It’s hard to remember the world without U2.
Seriously. For me, it has barely existed.
It was 50 years ago today that the generation-defining Irish rock band came together for the very first time in a north Dublin kitchen.
More than any other cultural force, U2’s music has channeled the anxieties, political earthquakes and big spiritual questions of my lifetime into music that has fed, challenged and comforted my soul. Indeed, it was the biblical imagery in the band’s songs in the 1980s that inspired me to buy my first Bible in high school. As I wrote in my Yale graduate thesis for Dr. Bruce Gordon’s History of the Bible course, “If, as Many Christians believe, scripture is ‘God-breathed,’ then God’s breath had made its way onto my Sony Walkman in the 1980s.”
U2’s first rehearsal took place on September 25, 1976, at drummer Larry Mullen Jr.’s childhood home at 60 Rosemount Avenue in Artane, Dublin.
Days earlier, hoping to form a band, 14-year-old Mullen had tacked a notice searching for musicians on the bulletin board at Mount Temple Comprehensive School. Four teenagers —Paul “Bono” Hewson, Dave “The Edge” Evans, his brother Dik Evans, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. — showed up for at Mullen house for a loose jam session in the kitchen.
The group initially called themselves Feedback and later The Hype before settling on U2. Dik Evans made it through just a couple of practices before moving on and forming the overtly subversive punk band the Virgin Prunes. Dave, of course, stayed and took the stage name The Edge.
Three of the four members have talked openly about their Christian faith, including their struggles to reconcile their fame with the teachings of Jesus, which nearly ended the band before it started.
Ultimately, with more than 170 million records sold and 22 Grammy Awards, U2 has achieved a level of global dominance that few rock bands in history have reached.
But they didn’t abandon their faith. Along the way, their faith has influenced their music.
Of course, rather than branding themselves a Christian rock band, lead singer and chief lyricist Bono has said U2 prefers to “draw our fish in the sand,” where witness, proclamation and prophecy are present in its layered lyrics if you’re looking for it.
The “fish in the sand” metaphor refers to early Christian history in the Roman Empire, when believers faced heavy persecution from the authorities. To safely identify themselves to fellow followers of “the Way,” a person would draw a simple, curved line in the dirt or sand. If the other person was also a believer, they would draw the intersecting second line to complete the Ichthys, or “Jesus fish.” It was a secret handshake via graffiti.
U2 uses a similar approach in their songwriting, weaving Biblical allusions, scripture, and double meanings into its lyrics. Indeed, Bono is a master of writing about God as lover. On songs such as “Mysterious Ways,” a casual or secular listener might hear a funky celebration of romantic love. But to a Christian listener, the lyrics complete a line in the sand, understanding that it is also a song about the Holy Spirit and how the feminine Divine dances through the world.
I love how my friend Greg Garrett connected U2’s mission with God’s mission in his excellent book We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel According to U2: "The meaning of life, U2 ultimately reminds us, is not in how much gold you pile up, how many mansions you build, how many people you can order around, or even how loudly and devoutly you pray and proclaim your salvation. It is in what we get to do for each other. This is U2's faithful message to the world."
Although I have referenced the band’s music from the pulpit, its songs prefer to offer a subtle invitation into God’s loving embrace rather than a heavy-handed sermon.
This morning, the band played a surprise gig at Mount Temple, the Dublin school where they met as boys.
Time is a train. In honor of U2’s 50th birthday, here are my 10 favorite vinyl tracks that draw a fish in the sand for seekers, believers and pilgrims.
1. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” — The Joshua Tree (1987)
The definitive U2 faith song, confessing the Cross, liberation, angels, and an Augustinian longing that’s hard to shake. In the summer of 1987, this song dominated the music charts, climbing to Number One on the Billboard 100 in the United States. Some conservative evangelical Christians criticized the song, arguing that it conflicted with the absolute assurance of faith in Jesus. They wondered: What else is there to look for? Some youth groups and charismatic festivals felt so uneasy with the unresolved longing in the chorus that they changed the words in performances to “I’ve finally found what I’m looking for.” Of course, all of that misses a key point of Jesus’ teachings: If we are living the Gospel, and not just talking about it, this great adventure with our living God is constantly unfolding. There are going to be seasons of doubt, disruption and confusion that can’t be resolved by blind faith. While we are called to surrender to the mystery of the Incarnation and the resurrection, that doesn’t mean the journey is complete. In fact, the song mirrors biblical texts such as Philippians 3, where the Apostle Paul notes that he has not yet fully reached his final spiritual goal and still “presses on.”
Theology: faith, doubt, eschatological longing and salvation.
Biblical companion: Philippians 3:12–14
Beloved lyrics:
“I believe in the kingdom come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes I’m still runningYou broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Oh my shame
You know I believe it”
2. “Until the End of the World” — Achtung Baby (1991)
The title is inspired by the resurrected Jesus’s promise in Matthew 28:20. The song is a perfect example of Bono singing about God as lover. It is a masterpiece from the frontman’s expansive theological imagination. In the song, the Last Supper, Gethsemane, betrayal and remorse are retold from Judas’s perspective, while Jesus remains the mysterious “you.” The final image is astonishing: Judas desparetly reaches toward the one he tried to destroy … and Christ waits for him.
Theology: betrayal, sin, remorse and mercy.
Biblical companion: Matthew 26:14–50.
Beloved lyrics:
“In the garden I was playing the tart
I kissed your lips and broke your heart
You
You were acting like it was the end of the worldLove, love, love.”
3. “Love Rescue Me” — Rattle and Hum (1988)
Bono and Bob Dylan wrote this song together, and Dylan’s backing vocals give it a cry-in-the-wilderness urgency. By itself, the title works as a prayer. And once again, in U2’s theological vocabulary, “Love” operates on several levels. The song benefits from a biblical architecture, with a confession and lyrics pulled directly from Psalm 23, as the narrator is haunted by his past and by the consequences of his choices. The lyrics contain a profound Christian paradox: being rescued by Love doesn’t mean being carried away from suffering. Love leads the through the wilderness.
Theology: salvation, confession, deliverance and liberation.
Biblical companion: Psalm 23
Beloved lyrics:
“Love rescue me
Come forth and speak to me
Raise me up and don’t let me fall
No man is my enemy
My own hands imprison me
Love rescue me”
4. “40” — War (1983)
A reimagining of Psalm 40. Here is a sermon where I spoke of my relationship with the song:
Theology: lament, deliverance, waiting and praise.
Biblical companion: Psalm 40.
Beloved lyrics:
“I waited patiently for the Lord
He inclined and heard my cry
He lift me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay.”
5. “Tomorrow” — October (1981)
My favorite track from U2’s so-called “Christian album” — their 1981 openly religious sophomore effort October. To understand the song, you have to know something about Bono’s biography. His mother, Iris, died suddenly when he was 14. This song swirls around the memory of his mother’s death: a knocking at the door, people gathered outside, and the unimaginable sorrow. But then personal grief transforms into defiant Christian hope. By the end, Bono is no longer simply singing about wanting his mother to return. He has turned toward the promise of Christ’s return, offering a brutally raw eschatological prayer. Grief doesn’t vanish with a tidy theological answer. It’s Maranatha set to post-punk: Come, Lord Jesus. Suddenly, the song is deeply connected to resurrection. Christianity doesn’t claim that death doesn’t matter. Rather, it makes the scandalous claim that death will not have the final word. It’s a theme that will show up again at the end of the 1997 album Pop with “Wake Up Dead Man.” As Job and the Psalms of lament remind us, openinly shouting at God can itself be an act of faith.
Theology: Divine absence, lament and theodicy.
Biblical companion: Psalm 22.
Beloved lyrics:
“Who broke the window?
Who broke down the door?
Who tore the curtain?
And who was it for?
Who heals the wounds?
Who heals the scars?
Open the door, open the door”
6. “Window in the Skies” — U218 (2006)
A grand song about grace, forgiveness and defiant joy. The refrain is jubilant: “Oh, can’t you see what love has done?” It’s Bono’s way of saying, “Look at God!” The song moves from atonement to resurrection to reconciliation. Love transforms everything. Debt is cancelled. Shame and fear lose their power. The curtain between heaven and earth tears apart. The Kingdom of God breaks through in the ordinary human experiences of forgiveness, compassion and justice. It’s essentially a gospel song putting on rock ‘n’ roll clothing.
Theology: grace, forgiveness, reconciliation, resurrection and the triumph of divine love.
Biblical companion: Colossians 2:13–14
Beloved Lyrics:
“The shackles are undone
The bullets quit the gun
The heat that’s in the sun
Will keep us when there’s noneThe rule has been disproved
The stone it has been moved
The grave is now a groove
All debts are removedOh can’t you see what love has done?”
7. “Yahweh” — How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004)
Bursting with spiritual yearning, this is an incarnational prayer of surrender:
God, help me take these hands, this mouth, this heart and make something of them.
In the end, the track is an offering, placing the fragmented self into God’s embrace so that we can courageously become the Eternal’s hands, feet and heartbeat in the world.
Theology: surrender, sanctification, vocation and incarnational love.
Biblical companion: Romans 12:1–2.
Beloved lyrics:
“Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing.”
8. “Gloria” — October (1981)
No ambiguity here, where Latin liturgical language meets post-punk power chords: “Gloria in te Domine.” Glory in You, Lord.
Theology: praise, surrender, incarnation and the inadequacy of language before God.
Biblical companion: Psalm 51 / Luke 2
Beloved lyrics:
“Gloria, in te domine
Gloria, exultate
Oh Lord, if I had anything
Anything at all
I’d give it to you.”
9. “Grace” — All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)
In this poetic track’s Christian imagination, Grace is a woman moving through the world to the hypnotic pulse of Clayton’s bass, transforming ugliness into beauty. Simply breathtaking.
Theology: grace, redemption and new creation.
Biblical companion: Ephesians 2:8–10.
Beloved lyrics:
“She carries a pearl
In perfect condition
What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stingsBecause Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things.”
10. “Mysterious Ways” — Achtung Baby (1991)
Derived from William Cowper’s hymn about how “God moves in mysterious ways,” this one is sensual and playful on the surface, with Bono apparently singing about a mysterious woman. But lurking in the undercroft of those looking for a fish in the sand is unmistakably biblical language about the mysterious movement of God and grace. “She moves in mysterious ways” can be heard as something akin to the biblical Sophia, or Wisdom, traditionally personified as feminine in Proverbs. The song collapses the distinction between human and divine love, even bringing John the Baptizer into the narrative. The Spirit moves us, teaching us, emerging unexpectedly, slinking past our defenses. The song ultimately points toward sacramental theology, reminding us that God isn’t encountered by escaping the body or the world. Rather, God is encountered through movement, desire, relationship and, yes, music.
Theology: divine mystery, embodiment, grace and transformation.
Biblical companion: John 3:8
Beloved lyrics: “Move, spirit moves you, oh, yeah (She moves in mysterious ways).”
Honorable Mentions with biblical companions:
“Pride (In the Name of Love)”
John 15:12–13: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
“In a Little While”
John 16:16–22: “‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.’ Then some of his disciples said to one another, ‘What does he mean by saying to us, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me,’ and ‘because I am going to the Father’?’ They said, ‘What does he mean by this ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.’”
“The First Time”
Luke 15:11–32: The Parable of the Prodigal Son and its relationship to the Trinity.
“Scars”
John 20:24–29: “Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’”
“Kite”
Ecclesiastes 3:1–8: “For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven …”
“Coexist (I Will Bless the Lord)”
Psalm 34:1–8: “I will bless the Lord at all times.”
“Magnificent”
Luke 1:46–55: The Magnificat. “My soul magnifies the Lord.”
“One Tree Hill”
Revelation 21:1–5: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
“Where the Streets Have No Name”
Galatians 3:26–29: Paul imagines identity in Christ transcending the social boundaries by which humans divide and rank one another—a place where the “streets” no longer tell you who belongs where.
“Silencio”
1 Kings 19:11–13: “He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’”
“I Will Follow”
Matthew 4:19–20: “And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”
“Crumbs From Your Table”
Matthew 15:21–28: The Canaanite woman asks for the crumbs falling from the table while U2 turns the image toward global inequality.
“Please”
Luke 19:41–44: Jesus weeps over Jerusalem: “‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’”
“Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way”
Romans 8:35–39: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?”
“God Part II”
1 John 4:7–21: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
“One”
1 Corinthians 12:12–27: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 1For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
“The Playboy Mansion”
Matthew 6:19–21: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
What do you? Did I miss an obvious choice? Share your favorite U2 songs about God in the comments.