Secret Crowds

I know this will likely mean nothing to most, but I want to write about another Angels & Airwaves song. I wrote a while back about a lyric from the first cd in which the line was, “I wanna have the same last dream again, the one where I wake up and I’m alive.”

Here it is (with an anecdote edited out) if you need some context:
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Alive
I was thinking about something that I thought I would tell you about. It will require a lot of setup work, so forgive me for making you read about a band. Blink-182 split up recently (I think), and one of the vocalists started a new band called "Angels and Airwaves." Well, I bought the new cd (which is absolutely, incredibly good). I read a little about the cd, and as I was listening to it, something came to mind. On the song called "The Adventure," the lyrics begin with "I want to have the same last dream again. The one where I wake up and I'm alive." Now that makes no sense right? The context of their writing the album came to mind at this point. They were inspired by WW2. The lead singer said that he set up a dark room to put up pictures of the atrocities of WW2. This included dead bodies and burning cities. On the other end of the room, he put up pictures of space which he interpreted as hope. Like the hope of newness and discovery [and I would add now, hopeful progress]. He said that in the middle of these polar opposites is where he wanted to create. The songs would encapture the highs and lows of the very room he was in.
Okay, remember the quote I gave: "I want to have the same last dream again. The one where I wake up and I'm alive." I immediately envisioned being a soldier at Normandy. Imagine being on that boat on the way up to the beachhead. The sounds and sights of war exploding around you. You know you're about to face all of that. You finally make it to the beach and you begin your pursuit for cover. Bullets are flying past your head right into your friends. In the horror of war, you are eventually shot. You lay there thinking about the pain, the sounds, how your friends have died, how you're about to, how you never did all the things you were supposed to do. This is my point. That soldier would give anything to be alive. But why? He wants to do all the things that he never did. I think back upon my life and worry about all the mistakes I've made. I remember the days that I was too scared to go to public school after moving to Davenport. I know that I missed out on so much. I remember how I used to be so afraid of asking girls out. What if they said no? What if they reject me? What if I meet someone else that I want to be with even more, and I've already committed myself? I loved someone and never did a thing about it. Do you ever think you should go try something adventurous, but you just don't do it? You'll have time later, right? Do you have dreams to accomplish things? Why don't you go and achieve them? How much of your life was wasted because you were too afraid? You are alive. You've been given a 2nd chance at life...you are alive. Are you making the most of it? Have you thought about calling that person? Have you considered making things right? You want to speak and be with them, yet you don't want to be the one "to call." You want to be something, yet you've done nothing to achieve that. Here is your chance. How much of your life are you guaranteed? Do you want to serve at your church in the form of preaching, teaching, singing, anything? Why isn't now the time? Fear of pain didn't save those soldiers. It won't save you. It will only hurt you. It will only hold you back. When we think we have forever, we let things go. We let our words remain hurtful with no attempt at apologies. We think time will heal those wounds. When we think we have forever, we waste our time. Would it be better to spend time with family, friends, or at your church than to waste it watching television? Would it be better to spend our time in community rather than solitude? Would it be better to show love?
To take another line from the song, "Here we go, life's waiting to begin." You've been given another chance. You wake up on that beach alive. Now what do you do?

I wrote just two more entries after this before Celeste died. I think about that when I listen to that song. She subscribed to my blog, so I believe she read it. Words are powerful. I know that little things said in a classroom are sometimes remembered for the rest of someone’s life. Celeste never said a word to me about that entry, but it could have effected her. I hope it did.

Well, I didn’t expect to go down this road. I was simply trying to setup why I was going to talk about “Secret Crowds” (another Angels & Airwaves song off their new cd). So here, I finally go:


"If I had my own world, I'd build you an empire." This is the opening line of "Secret Crowds." Immediately, that seems so "music lyric-esque." My meaning there is this: it comes across as another lyric that makes no sense. His point is this, he'd like the world to be different. What if you had the power to create a world? What would it look like? I believe God created our world, but chose to give free-will. That is where things took a dive.

The way I view the song is if God himself were singing it. I see it as what he intended for us and what we will receive in the end. I see the empire as "The Kingdom of God." The theology of the Kingdom of God is very interesting to me. I believe in a form of eschatology (study of the end times) in which the Kingdom of God (discussed in the Gospels) is already, but not yet here. It's like Jesus came to save us, but what does save us mean? Well, it has to do with the restoration of our world but this is inclusive of everything (plants, animals, humans). The lion will lay down with the lamb. Jesus brought the Kingdom of God with him. Healings are a sign of this Kingdom. Some get healed (already) but some do not (not yet). In the afterlife, we believe there will be no more sickness and death. Didn't Jesus spread that as he preached? He healed people and gave both spiritual and physical life to people. He didn't do this every where. Already here, but not yet fully realized. This is the Kingdom of God. It desires "that no man shall perish." God built us an empire. We chose this for ourselves. Salvation is about the restoration of this decision. (I just realized that I wrote all of that and I've only gotten past the first lyric.)

Here are the lyrics:
(If I had my own world)
(I'd build you an empire)

If I had my own world
I'd fill it with wealth and desire
A glorious past to admire
And voices of kids out walking dogs,
Birds, planes, trees and cars

If I had my own world
I'd love it for all that's inside it
There'd be no more wars, death or riots
There'd be no more police, packed parking lots,
Guns, bombs sounding off

If I had my own world
I'd build you an empire
From here to the far lands
To spread love like violence

If I had my own world
I'd build you an empire
From here to the farmlands
To spread love like violence

Let me feel you, carry you higher
Watch our words spread hope like fire
Secret crowds rise up and gather
Hear your voices sing back louder

If I had my own world
I'd show you the life that's inside it
The way that it glows when you find it
The way it survives with it's families,
Friends or it's enemies

Let's make this a new world
I swear you can go if you want to
I know that you have it within you
Inventing the first clean and usable,
God's greatest miracle

If I had my own world
I'd build you an empire
From here to the farmlands
To spread love like violence

If I had my own world
I'd build you an empire
From here to the farmlands
To spread love like violence

Let me feel you, carry you higher
Watch our words spread hope like fire
Secret crowds rise up and gather
Hear your voices sing back louder

Let me feel you carry you higher
Watch our words spread hope like fire
Secret crowds rise up and gather
Hear your voices sing back louder

Let me feel you, carry you higher
Watch our words spread hope like fire
Secret crowds rise up and gather
Hear your voices sing back louder

Let me feel you, carry you higher
Watch our words spread hope like fire
Secret crowds rise up and gather
Hear your voices sing back louder

Another lyric I want to talk about is, "Watch our words spread hope like fire." It reminded me of Hebrews 12:29, "For Our God is a consuming fire." That is a reference to a verse in Deuteronomy, but I think the Deuteronomy verse references back to the burning bush. The fire consumed the bush but did not burn it up. Fire is used in a way in Christianity that I find interesting. It illustrates fervor and intensity but without destruction. It's the perfect metaphor for the song because in this new "perfect world" he is describing, fire needs to not be destructive. It has all the power it used to but for positive purposes. Hope should be infectious. Hope should spread from one to another. There are a lot of hopeless people, but it's the responsibility of the church to spread hope. Spread it with the speed, intensity, and purity of fire.

The next line I liked was, "Secret crowds rise up and gather. Hear your voices sing back louder." I interpret here, the secret crowds as the "invisible church." That is a theological term for those in the church who are actually "saved." The Protestants developed this idea because they split off from the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church was The Church. What the Protestants showed was that the church isn't a physical building nor a physical group of people. Joe Shmoe could walk in the building, but that doesn't make him a believer. It's the belief that makes one apart of the Church. The Greek has a couple words for church—ecclesia and koinonia. The ecclesia were the "called out ones." These are the people chosen by God to be saved. (I'm not going into Predestination or opposing views, frankly the New Testament has both views in juxtaposition). The koinonia are the group of believers who fellowship together. They share commonality. The line I quoted has both versions of the Church. It has the "secret crowds" which is the ecclesia (the people called out from among others). Then it talks about singing back louder. What is a choir? It is a group of people singing together "on the same page." So basically, I see this world that he is describing as including the Church. It's as if God wants to change this world, so he's asking his "secret crowd" or the "called out ones" to rise up and do their part. Use your words to spread the Gospel (aka good news). Remember, he wants the good news to spread like fire.

The next 2 lines go:
If I had my own world
I'd show you the life that's inside it
The way that it glows when you find it
The way it survives with it's families,
Friends or it's enemies

Let's make this a new world
I swear you can go if you want to
I know that you have it within you

Doesn't that sound like, "I have come that you might have life more abundantly"? This new life can exist with friends, families, and even in the midst of enemies. The new world God says he will create is a world in which death is gone. Peace does not know worry. He says that you can go if you want to. It's about hearing and then receiving. "I know that you have it within you."

Later he says, "Let me feel you, carry you higher. Watch our words spread hope like fire" I didn't know the line at first, so I thought he said, "Let me heal you, carry you higher." Think of Jesus healing people and then they get up and walk. They get off the dirty ground that they've been on for most if not all of their life. They stand and walk. It's "higher" physically but also spiritually. I know he doesn't actually say "heal" but my entire point is the interpretation of the song. Their lyrics lend themselves to this…this "epic" or "higher" way of thinking. Healings are apart of the Kingdom of God. God's wish is for good. Jesus' work was this restoration. It was the beginning of the Kingdom of God that will break through. Spread hope like fire.