By the end of the 1980s, U2 had become one of the most, if not the most, popular rock bands in the world. Their Joshua Tree album of 1987 gave us songs like “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” and “With or Without You.” Their next album, Rattle and Hum, although still commercially successful, just couldn’t measure up to Joshua Tree, and many thought that U2 would disband as the decade closed.
…and then in 1991, Achtung Baby hit the shelves, and a completely reinvented U2 proceeded to dominate pop culture for yet another decade.
The Reinvention of U2 in the Nineties
Much can be written, indeed much has been written, about U2, their faith and their music. The reason I bring them up in this post is because much of my faith has been shaped by their music. And although they have come out with incredible music for the past 30 years, their stuff from the 1990s strikes a chord with me more than anything else.
The reason for that is because of the artistic, and dare I say it, prophetic things they did in the 1990s. By the end of the 1980s, U2 had the reputation of being a serious, politically-minded, and socially-activist rock band. Yet they were getting more and more pressure to be the stereotypical “rock gods” that pop culture loves to worship. And so, what they decided to do, starting with Achtung Baby was to give pop culture what they wanted…sort of.
U2 decided they would play the part of the prophetic jester. Beginning with their Zoo TV concert tour to promote Achtung Baby, U2 marketed themselves as the biggest, most self-indulgent, egotistical rock band in history. As you can see in the video clip, they bombarded concert-goers with a litany of random, pop cultural images to the point of overload. The actual song starts about 4 minutes into the video, but those first 4 minutes…wow…prepare yourself for a little bit of cultural vertigo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMneYa8gJBY
As one of my friends who went to one of U2’s concerts from their Pop tour in 1997 said, “It was like I was in Babylon.”
The twist of all this came in the fact that although on one hand U2 gave pop culture exactly what it wanted, namely over-the-top “rock gods” for society to worship, their music was laced with some of the most profound, serious, and wickedly ironic lyrics that mocked and condemned the very culture that was being taken in with all the overblown glitz and glamour.
U2 would have live TV hook-ups to war-torn Sarajevo, and in the middle of their self-glorifying concert, they would throw up on the big screens footage of people whose lives were devastated by war. In their encores, Bono would come out dressed as a red devil in a glitzy, gold suit, singing about how the devil would be the rock star you’ve always wanted. And the audience simply continued to cheer, completely oblivious to the fact that U2 was both entertaining them and prophetically condemning them at the same time. It was pure artistic genius—it was a kind of prophetic voice that Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah would undoubtedly applaud.
Faith in Zoo Station
The opening song of Achtung Baby, and the opening song of U2’s Zoo TV tour was “Zoo Station.” It was basically U2’s declaration that things were going to be a whole lot different. They were going to let go of everything they had been, embrace the uncertainty of postmodern world, and somehow, artistically, find a way to speak their Christian faith to a world bombarded with too much information. It signaled a very real leap of faith for the band.
By the same token, it is a song that still stands as a challenge to anyone to take that leap of faith into the unknown. For me personally, the following lyrics have always stuck with me:
I’m ready for the gridlock
I’m ready to take it to the street
Ready for the shuffle, ready for the deal
Ready to let go of the steering wheel
I’m ready, ready for the crush
Let’s face it, most of us love talking about “faith” and “stepping out in faith,” but in reality, we very rarely ever actually do it. We prefer certainty, we’d much rather rest in security than step out where things are uncertain and insecure. We stay in that stifling job because we’re too afraid to act on the calling of our hearts; we stay in a toxic relationship because we’re afraid to be alone. And sometimes, when a job or relationship fails, we quickly jump into another similar situation because, even though it is toxic and deadly…at least it is familiar.
For that matter, especially for Christians, talking about stepping out in faith is often a clever defense mechanism that we use to excuse us from actually stepping out into that uncertainty that God is calling us to. We like our boat, despite the fact that the sea is about to capsize it anyway.
What I am starting to learn, really learn deep in my bones, is that the life of faith is dangerous and uncertain, and I really don’t like danger or uncertainty. But I do love Christ, and because I love Christ (and that doesn’t mean I particularly like him all the time!), I have to learn to embrace the uncertainty in my life. Why? Because sometimes, it seems that God doesn’t wait for you to “step out in faith,” into a raging sea. Sometimes he pushes you out of the boat, whether you like it or not.
That’s where I find myself now. The boat is gone, and it’s not a matter of “sink or swim.” It’s a matter of “sink or walk on the water.” There is no swimming, only strides of faith on a tumultuous sea—and the thing is, I don’t think I quite have my sea legs yet.
That’s what Zoo Station says to me. That’s what a life of faith is: that chaotic, insane, “I can’t take my eyes of this crazy spectacle” embracing of the uncertainty of life. It’s the realization, as you can see on the screen at the end of the song, that “Everything you know is wrong.”
Does that sound a bit too out there? Does that sound a bit too reckless? Perhaps a bit too obscene for our societal sensibilities? Does it make you want to quote some nice Bible verse, like “All who are weary, come unto me, and I will give you rest?”
If so, then watch out…the sea is rumbling and the wooden planks are about to give way.
