Alembic

Rating 5/5

Another banger of an album from Kevin Schlereth. This album portrays Gospel Stories in such a convicting and deep way. One of the things I love most about this album is how it makes me want to read my Bible. I can not say that about many songs.

The first track “Oil and Wine” plays off of the Good Samaritan story from the NT (Luke 10:25–37) giving the listener an applicable ‘sermon’ from it. The soft-folk rock goes so well with the song, well, all of the songs. This lyric: “Pour salt into your blind eye” expertly describes the job of the beliver when it comes to helping out those who are hurting. Kevin calls out the Christian for passing by the hurting, saying things like ‘its not enough, its not love / for even people you’d never think of’. This is true, the Gospel would have lost its luster and perfectness if it was allowed to pass up people, yet God came and died for everyone. Another line that hits deep into the believer’s heart is, ‘it isn’t Gospel if it is only for people like you’. Man, what a cut into my own heart. Often, I think of people when I share the Gospel in a negative light. ‘Oh, I don’t feel like putting myself in discomfort. Oh, I just don’t like how they look, so I won’t approach them.’ Lies, the Gospel calls to everyone, even the Samaritan. That is the Gospel truth.

‘Talitha Cumi’ is the next track, which I feel, musicality-wise, is it’s weakest, but man, it is good. (Luke 8:54) Kevin sings, ‘It’s relief that I need / Only found in the sacred words you speak’ about Jesus. God is our rod and our staff, in our pain we look to his rod, in our joy we look to his staff. What a God we have who is so personable, one that gives us His Word to learn more about Him. This person in the song recognizes the miracle of Jesus and that only by Him do we find relief, similar to the story of the girl. “Don’t fear just believe / I alone am the son over everything.” Can such a God provide care other than Yahweh? The Christian God, Jesus, tells us to simply believe, not to fall under fear of Him, but to revere Him and believe. The Gospel is delievered with these lines, ‘And it’s not your fate to sleep /For you too must rise with me /when everything’s complete.’ Through telling this dead girl ‘Talitha Cumi’ (meaning Arise, little girl), Christ has revealed to us what it is to be dead in our sins. We are not so lost that our only end point is hell, because Christ is here to guide us, that is the beauty of it. He brings us back and gives us hope in eternal life with Him.

‘Rooftop Access’ gave me chills the first time I listened to it. Based of the story of the friends who lower their friend through the ceiling (Mark 2:1-12), it explemifies the where our works lie in salvation. The paralytic man had no way to get up and ask Jesus himself, so how could he have forgiveness of sins? “If faith is a thing you must accomplish / Who stands any chance to get it right?” The Gospel message declares that there are no works that gain us salvation (Eph. 2:8-10), but that it is Christ alone that gives us eternal life. Even if belief was a work, who could get it right? This is what the paralytic is sung to be thinking. For Him, if he had to prove it to Jesus, he couldn’t. The friend knows that if salvation is by works, then he is lost, so he states, “If faith is a thing in need of action / I hope that my friends are by my side.” This is reflected in Scripture when it says, ‘And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”‘ The friend cries out in His heart for Jesus to see His friends faith and to save Him according to them. However, Christ simply sees the faith of the paralytic man, even if His thoughts are misguided, and forgives His sin. Through the friend’s misunderstanding of the Gospel, Jesus saw His faith and forgave Him. The last line is, ‘Look on their faith, forgive my sin, though I’ve done nothing.’ We have done nothing in the eyes of God for Him to give us salvation. Yet, he chooses us and gives us His inheritance.

Coming next is ‘Sabbath Work’. I listened to this one first, and fell in love with the message. Sometimes it takes a song from 2020 to make you fall in love with a story from 2000 years before. This one is based off of the story of the Blind Man (John 9). The question asked by the disciples is, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” This song is framed around the question, why is he blind? Here is the answer, “It’s nobody’s fault, it just had to happen / It wasn’t his sin or his parents’” Jesus tells them that it is not from his family, as if their wrongdoing seeped into the womb, or even from the man himself. No, it is because His blindness would lead to the glorification of God. That is even happening as I write this, as Kevin wrote his song, as it is for His glory. Kevin then tackles the idea of working on the Sabbath “You’re spitting in dirt, you’re breaking your sabbath” In an attempt to catch Jesus in some trick bind, they say that He was breaking the Sabbath, by spitting in dirt. How absurd. The last verse is a rendering of how we should live our lives on Sabbath. “So as long as you’re here with your light on display / Since you’re going away, this is time to celebrate” The Sabbath is not for us to be broken upon, but to worship Him through. Man was not made for Sabbath, but Sabbath for man. I really encourage you to read the whole chapter of John 9, for it says things far more convicting then a song.

‘Mountain, Preserve’ has been playing or repeat in my dorm for these past few weeks. So many questions that I have asked God are wrapped up in this song, specifically addressing our pain with God’s works. “You said you move mountains
Well there’s one right there.” While this seems like a bold statement to say to God, we have all been there. Seeing the work of God and questioning why He isn’t doing such in our own lives is common for us. Think about Job, the blessings he had, for them to be taken from them. This song models the faith of Job quite well. In repsonse, God says this (in the song), “In your zeal to move this mountain, you forgot I planted it”. He is the one that gives, the is the one that creates. Often, in search of our own comfort, we look to what God can give to us, instead in looking to Him. If He has given us so much blessings, imagine how great the Blesser is. Job forgot this in his questioning to God, and God reminded Him (Job 38:4). We are merely the axe that is sung, who are we to shake our fist at Him. I love the end of the song, ‘and I called it good / and that means its good.” That is the promise of God. Since it is said that He works all things out for good, then He does. That is how He works. He is not a God that would Go back on His word. He is a God that promises and does not change His mind. He called it good, that means it is good. That is the comfort and blessing that I live on. ‘If you knew me, you would love me, /not just the things that I do’. That line speaks for itself I believe.

The last track, and one of my favorites, is ‘Forever, How Long’ The song mainly comes form Matthew 18:21. If our brothers were to sin against us, how much are we to forgive? That is essentially what is asked to Jesus. He responds, “I do not say to you seven times, but seven times seventy.” This songs grapples with the idea of patience in a world of expectancy’. How much must I forgive brothers bludgeoning me with sin time and time again. In a cute musical way, the song is mostly in 7/4. If we are called to forgive seven times seventy, how much to you think the Son of God forgives? Short answer: all. Here is an anthem for our lives: “If we knew how much you forgave / We wouldn’t ask them to repay / Your patience each time we betray / Please grant us patience while we wait” Let us practice mercy in God’s name, ‘for You have mercy on me’. Psalm 103 speaks of the Lord’s patience in forgiveness and anger. Let us model that. As we go into new life, may the Lord grant us patience as well in seeing his second coming. The song says, ‘How long must we wait to see all things put under your feet, offering our cheeks’ There will come a day when all peoples bow to Him, let us have patience that we do not rush that in unrighteous anger.

This album is amazing, I can not go one day without listening to it. Love it!