Guitar Rock: U2's "Tomorrow" from October

I’m working on a sermon for Wednesday night’s midweek Lenten service. The topic this week is “Christian Music”; the congregation selected different topics they’d like discussed in the sermons during Lent. I’m not sure if U2 will actually end up as the main topic on Wednesday night, but either way, you can check out the sermon at my other site, pastorsquires.blogspot.com, after Wednesday.

U2’s music has often encouraged me in my faith, in the biblical references and the hope that they bring to difficult, troubled situations. However, I have also often struggled against Christians who want to co-opt all of U2’s music as if they were a Christian praise band. I find it much more complicated than that.

Recently, I have really enjoyed the U2 sermons project led by editors Raewynne Whiteley and Beth Maynard with their book, Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog, and the companion Website, u2sermons.blogspot.com.

I enjoy this project, because it pursues something I find deeply compelling and important to my own faith and the teaching of the Gospel: the use of popular culture to unlock the meaning of Jesus. Music is so much a part of our lives, and for those of us who spend many waking minutes thinking about music, we are constantly connecting lyrics and melodies and guitar solos to what is going on in our lives—including our Christian faith.

U2 is natural pick for this discussion about the connection between music and faith. However, I don’t like when people use U2 as a straight-up Christian band without recognizing the complexities behind their music.


For instance, “Tomorrow” from the 1981 album, October, has always first and foremost to me talked about the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The first verse says, “Outside, somebody's outside/Somebody's knocking at the door/There's a black car parked at the side of the road/Don't go to the door/Don’t go to the door/I'm going out/I'm going outside, mother/I'm going out there.” This verse always called to mind an omnious knock on the door, a threat of violence, perhaps the IRA, perhaps the police, and the son struggles to know whether to face this violence, to join the struggle, or to stay inside and hide.

With that verse in mind, I heard the rest of the song struggling over this, even with its Christian references. I always took the chorus, “Will you be back tomorrow,” as being partly the son speaking about wanting an end to the troubles and perhaps asking for Jesus to return. However, I also hear the mother speaking those words, wondering when the son will return from jail or being a part of the IRA.

Of course, you can’t ignore the last verse, “Open up, open up to the love of God/To the love of He who made the blind to see/He's coming back/He's coming back/I believe Him/Jesus is coming/I'm gonna be there/I'm gonna be there, mother.” The song hopes and looks forward to Jesus returning.

Yet, to say that “Tomorrow” is just about the Second Coming is to ignore the rest of the song and the context in which U2 wrote much of their early music. Plus, I think that being inspired so much by the Psalms, U2’s Christian references are that much more compelling when kept in that context. These are cries of faith within songs about the Troubles and the world that we live in. Just as David cried out about his enemies attacking him even while clinging to faith in God, so too U2’s songs cling to faith while facing the world around them.

So is it Christian music? Check out the sermon site after Wednesday to read more about that. However, I will say this today: what makes music speak to me about my faith and life is when it is authentic, real, and talks about faith in the context of actual struggles. That’s why I’m such a fan of the psalms, too!

Thanks to these sites for their helpful resources:
U2 lyrics from @U2
U2 biblical references from @U2
Meaning of lyrics from U2MoL