God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. “If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places”
It’s not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It’s not an accident. That’s a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. [You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.] ‘As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.’ (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.
The speech also includes a cute reference to the book God's Politics by Jim Wallis and a quote that has, in the past, been attributed by U2 Sermons to Bill Hybels, with the qualification that Bill Hybels might have been quoting John Wimber. If U2 Sermons is right, then I'd be remiss not to include that bit in my Willow-centric blog, wouldn't I?
A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord’s blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it… I have a family, please look after them… I have this crazy idea…
And this wise man said: stop.
He said, stop asking God to bless what you’re doing.
Get involved in what God is doing—because it’s already blessed.
Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.
And that is what He’s calling us to do.
5 comments:
Hi - if you'd wanted to know how I knew that quote was from Hybels, you could have just emailed me, and I'd have been happy to give you the background. Bono met with Bill Hybels on the DATA Heart of America tour in Dec 2002 (before the book blog started, so there's no mention of the event on U2 sermons altho it was covered elsewhere), and after that meeting quoted Hybels as having given him the advice he now repeatedly attributes to "a wise man." Thanks for the link.
I saw that you thanked me t'other day on here. So...you're welcome. I apologize for not seeing it until now. It's been hard for me to keep up with your blog, mostly due to a combination of the prolificity and Willowcentrism therein, versus the closer-knit subscription community of xanga that owns the lion's share of my online time.
Good morning Beth! I love your site! I had looked for some earlier reference and had come across a Steve Beard article over at Thunderstruck that appeared to show Bono using that line in the Heart of America tour on Dec. 1st, before his visit to Willow, thus the doubts. I should have thought to email you. I've gone ahead and removed the disclaimer.
Hi Chad, don't worry about it. You might have noticed that I took your blog link down. That wasn't punishment for not commenting on my blog the prerequisite number of times...it just seemed to me (from the restricted access) that you were more interested in keeping your blog a "closer-knit subscription community." If you ever get the urge to do a more public sorta blog let me know, I'd love to link to it.
You must be a technorati junkie!
Good stuff!
Bono out-cools everybody he stands next to, especially politicians.
About Technorati - it sucks lately! I've been using Google Blog and it is much better.
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