In the words of the iconic band, Chicago, “Does anybody know what time it is? Does anybody really care?”
There’s good news: FLAME knows what time it is and he’s got some new music for this moment.
And what time is it? It is time to put ourselves squarely in the narrative of grace and salvation through Jesus Christ by doubling down on who we are in the light of Jesus’ perfect gift and quit the game of observation in exchange for pull participation in the way we were created to do by our maker and redeemer.
Bottom line: I am always on the look out for the work that is undeniable and FLAME’s work is undeniable.
“Word and Water” is FLAME’s third release rooted and inspired by his graduate education in systematic theology, with minors in church history and counsellng from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO (where my husband went to seminary full disclosure). This release was preceeded by the Extra Nos EP in 2020 and Christ For Us in 2021. Needless to say, he is prolific in his creativity and passion for his work starting long before these latest releases.
FLAME only came into my realm (thanks, internet) perhaps three month ago after seeing his short videos on the sacraments and means of grace floating through my feed that had me curious. Who is this thoughtful artist? Where is this passion for the word of God coming from? How do I find out more?
In doing my research, just because I was in the dark all that time didn’t mean he was! FLAME, true to his name, has been building and maintaining a fire for his work with an extensive catalog since releasing his first album eponymously named in 2004 and subsequently releasing eight more under a reformed Calvinist understanding of the scripture earning him multiple Dove Award Nominations, Grammy Nominations and “God Knows” won him a Stellar Award for Rap Album of the Year in 2018.
Cue his introduction to Lutheranism and three EPs of monstrous work since 2020 expressing to his audience his journey to deeper clarity and connection to the historical church founded on a sacramental understanding of the bread and the wine, the water and the word and justification by faith for believers through the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I’d venture to guess his long time fans along with his new Lutheran ones were taken aback and that, my friends, is worth five thousand pages of praise on its own. In a sea of never ending new releases, debuts, sophomore attempts, established, mature releases, the musician who successfully astonishes across genre possesses strength the likes of Sampson says me. And FLAME’s got it.
I have had Extra Nos, Christ for Us and now Word and Water on loop for three days now and can’t help but make the connection between Lin Manuel Miranda’s masterwork, Hamilton, and FLAME’s masterwork on Lutheran doctrine presented in his last three records. When old things land in the hands of empassioned innovative creators, the world better look out because something new and paradigm shifting is afoot.
And shift it shall. Thanks to FLAME.
“Word and Water” begins with stripped down melodic confidence with the 17th century hymn, “God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say it” perhaps lovingly referred to as ‘#594’ to all those LSB worshippers in the know. Not to worry, the clarity, pace and beauty of such an intro has the listener trusting the voice, curious for what might come next, perhaps surprised by such tradition heralding in anticipated hip/hop. Already, I’ve read comments of listeners hoping he might eventually release the hymn in its entirety and I would vote yes on that.
“He Delivers” starts with spoken word explanation of baptism and the listener can hear the echo of ‘trust and believe’ and as the hook takes over, we can tell where we are: in the well crafted musical habitat of an artist who knows exactly what they’re doing. “God He gon’ get you the gift/Water Him deliver the gift/Water and word watch it drip/Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” and we’re off. In two verses he artfully and creatively, not to mention rightly explains what Jesus did on our behalf and what we receive (the full forgiveness of sins, robed in Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit) in the washing of the water and the word.
Am I sucker for Lutheran doctrine? Of Course I am! Am I geeking out at how FLAME is geeking out in this masterful, awesome way? Of course I am!
So who doesn’t love a spoken word interlude? FLAME includes 4 exerpts from Luther’s Small Catechism on the teaching of baptism and God Bless Him, for it. Luther hasn’t spent much time in the Rap Aisle of the local Tower Records and it’s about time he did! Luther’s wordsmith obsession with the pen and relentless fire for the grace of God will find kinship with the rap innovators of the 20th and 21st century! Both rooted squarely in the present, in the reality of their neighbor, harnessing their love of word and love of neighbor to extend a message of connetion and freedom resisting an oppressive teaching that excluded precious children of God from accessing the right gifts the Father intended for all of us? Luther, please join us at the rap battle. FLAME, he musta known and so he included Luther’s own words all us junior high schoolers worked through after school on Wednesday nights to learn the faith. Now everyone gets their confirmation in musical form in three albums and then some!
All of which to say, you want your face to melt off? Listen to Track 5, “The Patristics.” Have I ever heard a rap song listing off church fathers who confessed the saving sacrament of baptism as a gift from God? No I haven’t. And now the world has one, thanks to FLAME. “Family, it’s clearly unanimous, baptism is truly regenerative/Go Study the early Patristics (Like Clement and Polycarp)/the position is really ubiquitous.” I’m amazed by this for two reasons: 1. The creation of musicality around the listing of old Church folks while simultaneously tackling the theological disagreement between those church fathers and the calvinists who ushered in an alternative, lesser view of baptism is, again, a huge task to attempt and then stick the landing on in a four minute song. And he does it.
And FLAME’s just getting started, my friends.
“Mark Them” is about bringing those babies to the fount of baptism and I am reminded, as a listener, how rare it is for men to ever pen lyrics so loving and honest about the joy of children. Put the notion of delightful infant baptism complete with cooing baby sample inside the rap genre known for its overdrive machismo and general disregard for the weak and lowly in exchange for power and dominance, you’ve got not just a great song celebrating the whole family of God, you’ve got an artist bravely commanding the artform according to his own voice and what we feels called to express. Other listeners more familiar with Christian rap (any Christian music, for that matter because I admittedly know very little) may not be as surprised as I was, but even so, it’s worth noting his vision, his focus and his clear mission to sharing with his audience his new sense of freedom propelling him to speak, sing, write, perform. It’s a great thing whenever an artist takes an artform, uses its strengths and expands the canon to include more than the expected content that we stereotypically put inside a rap song. More of this, please.
Lucky us.
Here it is, 2022 and the race to. be cool is changing every day. The race to be the next best thing, the next viral video, RT sensation, Reel of the moment, Insta story flash in the pan whatever is exhausting. And FLAME, instead of doubling down on the Christian pop culture of the mega church laser light filtered just right mass media appeal of the seeker and the soundstage, goes back to 1517 and aligns himself with someone who would not keep silent when the grace of Christ unchained his anguished heart and off he went. It makes me think of St. Paul, an enemy of Christ, called by Christ to be set free by Christ. A guy like that encounters a love that big and he can’t be silent. He refused to be silent and off he went.
Thank God for such freedom that, when it lands for reals, even after lurking in the shadows for years in the life of a Christian, it ignites the kind of liberation we’ve all been waiting for. I can’t help but think FLAME knows what I’m talking about. I’m guessing he might relate to the despair of Luther plagued by his own sinfulness transformed to feather light Light of the World justification leading to Christ-centered fearlessness.
That kind of freedom, when it finally becomes clear that the heavy lifting has been done FOR US setting us free to live and serve in whatever ways we’re called to do so? That’s unlike any mountain top experience that can be found this side of heaven.
Not to mention the fact that he’s a young, creative rapping black man making historically white, German church doctrine his own.
Hot take: Just because it started in Germany doesn’t mean it was supposed to stay there! Just because some guy spoke German doesn’t mean we were supposed to preserve the European face of a universal truth. Like FLAME says (cuz church history proves), the Ethiopian church is the most ancient Christian church untouched by the east and west disputes of later centuries and holds older untouched teachings after the riga-ma-roll of the reformation. Now, I don’t know what I’m talking about and I’m sure there are a line of white guys just aching to tell me I’m wrong but here this: These truths of the faith need to be in the hands of every person of every color and origin just like Christ intended.
And the rap needs to be rapped just like Grand Master Flash intended and in FLAME we find both. Artist and believer, free to do his thing because Christ did all that was needed FOR US. (See FLAME’s EP, “Christ For Us.”)
It’s always a good sign when someone’s interest in a topic is so all-consuming that they cannot resist the urge to stay in it. Lin Manuel Miranda did it with Hamilton and, thanks to his obsession, he opened up the founding Father immigrant story to be claimed and owned by so many more people than back when it was just a dusty old chapter in junior year American History textbook filled with white guys. In the same way, FLAME, in these three albums, takes the Small Catechism off the shelf and makes it his own. By making it his own, confessed in HIS words, he allows it to be owned and claimed by whoever hears it and feels the pull of such beauty and freedom expressed in an artform that feels real, that gets to the quick of this moment we are in and what it feels like to be searching for that life preserver in your own hometown. That’s not just pop culture Christian bullshit- that’s the heart of the matter because Jesus is the heart of the matter and FLAME is throwing it DOWN.
One Twitter follower I read posted, “This is FLAME’s third record calling Calvinists to the mat without any response from the Calvinists.”
Oh the silence says something all right! He dropped that mic from such high heights there ain’t nothin’ to recover from the other side!
Are my hopes up? Yes, yes they are. I am dreaming of a stronger, brighter, clearer church with voices like FLAME’s joining the conversation. Do I hope we let go of whatever idol we’ve made of old German stuff? Yes! Why? Because this moment asks for baptized believers to speak the word in real and vital and current ways to reach hurting hearts who haven’t heard that God has a free gift for every single one of us here. And that means everyone. Luther was of his time, St. Paul, same. FLAME is amazing because he is in this moment synthesizing the ancient with the contemporary and breathing new spirit-led life into it making it soar out beyond the fence line of what we just assume is the end of the road.
THat’s what God does over and over again through His people who keep showing up and hearing the call of God and respond, “Here I am. Send me.” IN my sad little midwestern pastor’s wife heart I dream of an LCMS Council of Presidents where there is a seat at the table for the Black Lutherans, the LatinX Lutherans, the Chinese, the deaf, the blind, the Messianic, refugee, the immigrant -not because they won some majority vote, but because they need to be participating in the conversations of the greater church as though they were a part of the church completely-not just boutique subsets. There. I said it. Cue white guys telling me about Robert’s Rules or Convention procedure or whatever. But I digress (sorry, Man)….
Track 10 is some buttery R&B goodness to accompany the 4th Small Catechism reading with the verse starting, ‘God I tried/tried to scuba dive/tried to plumb the depths/in the ocean of affection and it left me out of breath/God I tried/tried to stay in line/perfectly in step/tried to keep your marching orders but my heart kept going left….this is why/need to look outside/outside yourself for your/help if you’re faith’s in God/and you’ve been baptized/then you’re blessed.”
Period pause. Track nine is spoken word catechism, track 10 R&B honesty about the struggle of the sin-sick heart reaching for God and then God says, “hold up.” And reaches down for us first. “Let us Remember,” especially for new listeners like me, keep expanding the palette of this artist and his command of the musical. I wasn’t expecting this kind of track when it first played, but now after a handful of listens, it’s clear that it is pitch perfect. FLAME’s flow is intense. His content, clearly, not for the faint of heart casual listener and “Let us Remember” breathes real nice and just right. It is followed, then, by a real high church baritone honeycomb drip dripping down the chin of the organ at St. Timothy and Titus Chapel hymn featuring the gorgeous vocals of Louis Anthony Smith in “Water, Blood and Spirit Crying” to close out a masterwork of an album. I can’t help but think the last three tracks together are that beautiful picture of heaven on earth we believers get to enjoy in fellowship with one another. Together with saints above and saints below, with all the company of heaven and earth, we laud and magnify your name evermore praising you and saying…..maybe something like, “Welcome home to the family of an unchanging God who has dwelt with us in all of human history and dwells with us still in this present moment inviting us to be full participants in this New Adam identity gifted to us all by the water and the Word so that we, like what FLAME did, live boldly, sing out, be here now trusting in Jesus’ promise. Amen.
Now go buy that album.
https://lnk.to/WordAndWater
https://twitter.com/Flame314
https://clearsightmusic.com/