both sets of texts with their new text. That's how it should go: one group of people inspiring another to live for causes and beliefs higher than themselves. I wouldn't be at all surprised if after you read a few of these sermons you'll be hungrier for a more meaningful life. You'll probably have a strengthened conviction about how effectively the U2 catalog marries message to music. These sermons work because they do a good job of telling a good story, just as a song does when it works. You know that feeling so many say they've had at the end of a U2 concert -- that feeling that makes you want to get up off your knees? I think you'll get that feeling from these sermons, too. That's why you should get up and buy this book. Get Up Off Your Knees is available from Cowley Publications and other booksellers. All royalties from sales of the book will be donated to The AIDS Support Organization in Uganda. © @U2/Calhoun, 2004.
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