It Ain't No Sin To Be Glad You're Alive

Barclays Center, 4/3/23

"For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside, that it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive..."  (Bruce Springsteen, "Badlands.")

I first encountered Bruce Springsteen through The River, which was released when I was a junior in high school.  Although this was Bruce's fifth album (and I'm sure I'd listened to songs from the previous four albums earlier than 1980) it was the album I listened to in my room over and over and over again. It was the one that hooked me. 

I worked my way backwards from there to Greetings from Asbury Park, and The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, and Born to Run, and Darkness on The Edge of Town - which is the one that "Badlands" is on. 

I first saw Bruce in concert for the Born in the USA Tour at RFK stadium in 1985. In between The River and Born in the USA, Nebraska had been released - minus the E Street Band but with songs that still haunt me to this day. After 9/11, The Rising helped me and millions of others find hope. It's been a long career with a lot of amazing music - and not too many clunkers. 

Bruce is 73 years old; I just turned 60. His music has been the soundtrack to my life's journey in so many ways. I've seen him over twenty times in concert including his stint on Broadway. Earlier this week I saw him in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center, with my younger brother, Jim. Bruce has aged, but he's still got it.  

Now you don't need to be a fan of Springsteen to keep reading, especially if you've made it this far. No person or artist connects to everyone. We have different tastes in music, for sure; that makes the world go round. But for me, Bruce has been more than a musician. He's been a spiritual guide. His music is poetry, and poetry is a close cousin to theology. He has, over my lifetime, been a part of my growing up. And he keeps growing up as well. This latest tour included some reflections on mortality - on being the last man standing of his original band, The Castilles. There was (as there always is) a word about Clarence, the Big Man, even in the midst of so much joy on this tour. And Danny. 

I don't think it overstates things to say that Bruce remains shaped by and even haunted by the Catholicism that was a part of his growing up - in fact he talked about that on Broadway and ended the show with The Lord's Prayer. How many rock and rollers can say that? He has never claimed (to my knowledge) to be a "Christian" artist but that's a narrow field: Christian imagery permeates his music. And his concerts often feel like going to church - or at least what going to church could be like. 

Springsteen has been open in recent years about his struggle with depression and about his father's depression which as he says "he didn't understand for a very long time." But it's there from early on in songs like "Growin' Up" and "Independence Day." Springsteen has covered the gamut of human emotions and yet a recurring theme for me is this notion that "it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive." In spite of the mess of the world we live in and of our towns and families, there is joy. 

I think of that great line from Irenaeus of Lyons, one of the early church fathers, who said "the glory of God is the person fully alive." Springsteen is fond of a call-and-response at his shows where he keeps asking, "is anybody alive out there?" I think Irenaeus would approve. 

Before I go further let me say how deeply aware I am of the pain of this world that can bring us all down. It's tempting to think that joy, and being alive, is an act of denial. But I think it's an act of faith to be alive in a death-dealing world. At 60, I've had my share of hard times - even in the midst of a pretty privileged life. And I've been a friend, and pastor to many who really struggle - who seem to get way more than their share of pain. Life is hard. 

But life is also good. We have been created in the image of God. 

Another poet, Maya Angelou, has written: "Love life. Engage in it. Give it all you've got. Love it with a passion because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it." To which I say "amen" and I think Bruce would also. 

I think that what attracted people to Jesus of Nazareth - and also scared the powers of sin and death - was that in his full humanity he was fully alive, and loved life with a passion. He taught by word and example that "it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive" - ultimately even in death, and beyond death to new life. We can and should enter deeply into the world's pain and nothing I've written above should imply a kind of "prosperity gospel" in which faithful people are immune from life's unfairness. But I wonder if, in the end, the way to become more than just "against injustice" is to glimpse justice - to know it's for all. I wonder if the way to navigate this world, whatever may come our way, begins with the bold claim that it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.