The fans are only mistaking themselves for God.
At least it's a nice twist on the usual idolatry of the rick singer doing so.
The 2:00 mark in this clip of U2 performing "Magnificent" at a promo concert in Sommerville actually caught me off guard.
As usual, Bono is lost in worship as he delivers a line as prayer:
"I was born to sing for You.."
The audience erupts in cheers, assuming he meant them.
Though technically and ultimately, there is no difference and contradiction in the two understandings.
But in so many ways it makes all the difference in the world.
("Sing and make music...to the Lord." "Don't tickle the ears of the people." etc)
Bono continues on, oblivious, or forcing himself to be; completing the line with the usual raised arms as if to overstate who the Audience really is.
This didn't happen on Letterman( see "Watching Letterman getting convicted...again"):
Those who have been following reviews and discussion will have noted that a lot of hearers seem to be taking "I was born to sing for you...to lift you up" as an insufferably arrogant phrase directed at U2's audience; it has come in for a lot of criticism. In light of that, it is almost funny to see, as this moment arrives in the song, the visual Bono chooses (starting at about 2:45). He begins with a standard wide-armed orans position, but immediately shifts that into an awkward-looking, aggressively vertical orans with both arms parallel all the way over his head, and just holds it. (The text is directed up, folks. Not horizontally. Up. Is this clear enough for you?)
-Beth, U2Sermons, link
Looks clear enough to me!
But this song is nothing less than the next single, for Christ's sake.
How will the pop public (in the Ethiopian chariot) interpret it that way?
The preacherman is going to have to deal with this (or not) the next two years on tour; will be fascinating to watch.
One has a hard time imagining him interrupting such a song midsteam (see "With Or Without You," Paris), and reprimanding the crowd: "Excuse me, I'm not talking to you!"
Or turning the raised hand to The Almighty into a one-finger salute to the audience (:
He may not ever even have to.
Ian Thompson, in his discussion of an older song, "Even Better Than The Real Thing,"
is helpful:
"There is no way around it. This is precisely the uncircumventable risk U2 took...some superficial listeners may have taken the song in exactly that way, and never taken it any further...For, as a song, it is also clearly addressed to a broader audience, and thereby seeks to transform this entire audience into the beloved."
-Ian Thompson, U2 and Philosophy, pp. 91-92
Beth Maynard, in her sermon, "If We Were More Like Thomas," references yet another U2 song ("Tomorrow"):
"...And as often happens to pronouns in U2 songs, that 'you' has grown more spacious since we first heard it....That 'you' is now big enough now for whatever we'll encounter when the door swings open."
(sermon included in Whitely/Maynard, eds, "Get Up Off Your Knees," p.106)
Let the door swing wide open;
preachers and artists must take the uncircumventable,
dangerous and delightful risk.
Such is what we were born for.
Magnificent times we live in.
Though the twin ditches of assuming
- I the preacher (St. Charlie was right),
- they the flock,
are The Magnificent,
are ever near,
these are the ripe and risky times we have been given.
Open the door.
Get out of the box and church.
Walk out into the street; be missional.
Sing your heart out shamelessly.
Worship God in Third Places.
Till we die, and beyond.
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