Imagine walking into church and hearing U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." What could that song possibly have to do with communion? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

On Sunday, Oct. 4, the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor will celebrate World Communion Sunday with a U2 Eucharist. Christians around the world will be gathering around tables that day, sharing bread and cup and remembering that, despite our differences, we belong to one another. 

U2 has been asking some of the same questions for more than 40 years. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is a song about longing and searching. It is full of biblical images and sounds almost like a psalm. The singer has traveled, loved, struggled and searched, but still has questions. The song doesn't offer easy answers. Maybe that's part of why it has spoken to so many people.

That is one of the things I appreciate about U2. Their music makes room for faith and doubt, hope and disappointment, beauty and injustice. "One" asks what it means to stay connected when we hurt one another. "Where the Streets Have No Name" imagines a world without the boundaries that divide us. "Beautiful Day" invites us to notice the gift of life even when things are far from perfect.

Those themes fit surprisingly well around a communion table. This service also brings our month-long celebration of Seasons of Creation to a close. During September, we have been exploring the relationship between faith and the earth: water, land, creatures, and our responsibility to the living world around us. So, this Sunday we will bring the two themes together: our connection with one another and our connection with the whole creation.

U2's music has never been only about private faith. Lead singer Bono has spent decades working on global poverty, debt relief and health care, especially in Africa. Whatever one thinks of his methods or causes, his public life reflects the same questions that run through the band's music: What do we owe one another? How do we respond to suffering? And what kind of world do we want to leave behind?

Those are also questions worth bringing to the communion table. Come curious. Come with questions. Come as you are. We'll sing some U2 songs, hear Scripture, share stories and gather around the communion table with people from Boothbay Harbor and beyond.

Worship is Sunday, Oct. 4, at 10 a.m. at 125 Townsend Avenue. Everyone is welcome. For more information, or visit congochurchbbh.org.