Bono and the Irresistible Revolution

I just finished reading Shane Claiborne’s book “The Irresistible Revolution – living as an ordinary radical.”

It was a great read. Inspiring and insightful and I would argue like Brandt Russo – its a must read for any and all who want to find new meaning in what it means to follow Jesus Christ.

Towards the end of the book, Shane begins to wrap up the text with a chapter entitled, “Crazy but not alone.”

I’ve been chewing on these thoughts today and laughing at some of the humor as well. And as I’ve chewed on the ideas, I can’t help but wonder if Bono’s a fan of Shane’s as well.

While obviously I can’t say I’ve ever seen a connection between Shane and Bono (other than they both get quoted a lot by the same holy huddles), reading this final chapter in Shane’s book suddenly sheds new meaning and light on U2’s latest single, “I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight.”

Every generation gets a chance to change the world
Pity the nation that won’t listen to your boys and girls
Cos the sweetest melody is the one we haven’t heard
Is it true that perfect love drives out all fear?
The right to appear ridiculous is something I hold dear
Oh, but a change of heart comes slow

It’s not a hill, it’s a mountain
As you start out the climb
Listen for me, I’ll be shouting
We’re gonna make it all the way to the light
But you now I’ll go crazy if I don’t go crazy tonight

Baby, baby, baby, I know I’m not alone
Baby, baby, baby, I know I’m not alone

This song has always struck a chord with me — since I heard it back in March — but now even more so.

U2 has always been about bucking the norm and pointing out the ironies, oxymorons and contradictions — and as Greg Garrett writes, U2 often takes the role of old testament prophet in bringing the irony of the world around us to light — including the idea “that there’s something unnatural, something even unseemly about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents — and disappearing to their villas in the South of France.”

Shane brings out a number of these contradictions within our world as well throughout the book, but shares his own list in this final chapter:

• good mornings
• school food
• plastic silverware
• reality TV
• working vacations
• bad luck
• old news
• bankrupt millionaires
• United Methodists
• diet Oreos

And then Shane delves a bit deeper and shares some oxymorons that should disturb our ethics and logic…

• military intelligence
• peacekeeping missiles
• just wars
• smart bombs
• friendly fire

Those gripped me. Those sting. Those disrupt my day when I begin to see them as oxymorons and not the propaganda of the empire.

Shane continues…

I used to think that those of us who hope for things we cannot see and who believe that the world can be different than it is were the crazy ones… I’m starting to wonder if, actually, we have gone sane in a mad world. In a world of smart bombs and military intelligence, we need more fools, holy fools who insist that the folly of the cross is wiser than any human power.

Shane quotes Peter Maurin who says, “If we are crazy, then it is because we refuse to be crazy in the same way that the world has gone crazy.”

And so Shane asks?

What is crazier: one person owning the same amount of money as the combined economies of twenty-three countries, or suggesting that if we shared, there would be enough for everyone? What is crazier: spending billions of dollars on a defense shield, or suggesting that we share our billions of dollars so we don’t need a defense shield? What is crazier: maintaining arms contracts with 154 countries while asking the world to disarm its weapons of mass destruction, or suggesting that we lead the world in disarmament by refusing to deal weapons with over half the world and by emptying the world’s largest stockpile here at home? What’s crazy is that the US, less than 6 percent of the world’s population consumes nearly half of the world’s resources, and that the average American consumes as much as 520 Ethiopians do, while obesity is declared a “national health crisis.”

So what do we do? We need to rise from the dead. We need to live out the resurrection. We need to be the resurrection. And we have to remind ourselves that “Baby, baby, baby — we’re not alone.”

Or in Shane’s words, “we are not alone… we have to remind each other that we are not crazy, or that if we are crazy, at least we are not alone.”

And then let’s get together, to cast a new vision. A vision of a new heaven and a new earth. We really do get a chance to change the world! We’ve been invited to join with God to create something new — to bring heaven to earth.

And while many may scoff at us (cos’ the sweetest melody is the one we haven’t heard) and may go crazy around us, perhaps it takes some folks being a little sane (or foolish in the eyes of the world) to bring about change.

The right to appear ridiculous is something I hold dear.

And then we can work through our common vision for “alternatives to existing worldly structures, of bartering economies, of money collectives for emergencies (instead of insurance), of prophetic interruptions to war and theft, of sustainable urban gardening and eco-energy alternatives, of using the trash and wreckage of the consumptive world to create things that bring life and beauty.”

It may take some time — a change of heart comes slow — but listen for me, I’ll be shouting, “We’re gonna make it all the way to the light because I’m gonna go crazy if I don’t go crazy tonight.”