Adelaide concert - Thursday 16th November, AAMI Stadium.
City’s population: one million. Crowd: 66,000.
Jesus walks, Kanye West talks
Now seems like an appropriate time to introduce you to U2's support act, Kanye West. I know so little of him and his music, but I am grateful to U2 for introducing me to a style of music I wouldn't normally give a second thought. I won't venture to describe his music too much, it's hip-hop, but within that genre, Kanye creates an interesting combination of classical stringed instruments, a DJ, and a gorgeous dancing female back up vocalist.
Kanye West paused in his set and gave a brief testimony of how God had changed his life. He told of how he should be dead but God gave him a second chance. He was on his way home from the studio, when he fell asleep at the wheel, crashing his car and breaking his jaw in three places.
Kanye apologized to the crowd. He didn't want to come across as pushing his beliefs on us. But his faith was so important to him that he wanted to share it with everyone. And so he did, launching into a track called Jesus Walks.
But let's get back to the main act, U2.
In the name of human rights
Should Christians be supportive of Human Rights?
After the "heart of darkness' in U2 set, healing arrives with Miss Sarajevo. Bono downplays the role of the wise teacher of Ecclesiastes by posing the question:
"Is this the time for keeping your mouth shut, or is this the time for Human Rights?'
After we read the six articles of the Declaration of Human Rights, U2 launch into their epic anthem, Pride (in the Name of Love). This is the song that grabbed me when I was 15.
It's a song about Martin Luther King's dream for equality of persons. Having posed the question, “Is this the time for human rights”, U2 pick up an old anthem to apply it to a new situation: Justice and equality for Africans and those living in first world countries.
We're singing the "oh ohaho's' of Pride when Edge's guitar chimes in for Where the Streets Have No Name. I love that sound. Edge's guitar cuts the air, criss-crossing the crisp Adelaide night sky. It's haunting and ecstatically joyful. Hope has arrived.
During the Elevation tour Bono would often introduce Streets with a prayer that reflected on "the blessings poured out on him' (quoting Psalm 116). Tonight we're looking forward. All the flags of African countries are scrolling down the giant LED screen as Bono draws us into what MLK's "dream' means tonight.
Bono's exhorting the crowd, “not just Martin Luther King's dream. But an Irish dream. An Australian dream. An African dream”.
Mirroring Edge's guitar, Bono's binding the globe together, throwing his arms around it. Africa. We're far away, but Bono's trying to bring us so close.
"From the heights of Mt Kiliminjaro to the heart of Australia" from Drop the Debt to Make Poverty History".
The tension builds. Larry's sticks are pummeling that little tom. Adam's bass is throbbing and pulsing. Edge's guitar reaches fever pitch" and the long crescendo climaxes with Bono screaming:
"Make Poverty History!"
This is the dream. A dream based on the rights of every human being. A dream based not on charity but on justice. The justice that says an African person is just as valuable as an Australian person. The justice that says God will hold us to account for how we treat each other.
Where the streets name you
Streets has very simple lyrics, yet both it's sentiment and music have proven their right to remain in the U2 set since 1987.
“I wanna run, I wanna hide
I wanna tear down the walls
That hold me inside
I wanna reach out and touch the flame
Where the streets have no name”
A street can determine your status. Your postcode boxing you in, determining how people treat you. Bono knew this from his upbringing. You may know it from yours. But what of Africans? Where you live determines your status. Where you live determines your worth in the eyes of the western world. For example, in Shake Hands with the Devil, Romeo Dallaire quotes a US military source as saying that one US soldier's death was worth about 1000 Rwandan deaths.
So "streets' do matter. Streets are the basis of our assessment of each other's worth. Yet as Bono sings on a more recent track, Crumbs, "where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die".
One of the great things about U2 songs are their malleability. On the PopMart tour Streets had become a song about heaven. Bono sang the coda "then there will be no time of sorrow, then there will be no time of pain". In heaven where God's rule is completely unopposed, there will be no "streets'. Equality will be found in full bloom. As the Scripture says, "in Jesus there is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female" all are one in Christ Jesus' (Galatians 6). But Bono doesn't want to wait for "pie in the sky when you die'. He wants to see evidence of Christ's rule on earth as it is in heaven. He wants to see that equality now.
Bono's giving final words of impassioned encouragement:
"Take us there Australia. Lead us!"
Make poverty history
Human Rights. What do you make of that? Aren't they the sort of things Christians should be at the forefront of supporting? I have a small "quibble' with Bono on this one. The Declaration is not particularly Christian. Human rights are anchorless, a shifting sand that will continue to evolve according to the dominant voices in our society.
Should those in same sex marriages have the right to adopt children? Should every person have the right to life? Christians have a firmer basis for acting on behalf of their human brothers in places like Africa. When Jesus rose from the dead, God said one great big "yes' to the value of every human life. Jesus took humanity with him into the Godhead. The corrupted image of God in each of us has been judged and vindicated in Jesus death and resurrection. We won't discard our humanity when we die. If we trust in Jesus, our guilt before God no longer remains and he will transform our corruptible bodies into ones that will last forever.
So when we see our African brothers, we see ourselves. And it matters. As Calvin says, we see the image of God and it drives us to compassion. We see children raising families because the parents are dead. We see preventable diseases wasting life on a colossal scale. We see our wealth and privileged position God has given us and it drives us to do something. It is because God has made them and because we know God values every human life equally that we are driven to act compassionately.
The crowd is pulsating now. "What a place", says Bono. Bono's asking us all to take out our cell phones. We hold them up and the 60,000-plus crowd turns the stadium into a giant Christmas decoration. It's impressive.
But this isn't just about aesthetics. We're to text our full name to a number that will enable us to show our support for the Make Poverty History campaign. The preacher has spoken and its time to act.
"If we really believe African lives matter as much as ours, then we need to act. We can change the world. We can end extreme poverty if we all act together, as ONE."
It's time for resolution. U2 play One
And so the first, incredible set for U2 comes to a heart rending close as the band play the very beautiful One.
Calvin says the poor are given to us by God as a thorn in the side of the rich. Bono has inserted that thorn, I'm twisting it.
One last thing
I'm glad to see some of you are concerned about my financial stewardship.
But let me ask you a more important question. Do you believe African lives matter as much as yours? Do you? If you do, then what are you doing about it? Do you believe the lives of the people of PNG matter as much as yours? AIDS is rife there. When will it touch our nation? Make Poverty History is not a difficult campaign to understand. It's not about giving money. It's about speaking up and getting government to do their job. It starts with you. It starts with your church.
Stephen Shearsby, children's minister at St Paul's, Menai, is attending each of the seven U2 concerts that the band are performing in Australia. He has been sharing his experiences of the concerts and reflecting on their Christian signifcance in a series of blogs.
Read the news story, Stephen's previous blog and his final blog.
