Sleeping Giants: Unplugging U2’s “Crumbs From Your Table”

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?

This harsh contrast between Palm Beach and Port-au-Prince symbolizes the reality of the world today. On one hand, you have the “In’s”, people who live within their own comfy, secure, and gated universe. On the other hand, you have the “Out’s”, people who are struggling to survive beyond these gates, crying out for help to those blessed few on the inside.

This world of In’s and Out’s is nothing new. In Jesus’ day, these two camps certainly existed. Jesus acknowledged this reality, but called on believers to have compassion for the needy around them. To Jesus, caring for the sick, poor, and oppressed wasn’t just a command, it was a natural response to following him. After all, if you really love God, you are going to look at and respond to others like he does. Or, as author and speaker Tony Campolo says, your heart is going to be broken by the things that break the heart of God.

Many of the well-to-do religious leaders of Jesus’ day sounded like they loved God, but their talk was just empty words; they had no concern at all for the poor around them. They much preferred the idea of worshipping God in their sanitary and pristine synagogues rather than sullying themselves by reaching out to those in need.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus challenged these religious leaders, a group in an ideal position to make a difference, to serve God by loving those around them. Similarly, in the song “Crumbs From Your Table” [Lyrics] [iTunes], U2 calls on modern-day believers in America and other developed countries to live out the message of Jesus Christ by helping Africa, a continent besieged with the AIDS epidemic, unshakable debt, and absolute poverty. In interviews, Bono calls the church the “sleeping giant” in dealing with Africa. “If it wakes up to what’s really going on in the rest of the world, it has a real role to play,” argues Bono. “If it doesn’t, it will be irrelevant.”

Blackest Hole

The United States and other industrialized nations today have arguably far more going for them than any other civilization throughout human history. Believers living within these countries have the distinction of being some of the most learned, trained, and capable followers of Christ to tackle the problems of the world since the early New Testament church. To proclaim the gospel of Christ, we have around-the-clock Christian radio and TV. Films like Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ reach millions through the silver screen. Christian bookstores can be found in malls across America. There’s even an entire music subculture for Christian listeners. Believers are using their talents, abilities, and entrepreneurial ideas to reach out to the world in the name of Jesus Christ.

Yet, in spite of our efforts geared towards others who live in North America and Europe, we are doing far less to help millions of Africans who are in desperate need. AIDS has ravaged the African continent far more than any other spot in the world. Poverty and hunger, caused by debt, unfair trade practices, and bad governments, dictate that over 200 million people go hungry every day and that seventy percent of all Africans live on less than $2 a day. Our governments are giving some money to help, but not nearly enough. The church sends missionaries there, but far more assistance is needed.

As U2 begins “Crumbs From Your Table”, they contrast the great potential of the church with a sobering reality:

From the brightest star
Comes the blackest hole
You had so much to offer
Why did you offer your soul?

We may be a group of believers who have “so much to offer”, but we all too often live our lives just like the rest of modern society, preoccupied with our own selfish dreams, wants, and agenda. As this happens, the church becomes transformed from the “brightest star” to the “blackest hole”.

Scientists believe the largest stars, those even bigger than the sun, can collapse because of intense gravity and form what are known as black holes. Once formed, a black hole begins to suck in light and anything else in its path.

The church may be the “brightest star” because it is the visual representation of Jesus Christ to the rest of the world. But, just like black holes, we can begin to suck in all of the light and blessings given by God and keep them for ourselves. Even in our efforts to help others, we can become focused on what’s happening in our particular corner of the world – our families, our churches, or our communities. As a result, most of us fail to lift a finger to help those in the world’s poorest regions.

The Bible is very clear, however, that believers have a special calling to helping out the poorest of the poor, particularly those which are the most inconvenient and difficult to reach. The apostle James asks believers that if they see someone with a physical need and blow him off, then what good is their faith? (James 2:15-17). So too, the apostle John questions: If you ignore a person who needs help, how can the love of God be in you? He then concludes, “Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:16-17).

Jesus himself said that he came to “preach good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18) and taught that when you feed and care for the sick and needy, you are blessed (Luke 14:13-21). On countless occasions, Jesus himself touched the untouchable, gave sight to the blind, and fed the poor. But, according to Bono, “Christ’s example is being demeaned by the church” when we blow off the legitimate needs of millions of Africans.

Likewise, John Stuart Mill, a nineteenth century philosopher, was critical of Christians of his day because he saw their tendency to talk the talk, but not walk the walk. He wrote (emphasis mine):

All Christians believe that the blessed are the poor and humble; that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven…They are not insincere when they say that they believe these things. They do believe them, as people believe what they have always heard lauded and never discussed. But in the sense of that living belief that regulates conduct, they believe these doctrines just up to the point to which it is usual to act upon them…Now we may be well assured that the case was not the same with the early Christians. Had it been, then Christianity would never have expanded from an obscure sect of the Roman empire.

I, for one, am guilty of neglecting Africa. Oh, in some areas of my life, I am the poster child for the modern-day disciple. I am living a life of reckless abandon, following God’s call into the uncertain and risky world of full-time writing. I sacrifice dreams and ambitions so I can spend more time with my children. Moreover, I am very active in my church, teaching Sunday school, leading a Bible study, and heading up a missions group. Yet, no matter how obedient I may be in these activities, I’ve been content to look at my spiritual journey as being only within the gated universe I know. I’ve not done a single, tangible act for those most in need in Africa.

Perhaps my inactivity causes the next lines of the song to sting so much:

I was there for you baby
When you needed my help
Would you deny for others
What you demand for yourself?

We stress out when we lose a job and immediately get on our knees praying for help to pay the mortgage or rent. Or, if we get sick, we plead for God’s healing and go to our doctor for the latest breakthrough treatment. When the going gets tough, we instinctively turn to God and expect help from him when we are in need. But, at the same time, we overlook the fact that our inaction and lack of initiative is denying these very same basic needs to millions of Africans.

Lost in Translation

To some in the church, the challenge from U2 in “Crumbs From Your Table” may seem surprising, maybe even unfair. After all, many believers in America have a true concern and passion for reaching the world with the “good news” of Jesus Christ. America, after all, sends out more missionaries than any other country. Yet, as Bono sings, this gospel message rings hallow when we ignore the on-going crisis in Africa:

You speak of signs and wonders
I need something other
I would believe if I was able
But I’m waiting on the crumbs from your table

In spite of good intentions, the church can take on a “we-know-what-you-really-need” attitude: emphasizing evangelism over ignoring food and medicine. The problem with this line of thinking is that it ignores the fact that loving someone means caring for them completely – for today as well as tomorrow. A father, for example, may want to show love to his daughter by providing her with the best education possible. But, he doesn’t go out and buy her a copy of Homer’s Odyssey, a MacBook, and a telescope for her second birthday. Instead, he loves her by focusing on her needs as a toddler, all the while slowly preparing her for the future. In other words, a father’s love is equally concerned about both the short- and long-term needs of his child.

During his earthly ministry, when Jesus Christ came across people in need, he didn’t just tell them about salvation and ignore their physical needs. Instead, he was passionate about restoring the whole person.[1] Matthew 4:23 highlights this fact saying that Jesus went throughout Galilee “preaching the good news and healing every disease and sickness among the people”. He didn’t do this as a technique or strategy; he was merely showing love to those he encountered.

In his book The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman says that married couples often run into problems when they express love in different ways. In other words, they may not always speak the same “love language”. Perhaps a husband shows his love to his wife by doing things for her around the house. But, if his wife looks for love by the amount of time they spend together, then she’ll completely miss his expressions of love and conclude he doesn’t care.

Chapman says that when you don’t speak the same love language with another, your love becomes lost in translation. It’s as if you were speaking in English and the other in Japanese. You may be sincere in your efforts, but Chapman says that being sincere is not enough for a relationship to work. He continues, “We must be willing to learn [the other person’s] primary love language if we are to be effective communicators of love.”

Chapman may be speaking of married couples in his book, but I believe his principle applies on a larger scale as well. The church needs to speak the love language that Africans can understand. We may believe that the best way to love them is focusing on their spiritual needs. But, if Africans are looking for love in a meal or a medicine pack, then the church’s message of salvation will fall on deaf ears. Love isn’t an either/or gig. Share Christ by loving them into today and eternity.

The Gate

As U2 closes the song’s chorus, they end with the lines:

I would believe if I was able
But I’m waiting on the crumbs from your table.

The “crumbs from your table” phrase is a direct allusion to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. In this story, Jesus tells about a rich man who lives in luxury, while a sick, homeless beggar named Lazarus lives outside at his gate. Lazarus is so hungry, Jesus says, that he longed to eat the “crumbs from the rich man’s table.” But the rich man, content and preoccupied inside his own little world, does nothing to help Lazarus. Jesus tells that eventually both die and experience far different fates: the rich man found himself in Hell, and Lazarus in Heaven.

The point Jesus is making in this parable is plainly obvious: the way in which we treat the Lazaruses of the world reveals where our heart really is. In this parable, the rich man’s wealth wasn’t a sin. Instead, the sin was rooted in he did and didn’t do with his riches.

Jesus spoke this parable as a warning to the callous religious leaders of his day. So too, in “Crumbs From Your Table”, U2 uses this same symbolism as a wake-up call to the church to look at the beggar that is outside of our gate. “Let me share with you a conviction,” Bono says. “God is on his knees to the church on this one. God Almighty is on his knees to us, begging us to turn around the supertanker of indifference.”
In a world of In’s and Out’s, location makes all the difference in your ability to lead a normal, healthy life. In the bridge of the song, Bono hammers on this point:

Where you live should not decide
Whether you live or whether you die

In these lines, Bono is singing about the tragic fact that many Africans afflicted with AIDS are dying because they cannot afford one dollar a day for medications that are commonly available in America and Europe. “People are dying for the stupidest of reasons: money,” he said during the Heart of America tour.

Barriers

As I reflect on the parable Jesus told, I wonder what was running through the mind of the rich man. Was he really so cold hearted that he intentionally lived in luxury while letting Lazarus go hungry? Or, is it also possible that he really wasn’t such a bad guy? Perhaps he unintentionally closed off people outside his immediate line of sight? Whatever his motivation, he allowed obstacles to derail him from what was most important. Similarly, believers today face several barriers that distract and prevent us from responding to the needs of Africa, not unlike the rich man from the parable.

First, we are insulated inside of the gate. Life on the outside doesn’t seem real to us. Africa is that place you see when you flip over to the Discovery Channel on cable. More like reality TV than real life. Our insulated habitat starts to resemble Seahaven, the artificial world depicted in the film Truman Show. In the film, Jim Carrey stars as Truman Burbank, a thirty-year-old whose whole life, unknown to him, has been a continuous TV show. Christof, the show’s creator, manipulates Truman to remain within the confines of Seahaven and manufactured obstacles that prevented him from discovering the world outside.

In America and Europe today, I think Satan acts much like Christof, keeping us comfortable and safe in our own insulated world and away from what the rest of the world is like. Christoff says, “We accept the reality of the world with which we have been presented.” Similarly, believers who live in the richest countries have a hard time grasping the realities of sub-Saharan Africa. As such, we contribute to the deaths of millions of Africans, not out of hatred or ill-will, but simply by neglecting them, forgetting they exist.

Bono warns that sin is not just what you do, but also what you don’t do. He says, “If the church doesn’t respond to this, the church will be made irrelevant. It will look like the way you heard stories about people watching Jews being put on the trains. We will be that generation that watched our African brothers and sisters being put on trains.”

Second, some people inside the gate believe the outsiders deserve to be there. Over the years, a minority of people in the church have washed their hands of responsibility in helping Africans stricken with AIDS, because they see AIDS as a judgment brought on by God. From this perspective, these sinners are simply reaping what they sowed. This type of thinking is nothing new and was common in Jesus’ day as well. However, Jesus explained that sickness, disease, and birth defects are often not related to sin whatsoever, but simply the natural result of living in the fallen world. Bono adds, “From my studies of the Scriptures, I don’t see a hierarchy to sin. I don’t see sexual immorality registering higher up on the list than institutional greed (or greed of any kind, actually), problems we suffer from in the West.”

Third, we throw up our arms, uncertain what we can do to help out. Once we wake up to the vast problems that are attacking Africa, perhaps the most common reaction among believers is a genuine willingness to want to help out, but an uncertainty over what to do. After all, how much difference can one person really make? So, instead of seeking out a solution, we become lulled into inactivity when we don’t see a quick, tangible way to respond. Then, before you know it, Satan has got us distracted with our own concerns and we forget once again about the needs of Africa.

Fourth, we can see Africa as God’s responsibility, not our own. Because God is in control over all things in this world, we can sometimes use that as an excuse to not be involved in helping others. Bono sings in “Crumbs From Your Table”:

And you broke every heart thinking every heart mends

In other words, we can believe that whether we do anything or not, God will solve the problem in his time and in his way.

But, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus clearly implies a degree responsibility on the part of the rich man who can provide assistance but chooses, intentionally or unintentionally, not to help out. Similarly, we can feel like we escape responsibility by putting Africa into God’s hands and carrying on with our sheltered lives. But our hand washing only reveals the lack of love that we have in our hearts.

A Second Chance

One of the underlying themes of “Crumbs From Your Table” is that the church is the “brightest star” and is “pretty as a picture”. In other words, if we are serious about doing something, we really can, with God’s help, defeat AIDS, poverty, and hunger in Africa.

I see the church’s potential for leadership as having many parallels to the Robert the Bruce character in Mel Gibson’s film Braveheart. The epic drama tells the story of William Wallace, a commoner from Scotland who leads a revolt against England. In the process, Wallace continually butts heads with the Scottish noblemen who are more interested in their own personal gain than they are in freedom for the Scottish people. Wallace, however, sees something different about one young nobleman named Robert the Bruce. He looks at Robert as being uniquely positioned and capable to lead all of Scotland, both the landholders and the commoners. At a critical juncture in the story, Wallace urges Robert the Bruce to take hold of that leadership:

Men don’t follow titles. They follow courage. Now, our people know you. Noble and common – they respect you. And if you would just lead them to freedom, they’d follow you. And so would I.

Robert, however, squanders his opportunity. He is too weak to be that leader that Wallace is calling him to. In fact, he’s so influenced by his domineering father that he actually betrays Wallace to the English.

In “Crumbs From Your Table”, U2 seems to play the part of William Wallace speaking to the church: if you would just lead this fight for the Africans, the world would be more open to the gospel of Jesus Christ than ever. Almost sounding like Wallace himself, Bono adds, “This is a defining moment for us: For the church; for our values; for the culture that we live in.”

Robert the Bruce did waste his opportunity while William Wallace was alive. But, for him, that wasn’t the end of the story. You see, two years after Wallace’s death, Robert got his priorities straight, packed his suitcase of courage, and victoriously led the Scottish people in battle against England.

Like Robert the Bruce, we may have blown opportunities in the past, but its not yet too late to change matters. It’s not too late to assume that mantle of leadership.

Wake up, sleeping giants.

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Action Steps
“Crumbs From Your Table” is a challenge, rooted in scripture, to the church to take a leading role in solving the major problems that plague Africa today. Consider the following action steps:Get involved as a citizen. Check out DATA.org and see what you can do to help get your government involved in helping to deal with the African crises. The government is not going to solve the whole problem, but it can make an impact. Individual believers need to do their part to see that happen.Get involved with church and organizations that help Africans with a Christ-centered approach – meeting both their physical and spiritual needs.

Become a voice in your church to increase support and awareness of the problems in Africa.

Mark the 15th day of the month as “Africa Day” on your calendar as a reminder to keep at it and not forget.

Prayerfully consider going to Africa and getting involved firsthand.

Diving Deeper

James 2:15-17, 1 John 3:16-19, Acts 11:27-30
Braveheart film

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1. Jesus was equally concerned about the spiritual and physical needs of a person. In contrast, different segments of the church have often focused on one of the needs and neglected the other. This chapter and song focuses on the problems with ignoring the physical needs. However, other groups concentrate solely on the physical needs and let the poor and needy to deal with spiritual issues on their own. However, this approach is just as bad as neglecting the physical needs. As Oswald Chambers says, “Social service that is not based on the Cross of Christ is the cultured blasphemy of civilized life against God, because it denies that God has done anything, and puts human effort as the only way whereby the world will be redeemed.” He adds elsewhere, “Missionary enterprise on the line of education, and healing, and social amelioration is magnificent, but it is secondary, and the danger is to give it the first place…It sounds so plausible and right to say – Heal the people, teach them…and then evangelize them, but it is fundamentally wrong…It is putting man’s needs first, and that is the very heart and kernel of the temptation Satan brought to Our Lord.”