...Under the trash (A repost from Christmas 2006)

I have been nosing around the book of Ecclesiastes this Advent season. I have found a seeker, a man roaming through the world searching for the true meaning of life. I see a wise man exploring wealth, fame and all manners of earthly pursuits. In the end, what does he find? He finds that all things are empty without a relationship with God. All things under the sun are trivial without find what's above the sun.

It was a brief second in the Popmart set. It was a tiny moment with enormous meaning. It was a throwaway gesture in which the whole Popmart thesis is understood. Perhaps it was even the whole point of the U2 dissertation of the nineties. The band was cranking up the volume in "Mofo" when Bono came to the line "Looking for the baby Jesus under the trash." As he sang those words, he gestured his arm to the biggest TV screen in the world, that huge golden arch and the mighty lemon. It was almost just a shrug, but the illumination it threw out was as bright as every spotlight, special effect, or image Willie Williams was flashing up from the light desk. All of this paraphernalia the band had around it night after night for most of the nineties was trash. What was more important was underneath it all. The use of Baby Jesus could mean the genesis of this thought is in the commercialization of Christmas, when Jesus, the real meaning of the season, is lost beneath wrapping paper, tinsel, stuffing, and Santa Claus. But it is a picture of a general loss of meaning or hope or truth. As we glance across the horizon of the loudest and brightest culture in the history of humankind, is there any chance we might find in the midst of all the shallowness something deeper, something more precious, something more lasting? Is Jesus lost? Or can He be retrieved from the garbage?
p. 119
Steve Stockman
Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2



In the work of U2 we see the same seeking. We see the same yearning to find spiritual meaning in the world. The postmodern world is one filled with a choir of voices... none of which pause in honor of the others. It’s a mass overload of sensory overload. It’s easy to be lost… but this bewildering landscape of shopping malls, pop-up adds and sound bites also brings us to the same truth that the seeker in the book of Ecclesiastes finds… The promises of this world are hallow.


Again, it was the searching for Jesus under the trash. "Mofo," which kicked off the show, begins with that statement of intending to look for something to save hi soul and fill the God-shaped hole. The seeking will be done in a barren desert place... There are still no comfortable refuges in the life of this Dublin boy, but the search continues. The compass points have not changed even though he may be in the wilderness in some kind of Old Testament wandering. It is still that God-shaped hole that captures the thinking of his heart, soul, and mind.
p. 121
Steve Stockman
Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2


Modernism, logic, reason, invention, political truth, and rationalism all leave you empty in the chilling emotional desert of this world. We find real life, real peace, in the spiritual. Thank god, that God is a intimate god, that reaches down into this world and becomes personal. He hasn’t stopped calling out to you, even though you are lost in the barrage of holiday chaos. He is as present as ever, in the midst of the hustle and bustle, drawing you towards His truth and His light.

Merry Christmas… Make it a personal one. Do not forget the reason for the season.