U2 and Christmas
Earlier this year I read a book entitled Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas (New York: Riverhead Books, 2005). For those luddites who do not know who Bono is, well, first of all, he is a follower of Christ, a flawed one like all of us, but deeply passionate about spelling out what it means to be one of the saved. Second of all, he is the singer for the world’s greatest rock and roll band, U2, a band that my son Brian and I have had the privilege of hearing in concert at least three times (1992, 2001, and 2005).
Bono is asked the question by Assayas: “When was the first time something happened when you thought about a line from the Scriptures? When you first said to yourself: yes, I can see beyond that and see how it applies to such and such situation?”
Bono responds by first saying that the story he is about to tell Assayas is not the first time that Scripture’s relevance was felt. He had gotten back from a long tour and was excited to celebrate Christmas in Dublin (Ireland). He went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and arriving late, he had to sit behind a pillar and could not see a thing. All he could hear was the lovely choral singing. Because of travel fatigue he was having a hard time staying awake, and so he focused on reading the Christmas program. As he was reading, it dawned on him, not for the first time, but it really sank in: the Christmas story. Bono recounts:
The idea that God, if there is a force of Love and Logic in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. That it would seek to explain itself and describe itself by becoming a child born in straw poverty, in shit and straw…a child… I just thought: ‘Wow!’ Just the poetry ….Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable. There it was. I was sitting there, and it’s not that it hadn’t struck me before, but tears came down my face, and I saw the genius of this, utter genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this. . . . Love needs to find form, intimacy needs to be whispered. To me, it makes sense. It’s actually logical. It’s pure logic. Essence has to manifest itself. It’s inevitable. Love has to become an action or something concrete. It would have to happen. There must be an incarnation. Love must be made flesh.
Now sit back and click on the image below to watch and listen to Bono as he sings “I Believe in Father Christmas.”
Christmas time is a time that Love was made Flesh.
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