Yeah. Me either.

The AP story recapping the Dove Awards, mentions Bono on video saying, "I'm a fan of Nashville, and I'm a fan of gospel music." (USA residents will be able to see for ourselves when the UPN TV network shows the awards on May 28th.) But the clip was a lead-in to a performance by Jars of Clay, and according to the band's site, Bono, front man for rock band U2 and founder of awareness campaign DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) introduced Jars of Clay's performance by way of video from Dublin, Ireland. The rock legend noted, �As a fan, I don�t think anyone has had a bigger voice than the activists in Jars of Clay. I�ve had their version of the song, 'Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet' in my car for a year now, and you know what, it never has failed me yet. God Bless You.�

If you would like to hear this song, which is a traditional Gospel lyric, CBD's page for the album has a sample in Windows.... or Real. Also, Jars of Clay have commented on how they see the song tying in with their activism in Africa.

Someone behind a pulpit? In seminary? Over a denomination? Nope.

Well, turns out the "Book Talk" column from CCM that covers Get Up Off Your Knees is online after all.

Brak de band met de kerk. Maar niet met God.

I guess this explains the recent run of hits from the Netherlands. Welkom.

Better late than never department: CCM review of Get Up Off Your Knees

A big thank you to book contributor Henry VanderSpek, who attracted enough attention with the Toronto book launch event he and Brian Walsh put on that CCM Magazine approached him about reviewing Get Up Off Your Knees. I'd missed the news that their review ran in March; well, Jay Swartzendruber from CCM just sent me a whole bundle of CCMs, including the relevant issue, with a nice note. Their reviewer Nancy Guthrie does a fine job making connections likely to resonate with readers, and calls the book "a 'must-have' for any communicator who is looking for creative and credible ways to connect culture and faith."

Also, thanks to TallSkinnyKiwi for linking the Dick Staub interview excerpt (again, the whole thing is here.)

U2 may not be coming to Australia any time soon, but Raewynne is.

My co-editor, Raewynne J. Whiteley, is doing several events in Australia beginning next week.

First, there's Sydney. The Uniting Church in Australia's Insights Magazine News reports on events planned for Raewynne's visit: a May 5 "coffee space styled" worship service with U2 music by A Thousand Lights, and then a May 6 workshop on "The Gospel and Popular Culture": An exploration of scripture, culture and context as they impact our lives and faith. Both culture and religion tap into the very essence of who we are; they are the building blocks of our identity � Jesus, as God incarnate, lived and demonstrated our essential need to engage with a world in which God lives and speaks! What shapes your reading and living out of the gospel in all its subtle and obvious connections? PDF flyers for both events are here.

Then, in Melbourne, May 10, Raewynne will be the preacher at Trinity College Parkville. On May 12 she will give the Barry Marshall Memorial Lecture: "Woo Me, Sister; Move Me, Brother! What Does Pop Culture Have To Do With Preaching?" The announcement from Trinity is here. Email contact at Trinity: theology -at- trinity.unimelb.edu.au

"Stewardship of Influence"

I heard from someone else that Rick Warren, Mr. Purpose-Driven Life (or, if you're an American pastor, Mr. How We All Nearly Lost The IRS Parsonage Allowance) was quoting Bono in the newsletter he sends out to zillions of purpose-driven pastors. Yep. Issue #147, major article on AIDS in Africa, Bono quote at the bottom of the front page. It's not a bad article, for the audience Warren is trying to reach, actually.

Walking a line between faith and belief

An uncredited editorial in the Whistler Question, whose headline has little to do with its topic, reflects on the Dalai Lama's sellout talk in Vancouver BC and muses from a personal perspective about trying to walk by faith -- using several comments from the Bono introduction to the Psalms, as well as quoting U2 classics like the J33-3 (Jeremiah 33:3) story and the Tourette's syndrome image. There are also some nice remarks from Mother Teresa.

It's no secret at all.

A reader writes: I have to tell you about this highlight from Holy Week here at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland: Thursday evening we had a Agape potluck meal, a liturgy meal where we recalled the story of freedom, remembered our spiritual ancestors, and recounted Jesus' last supper (including hand washing or foot washing).

This part was not new: we've done it before and it has worked, except that we were left without an ending, and without any movement towards Good Friday. So we did something new.

The conclusion of the evening: after dinner, people had the experience of "journeying through the garden." We projected onto the large fountains of water on our walls 80 images that reflected 5 words: prayer, betrayal, denial, agony, and abandonment.

And the music blasted throughout the visual journey (adding to the unsettling conclusion of the evening) was U2's "The Fly" and "Until the End of the World."

...Seriously, how great would "The Fly" be in that context?

The Dick Staub Interview: Exegeting U2

The CT excerpt from my Dick Staub interview is up, proclaiming that "Get Up Off Your Knees preaches U2 from Boy to All that You Can't Leave Behind." Welcome to those who are visiting the blog from CT's website today. Dick Staub's own site has a full transcript of our conversation.

FYI, as you'll find if you read here a bit, I use this space mostly to track book news, but also include news on others who are preaching on U2 or using their art in worship, on U2 and God stuff in general, and on pop culture and spirituality stuff in general. Links and suggestions always welcome.

Another U2 sermon on the net

Dave King answers, in sermon outline form, the burning question: OK, we get the theological point, but would anybody ever really use "Wake Up Dead Man" in church?

Wedding sermon: sweet as to mix U2 and Trinity

Get Up Off Your Knees has a wedding sermon using "Grace," and it also has a sermon using "One" which points out the comic inappropriateness of a couple requesting "One" at a wedding and then goes on to show a deep understanding of the complexities of the lyric. Some of you may also have seen the interview in which Bono and the Edge are talking about "One"; they mention how fans occasionally tell them they played the song at their wedding, and if I remember correctly Edge, shaking his head, moans something like, "And we're just, Oh no No NO, NO."

Well, here, from e~mergent kiwi, is, in fact, a wedding sermon using "One!" Now that takes guts. However, before you start to mimic the Edge, go read it. It interacts with some of the real themes of the text (rather than just the word "One" and "one life" and the general positive uplift of the end etc. which lead people to say, as the couple in Shawnthea's sermon in the book did, "It's a song about love!") This one refers to actual things in the people's actual lives that mirror the failures and disappointments talked about in the lyrics. So give it a look....

BTW I love the instructions from the groom to the preacher:
the longest wedding sermon ever.
sweet as to mix U2 and Trinity
just don't forget to mention the g or j words.

from Friday Night Running: Chris Martin and I Have Something in Common

...Yeah, I can see someone doing this at a birth.

Pursuing God with U2 - U2 and faith

Just wanted to let anyone who might be located near New Bedford-Fall River MA that I'll be doing four sessions based on the U2 and spirituality study found in "Get Up Off Your Knees" at my church beginning next week. Stealing a page from the event Eugene Peterson was involved with and writes about in our foreword, we're calling it "Jesus and Bono: Pursuing God with U2." Each session stands on its own and will span four Wednesdays (Apr 21-May 12), meeting beginning at 7 PM. Any questions, just email me.

We're in the Youth Specialties email update

Thanks to Youth Specialties for linking @U2's review of Get Up Off Your Knees in their 4/14 YS weekly update. It's down in section 3.

"...communicators who start with culture to bridge to Gospel."

The audio from my interview with Dick Staub is up. There will also be a full transcript posted soon. Welcome to anyone visiting for the first time from dickstaub.com.

"Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for he has risen."

You say you'll give me a highway with no one on it
Treasure just to look upon it
All the riches in the night
You say you'll give me eyes in a moon of blindness
A river in a time of dryness
A harbor in the tempest

All the promises we break
From the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you


***

TASO reference in the Sun-Times

Cathleen Falsani's profile of Dick Durbin, one in a Holy Week series on the faith of politicians, includes a moving story of his visit to this book's charity, TASO in Uganda. How's this for a Good Friday/Holy Saturday/Easter sentence: "They're all going to die and they know it. And they have a choir."

Rock of Ages: The Passion of Judas

For Good Friday, I offer you all this outstanding meditation on the only U2 song narrated by Judas, "Until the End of the World." I just have to quote one section:

With [the] final verse, the soul going through purgation and a living hell finds release. The one awaiting hope stands awestruck, bathed in healing and reconciliation, welcomed to share in the new life. ...While Mel Gibson�s film of the Passion dramatizes (and traumatizes) every human element of Jesus� last hours, U2 transcends the visceral and brutal while capturing the anguish of the soul and a long-suffering love. "Until the End of the World" makes the Passion of the Christ a truly personal faith journey, taking the listener from the darkness of sin and the tomb � "down the hold, just passing time" � into an eternity of love with the One that U2 believes would wait "until the end of the world."

Fr. Stetz? Why didn't you submit a sermon?

the Ghost Who, now that you mention it, does a bit more than just walk

You can tell it's Holy Week by the topics in the news, can't you? U2 schoolmate and skeptic Neil McCormick recounts, in an article titled "Mel Gibson made me a pop star," how his song "Harm's Way," credited to The Ghost Who Walks, ended up on the companion CD to The Passion of the Christ. (You can hear a sample at CBD.) Not surprisingly, it all fits into the plot line of what McCormick calls "a 30-year conversation about God" with Bono, orchestrated with deft humor by Somebody who moves in mysterious ways.

@U2 review: Spinning songs into sermons

Welcome to everyone who's visiting today after finding Scott Calhoun's review of Get Up Off Your Knees from @U2. I love many things about Scott's comments, but have to say I am especially thrilled that -- and for this I believe he stands in solitary glory, alone so far among everyone who has written on the book -- he managed to notice how many contributors are not ordained ministers.

{Update: and thanks to Thunderstruck and the Christianity Today Weblog for picking this story up immediately.}

Nous souhaitons aussi le bienvenu aujourd'hui � ceux qui ont d�couvert le bouquin chez U2achtung.

landmark

We had our 15,000th visit sometime this morning.

I think my main insight from the Dick Staub interview, which will be up in a few weeks, was this: wow, it is virtually impossible to summarize sermons, especially sermons by other people, especially off the cuff, especially without having looked at them in awhile. If you are reading this, and you contributed a sermon to Get Up Off Your Knees, and in a few weeks you hear me misrepresent it on Dick Staub's webcast, I apologize in advance.

Updates

I'm taping an interview with Dick Staub about Get Up Off Your Knees this afternoon. Most of my interviews have been by email, so I'm looking forward to this. Before I knew this interview was happening, coincidentally, I borrowed a quote from his website for my Palm Sunday sermon.

I also got a nice email today telling me that a theology class at a large seminary this spring had "several term papers on U2 some of which referenced your book." That's what we want to hear!

Jesus and Paul: The Word and The Witness

Just popping in while the ads are on to say I will be really interested to hear the reaction to the use of rock, reggae, and r&b in tonight's new Peter Jennings outing. So far they've illustrated Paul's life with REM, Bob Marley, DC Talk, POD, Curtis Mayfield, and more...

Who Reads What at 'Blogs for God'?

It's nice to see Get Up Off Your Knees in the top 10 currently at the very cool new WRW@b4G. Thanks also to Dave at Idea Joy, whose very cool idea WRW@b4G is, for the reference to us; look forward to seeing Dave's review of the book on Phantom Tollboth. (If you don't know Blogs for God, it's worth a visit.)

Who are the Handels of our time?

Interesting post from "a case of me", reflecting on how Handel's Messiah was controversial, denounced from pulpits, and "perceived by many ecclesiastics as profane and subversive" in its day -- and asking whether the artists treating Christian themes in secular media in our day may later be looked at with the same unquestioning endorsement the Church now gives Handel.

In a related story, does anyone ever suggest we'd better not sing "A Mighty Fortress" because Martin Luther often used profanity?

"God of the prophets, bless the prophets' heirs"

Mike at Waving or Drowning? comments on Relevant Magazine's description of its feature on Bono in last month's issue.

It's nice to see the comment that U2's spiritual emphasis (which the article collapses into "Bono's spiritual emphasis" - sigh) was evident beginning with Boy. One often hears people claim that there are no religious references on Boy.

Three little words

Many thanks to the folks at Enoch's Path, a jesus community, for their succinctly phrased advice: Buy This Book.

African Well Fund

The African Well Fund asks us to announce that they are running their 2nd annual "Build a Well for Bono's Birthday" drive throughout the month of April. Last year this same campaign raised over $10,000, used by Africare to fund 14 wells in Uganda. This year, the money raised will go to water projects in Ethiopia. African Well Fund is a registered non-profit 501(c)3 organization founded by U2 fans dedicated to raising funds for building and maintaining wells in Africa.