Staying with a musical theme – on a train journey listening to my iPod the other day, I had two versions of the same song serendipitously shuffled one after the other. The song is I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2, which is a favourite from a few years back. Or at least it was nearly a favourite.

Bono’s lyrical style is visually evocative and liberally sprinkled with biblical metaphor, and this song is no exception. The lyrics and pace build subtly towards the final stanza which begins:

I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colours will bleed into one,
Bleed into one.
But yes, I’m still running.
You broke the bonds and loosed the chains
Carried the cross of my shame,
All my shame;
You know I believe it.

Here’s the thing. I felt as if I could only enjoy the song up to this point. This final verse made glorious sense, until Bono sings the finishing line ‘But I still haven’t found…’.
What? How can anyone sing about the cross, about a coming kingdom and still not have found what they’re looking for?

Nowadays the song fits perfectly for me. Bono wants to affirm the raw power of the historic event of the cross and the bright promise of a future consummation of all it contains; yet this very gospel message contributes to the problem. It can become a slogan, a shibboleth, a means of division, an excuse for inaction, an intellectual escape from the real, daily struggle to live peacefully, gracefully and justly.

The gospel presses us on to discover the gospel beyond itself, a gospel that really is good news, good for all, God in all. The Beatitudes are hopeful and yet deeply dissatisfying. Indeed they’re de-satisfying. They keep us running, crawling, climbing, falling, until we find what we’re really looking for.