“Love Interrupts”

“One love, one blood, one life, you got to do what you should.
One life with each other:sisters, brothers.
One life, but we’re not the same.
We got to carry each other, carry each other.
One, one.”

I am always interested to find out what kind of faith my favorite celebrities embrace and I was really enlightened by Bono’s words when I recently read the following interview.  I especially like the way that he describes karma vs. grace.   Bono understands that grace is a gift. 

                                                 

                                                         

Christians in a rock band?

Bono: My understanding of the Scriptures has been
made simple by the person of Christ. Christ teaches that God is love.
What does that mean? What it means for me: a study of the life of
Christ. Love here describes itself as a child born in straw poverty, the
most vulnerable situation of all, without honor. I don’t let my
religious world get too complicated. I just kind of go: Well, I think I
know what God is. God is love, and as much as I respond [sighs]
in allowing myself to be transformed by that love and acting in that
love, that’s my religion. Where things get complicated for me, is when I
try to live this love. Now that’s not so easy.
Assayas: What about the God of the Old Testament? He wasn’t so “peace and love”?
Bono: There’s nothing hippie about my picture of
Christ. The Gospels paint a picture of a very demanding, sometimes
divisive love, but love it is. I accept the Old Testament as more of an
action movie: blood, car chases, evacuations, a lot of special effects,
seas dividing, mass murder, adultery. The children of God are running
amok, wayward. Maybe that’s why they’re so relatable. But the way we
would see it, those of us who are trying to figure out our Christian
conundrum, is that the God of the Old Testament is like the journey from
stern father to friend. When you’re a child, you need clear directions
and some strict rules. But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one
relationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship
and awe, a vertical relationship. The New Testament, on the other hand,
we look across at a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The
combination is what makes the Cross.
Assayas: Speaking of bloody action movies, we were
talking about South and Central America last time. The Jesuit priests
arrived there with the gospel in one hand and a rifle in the other.
Bono: I know, I know. Religion can be the enemy of God. It’s often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building. [laughs]
A list of instructions where there was once conviction; dogma where
once people just did it; a congregation led by a man where once they
were led by the Holy Spirit. Discipline replacing discipleship. Why are
you chuckling?
Assayas: I was wondering if you said all of that to the Pope the day you met him.
Bono: Let’s not get too hard on the Holy Roman
Church here. The Church has its problems, but the older I get, the more
comfort I find there. The physical experience of being in a crowd of
largely humble people, heads bowed, murmuring prayers, stories told in
stained-glass windows
Assayas: So you won’t be critical.
Bono: No, I can be critical, especially on the topic
of contraception. But when I meet someone like Sister Benedicta and see
her work with AIDS orphans in Addis Ababa, or Sister Ann doing the same
in Malawi, or Father Jack Fenukan and his group Concern all over
Africa, when I meet priests and nuns tending to the sick and the poor
and giving up much easier lives to do so, I surrender a little easier.
Assayas: But you met the man himself. Was it a great experience?
Bono: [W]e all knew why we were there. The Pontiff
was about to make an important statement about the inhumanity and
injustice of poor countries spending so much of their national income
paying back old loans to rich countries. Serious business. He was
fighting hard against his Parkinson’s. It was clearly an act of will for
him to be there. I was oddly moved by his humility, and then by the
incredible speech he made, even if it was in whispers. During the
preamble, he seemed to be staring at me. I wondered. Was it the fact
that I was wearing my blue fly-shades? So I took them off in case I was
causing some offense. When I was introduced to him, he was still staring
at them. He kept looking at them in my hand, so I offered them to him
as a gift in return for the rosary he had just given me.
Assayas: Didn’t he put them on?
Bono: Not only did he put them on, he smiled the
wickedest grin you could ever imagine. He was a comedian. His sense of
humor was completely intact. Flashbulbs popped, and I thought: “Wow! The
Drop the Debt campaign will have the Pope in my glasses on the front
page of every newspaper.”
Assayas: I don’t remember seeing that photograph anywhere, though.
Bono: Nor did we. It seems his courtiers did not have the same sense of humor. Fair enough. I guess they could see the T-shirts.
Later in the conversation:
Assayas: I think I am beginning to understand religion
because I have started acting and thinking like a father. What do you
make of that?
Bono: Yes, I think that’s normal. It’s a
mind-blowing concept that the God who created the universe might be
looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that
keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma.
Assayas: I haven’t heard you talk about that.
Bono: I really believe we’ve moved out of the realm of Karma into one of Grace.
Assayas: Well, that doesn’t make it clearer for me.
Bono: You see, at the center of all religions is the
idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for
an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics; in physical laws every
action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It’s clear to me that
Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I’m absolutely sure of it.
And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “as you
reap, so you will sow” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love
interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my
case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.
Assayas: I’d be interested to hear that.
Bono: That’s between me and God. But I’d be in big
trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I’d be in deep s—. It
doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace. I’m holding
out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and
I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.
Assayas: The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.
Bono: But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Look,
you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to
selfishness, and there’s a mortality as part of your very sinful nature,
and, let’s face it, you’re not living a very good life, are you? There
are consequences to actions. The point of the death of Christ is
that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did
not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the
obvious death. That’s the point. It should keep us humbled . It’s not
our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven.
Assayas: That’s a great idea, no denying it. Such
great hope is wonderful, even though it’s close to lunacy, in my view.
Christ has his rank among the world’s great thinkers. But Son of God,
isn’t that farfetched?
Bono: No, it’s not farfetched to me. Look, the
secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a
great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along
the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or
Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let
you off that hook. Christ says: No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher,
don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: “I’m
the Messiah.” I’m saying: “I am God incarnate.” And people say: No,
no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You’re a bit
eccentric. We’ve had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we
can handle that. But don’t mention the “M” word! Because, you know,
we’re gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you’re expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he’s gonna keep saying this.
So what you’re left with is: either Christ was who He said He was the
Messiah or a complete nutcase. I mean, we’re talking nutcase on the
level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we’ve been
talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and
had “King of the Jews” on his head, and, as they were putting him up on
the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it.
I’m not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization
for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned
upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that’s farfetched
Bono later says it all comes down to how we regard Jesus:
Bono: If only we could be a bit more like Him, the
world would be transformed. When I look at the Cross of Christ, what I
see up there is all my s— and everybody else’s. So I ask myself a
question a lot of people have asked: Who is this man? And was He who He
said He was, or was He just a religious nut? And there it is, and that’s
the question. And no one can talk you into it or out of it.

End of interview.

 “What you believe about God is the most important thing about yourself.”
      Tozer

Who do you say that He is?