TXT3

Hidden in the middle of the new U2 song Get On Your Boots are these words:

Here’s where we gotta be, love and community
Laughter is eternity, if joy is real
You don’t know how beautiful
You don’t know how beautiful you are
You don’t know and you don’t get it, do you?
You don’t know how beautiful you are.

The thing I love about great lyrics is they can often be interpreted many different ways. Without knowing exactly what this song may be about, I can give my interpretation of this lyric.

Here’s where we gotta be, love and community. What if this is a reference to Jesus’ prayer in John 17? If you are familiar with this passage you know that Jesus is praying for the unity of his disciples – “that they may be one, even as we are one” (v. 11, ESV). But Jesus is also praying for the unity of all believers, including you and me when He said, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me..” (v. 20-21, ESV).

You don’t know how beautiful this image is to Jesus, do you? Have you ever asked yourself why Jesus offered this prayer just before he was arrested? Why does anybody pray? Isn’t it because we believe the answer to our prayers is possible? Jesus prayed for the unity or community of those who would believe in Him because He believes the answer to that prayer is possible. Not only is it possible, it is beautiful, so beautiful in fact that the world will believe that Jesus was sent by God. Wow! The community we show or do not show as Christ’s church will have an eternal impact on those who are watching us.

You don’t know and you don’t get it, do you? This sounds like a challenge. U2 for many years has written songs that in many ways challenge the church to rethink or reconsider some of the things we say we believe in. The lyric hidden in the middle of this song may in fact be a challenge to the church to rethink how we are portraying community to the world.

What would the local church look like if it really got serious about biblical community and made it accessible to everyone?

You don’t know how beautiful you are.