Noel Gallagher and the Hidden God

A miracle has happened. Against all odds, the brothers Gallagher have reconciled, Oasis has reunited (a wonderful hybrid of the early and later iterations of the band), and they’re back out on tour as we speak. I admit that I was among those who thought that it would probably never happen; hell had a better chance of freezing over. So, here’s to hoping that the future finds us getting some new albums and plenty more opportunities to see them on tour!

In light of all the excitement around this reconciliation and reunion, I’ve been listening to the band’s catalog once again (not that I’ve ever really stopped listening to it), and one of the things that has recently struck me is the fact that Noel Gallagher, chief songwriter of the band, seems to do some serious wrestling with God. It’s not a consistent theme throughout his songs, but certainly in listening through the albums from Definitely Maybe (1994) to Dig Out Your Soul (2008), you can hear it pop up from time to time, and there seems to be some theologically interesting notes to it. The wrestling goes something like this: God may or may not exist, but if he does, it doesn’t seem as though his people are fully aware of it; and, what’s more, we can’t be too sure what he really thinks about us. Does he care about us or not? Will he save us from the messes we make in our lives or not? Here are some examples:

I met my maker
I made him cry
And on my shoulder he asked me why
His people won’t fly through the storm
I said ‘Listen up man, they don’t even know you’re born’
(“D’You Know What I Mean?” from Be Here Now, 1997)

My pulse pumps out a beat to the ghost dancer
My eyes are dead and my throat’s like a black hole
And if there’s a god would he give another chancer
An hour to sing for his soul
(“Gas Panic” from Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, 2000)

Catch the wheel that breaks a butterfly
I cried the rain that fills the ocean wide
I tried to talk with God to no avail
I called him up in-and-out of nowhere
I said if you won’t save me
Please don’t waste my time
(“Falling Down” from Dig Out Your Soul, 2008)

In “D’You Know What I Mean?” Noel appears to be wrestling what we might call the God of Deism. That is, the God who has created the world, wound it up like a clock, and has let it go about doing what it was created to do. But the problem is that this God is sad because his people aren’t successfully making their way through “the storm” that is life itself. His people aren’t doing what they were made to do. And what’s more, it seems that this God is sad that his own people don’t even seem to know that he exists.

In “Gas Panic,” Noel seems to be dealing with a God who is absent from life. He’s a God who may or may not even exist. There in the midst of what seems to be some form of an anxiety attack (perhaps brought on by drug use; Noel has somewhere stated that a drug experience inspired the song), God’s presence seems utterly uncertain. If he exists, will this God rescue this lost man?

Finally, in “Falling Down,” we find Noel in the midst of shedding tears, crying out to a God who doesn’t seem to want to answer. It’s a God who remains stubbornly silent in the face of Noel’s tears, a God who seems to be wasting Noel’s time by virtue of the fact that he’s presumably been told to call upon him, but then doesn’t answer back.

Now let’s be honest. These struggles with God are not uncommon. Many people have the same struggles when it comes to God. The root source of the struggle, as the great German Reformer Martin Luther frequently pointed out, is the fact that we try to deal with God outside of his revelation of himself in his Word. That is, we try to grasp God in the places where he has not permitted himself to be grasped. We look at the world around us, and we recognize that there is a “maker,” but we’re left with big questions about what he’s like and whether or not he might be for us.

This is where Noel Gallagher finds himself in the lyrics of “Gas Panic” and “Falling Down.” He’s made a mess of things in his life through struggles with drugs and the creeping approach of death (respectively), and he’s not sure if God will be there to rescue him. God seems silent; he doesn’t seem to be listening, or maybe he doesn’t really care. As I said before, this is a real struggle and a real concern that many deal with.

The truth, though, is that God does listen and he does care. The gospel tells us that God has made himself known to us in his Son, Jesus Christ. To respond to Noel Gallagher, we know he’s been born; we hear about it every Christmas. And we do know what he’s like toward us. He loves us and is for us, even in the midst of all of our sin and brokenness and the messes that we make of our lives. He promises us that he has dealt with all of our sin for us in his death and resurrection, and that through Word and Sacrament, we have forgiveness and new life in him. His forgiveness has the last word over our lives — not our sins and brokenness, and not even death. God, as he has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ, is filled with grace, mercy, and lovingkindness. He hears his people, he is present to his people, and he rescues his people. This means that, despite Noel Gallagher’s fears, we have the promise that we have been saved and, in that salvation, he has set us free “to sing for his soul.”