Part 4 in the U2 Unplugged Series

Two hours by plane. That’s all the time you need to go from the poorest country in this half of the world – Haiti – to one of the most luxurious spots anywhere – Palm Beach, Florida. I experienced this rags-to-riches journey first hand during a church missions trip to the Caribbean nation. While there, our group worked in a children’s hospital in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

Upon our return to the United States, we stayed overnight at a church near Palm Beach. That evening, everyone thought it would be fun to take a drive down Ocean Boulevard, a sea-hugging road that sports multi million dollar mansion after another. Bad call. The experience proved nothing short of traumatic. With the smell of Haitian squalor still permeating our clothes, our senses were smacked by the visual splendor of Palm Beach. The casual laughs that filled the air gave way to uneasy silence as we stared at the luxury and extravagance before us. Silence soon led to frustration, then to a quiet rage at the unfairness of the world. I was incensed that the leftovers of these wasteful millionaires could cure and feed the diseased children I went down to help.

But, as I gazed out the van window, I suddenly caught a glimpse of my own reflection. That fleeting snapshot, caused by the setting sun, seemed to be God’s way of directing my judgment away from the millionaires back onto myself. I began to realize that, to the Haitians I visited, I was just like these Palm Beach socialites. Since I had enough food and shelter, I was rich in their eyes. Eventually, I was able to admit to myself: Wouldn’t my crumbs fed the Haitian children too?
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One of the best known lines in politics over the twenty years is: It’s the economy, stupid! , referring to what matters most to the electorate when it comes to voting in presidential elections. The phrase was originally coined by Bill Clinton’s campaign manager in the early 90s in an effort to keep the candidate focused during the long election campaign.

When it comes to the issue of sin, I need a similar reminder to keep myself on track—it’s the relationship, stupid. Too often I completely misunderstand sin, thinking of it as nothing more than “breaking God’s rules”. But in focusing on “do’s and don’ts”, I completely miss the bigger picture.

Yet, as Kenneth Bailey writes in his book The Cross And The Prodigal, the parable of the Prodigal Son offers three revealing insights into sin’s true cost.
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Part 3 in the U2 Unplugged Series

We live in a cross-eyed culture: 9 out of 10 people in our society believe in God, but less than 2 out of 10 believe in an absolute right or wrong. Clearly, we like the idea of God, but we don’t want to accept the reality that would result if that God actually existed.

Perhaps then John Lennon’s song “God” serves as a worthy anthem for our postmodern society. Wake up and stop deceiving yourself, sings Lennon in this 1970 song. God is not real. He’s nothing but “a concept.” Since there is no objective reality or absolutes, you can’t believe in anything beyond yourself. John’s inevitable conclusion is “I just believe in me.”

A generation later, U2 released “God Part II” [Lyrics] [iTunes] on their Rattle and Hum album. The song serves as a sequel and a believer’s response to the original Lennon song. Politely refuting the Beatles legend, Bono sings that belief in yourself or the world is a sure-fire, dead-end road. Instead, the only thing worth believing in is the love of God.
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Growing up as a “PK” (short for “preacher’s kid”), I was the “good boy”. I may have gotten into my share of mischief, but I never rebelled much as a teenager. I was not a partier, never drank a drop of alcohol, nor was even around drugs. I participated actively in my church youth group and went to a Christian college. You get the pristine picture.

Given this background, it is perhaps understandable that the story of the prodigal son never meant that much to me during that period of my life. It never seemed relevant. Like everyone else, I sinned, but I certainly did not consider myself a “wayward prodigal” or “a rebel without a cause”. Frankly, when I read Luke 15, I found myself identifying with the older son, the “good kid” in the story. Perhaps I even secretly rooted for him when he complained to his father upon his brother’s return because the whole situation smacked of being unfair. To me, the older son seemed to get the short end of the stick. After all, why did he not get a party thrown in his honor?
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Part 2 in the U2 Unplugged Series

“I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge.” — Bono

What comes around goes around…What ye sow, so shall ye reep…You get what you deserve.

The world is built on these expressions of karma, the idea that you if you do good things in life, then you’ll be rewarded; if you do bad, then you’ll get punished. Look around and you’ll see karma everywhere. In school, your diploma depends on your ability to know the correct answers. At work, your worth to the company is based on how well you perform in your job. Within the marketplace, you matter only so much as your credit rating.

Religion smacks of karma as well. Hindus believe how you live this life determines what sort of creature you are in the next. Obedience to the Five Pillars of Islam is the ticket to Paradise for Muslims. In Judaism, Mosaic Law proclaims “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” What’s more, all you hear coming out of some Christian circles is a long list of “do’s and don’ts”.

Every part of our lives seems to depend on our ability to measure up. When we succeed, life can feel pretty good. But, when we don’t make the cut, life sucks.

Yet, regardless of how well we thrive in school or a career, there’s one area of our lives in which we instinctively know that we don’t measure up: our relationship with God. Our conscience screams of our failure. Personally, I can’t go a day without sinning, let alone a lifetime.

Just when it looks like we are doomed, however, something amazing happens: a sudden, miraculous, and unexpected twist occurs in our story. Like a meteor from above, grace crashes into this bleak and hopeless existence. Grace transforms the worst possible situation into the best promise imaginable.

In the song “Grace” [Lyrics] [iTunes], U2 explores this otherworldly stuff called grace, which is the idea at the very heart of what Jesus Christ – and authentic Christianity – is all about.
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Part 1 in the U2 Unplugged Series

The perfect storm. Meteorologists speak of a perfect storm as a lethal weather system that starts off as a harmless squall in the middle of the ocean. But when this minor storm becomes mixed together with other weather patterns around it, watch out. This newly combined force spirals out of control and destroys everything in its wake.

Tough circumstances in our lives can work much the same way. When it rains, it pours. A situation that seems minor escalates out of proportion as other problems swell up around it. Perhaps marital strife prompts you to lose focus on your job right when management is looking to downsize. You are laid off. Your job loss kills your self-esteem and causes financial hardship. All of these pressures only serve to bring your troubled marriage to a breaking point. Finally, just when things seem like they can’t get worse, your pent-up anxiety causes an ulcer, which you can’t treat because you no longer have medical insurance.

When a scary confluence of events like this springs up in our lives, life appears totally out of control. “Drowning” becomes more than just a clever metaphor: it seems like the only word that fully describes our struggle. We gasp for breath while the waves crash down upon us.

But, even as we drown, our human nature often persuades us not to seek the real help we need. We make attempts to fake it for awhile to those around us. We smile on the outside and die on the inside. Poet Stevie Smith expresses our futile attempts, confessing: “I was much further out than you thought / And not waving but drowning.” Or, perhaps we start to look at a trusted friend as our savior from trouble. But, if we rely too much on someone else, we can simply pull the other person down underwater too, causing us both to drown.

However, as U2 describes in “Drowning Man” [Lyrics] [iTunes], there is only one person who can rescue us from a perfect storm: Jesus Christ himself. The song serves as an open invitation from Jesus to receive his help; you need only reach out and grab his hand.

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How do you view God? Is he a stern taskmaster waiting to pounce on us lowly humans the moment we make a mistake? Studies show that our perception of our heavenly Father tends to mirror the way we look at our earthly father. So, if we had a harsh, overly strict dad, we tend to think of God behaving the same way towards us. In stark contrast, Jesus provides a far different perspective for us in the story of the Prodigal Son, a parable with profound insight as to the nature of God’s love for His children.

We read in Luke 15:20: “…And while [the younger son] was still at a great distance, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.” In a previous post, I looked at the humiliation willingly suffered by the father in the parable by this act of racing to the son. I want to dive in further by looking at the other components of the verse. Based on Ken Bailey’s excellent The Cross and the Prodigal, let me point out three insights we can glean to find out more about God’s love.
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