WEB-EXCLUSIVE

Good News to Share
By The Rev. John Ohmer

Tuesday night, I heard the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, Bishop of North Carolina, preach at a “U2Charist.”

Before this week, I’d never heard Bishop Curry preach, and I’d never heard of a “U2charist.”

I’m better off for both experiences.

“U2charists” are the brainchild of the Rev. Dr. Paige Blair, rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in York Harbor, Maine.

They are what you get when you cross a normal, Book of Common Prayer celebration of Holy Eucharist with the music and lyrics of Bono’s Irish rock band U2 blasting from speakers and projected onto screens.

The Rev. Blair developed the service as a way to support the Millennium Development Goals, an international effort originating in the United Nations that challenges all nations of the world to work together on eight specific goals, ranging from reducing child mortality to eradicating extreme hunger to halting the spread of AIDS – and all by the target date of 2015.

Now I don’t think “U2Charists” are going to be replacing the principal service on Sunday mornings at the church I serve any time soon, but you can do a lot worse than uplifting music in the context of familiar liturgy for the purpose of inspiring you to go out and serve the poor.

And speaking of inspiring, Bishop Curry preaches as if he’s on fire, never being able to stay behind the pulpit longer than a minute, racing back and forth across the front of the congregation, at times lowering his voice to a whisper, at times screaming his message: “It’s a bad news world and we have good news to share!”

The bad news? We live in a world that seems to believe only in what can be seen, touched, and measured. We live in a world that often either doesn’t believe in, or scorns, living by the Spirit. We live in a world beset by poverty, greed, and hunger.

The good news? The Spirit, like the wind, may be invisible, it may “blow where it will,” and be unpredictable. But – like we can with the wind – we can see the effects of the Spirit, even in the life of the Episcopal Church. The good news is “what is born of the Spirit is spirit,” and we – even we polite Episcopalians – have been born of Spirit in our baptisms. The good news is, the same Spirit that brooded over creation, descended from heaven onto Jesus, and was sent by God at Pentecost fills us now, and sends us out into the world to eradicate poverty, give generously, and fill stomachs.

I don’t know if we can accomplish all those goals by 2015 or what role creative worship services and inspired preaching might play in it. But Tuesday night in Columbus, we seemed to move at least one step closer.