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Diversity in the church is a product of modern
advances in society in general, reflecting on Christianity specifically. In
America where there has always been two churches, a black church and a white church,
desegregation for Christ seems to be the right next movement of the American body,
s than a diverse church was inevitable.
When I moved from North Philly to the Greater
Northeast one of the changes I would have to make was where I would worship my
God. So I left a 100% black church to join a multiracial church in my new
neighbor.
One of the
advantages of being a member of a racially, and ethnically diversified church, is that we (the
congregation) have found a way to accentuate those things in Christ that we
have common, while at the same time diverting our attentions away from those
things that that make us different. This allows people of very different
backgrounds work together with the precision of an expensive Rolex. The problem with this well working diversity
is that within a single generation the knowledge of your forefathers, from a
spiritual perspective, who they were, what struggles they had, what defeat as
well as victory they experienced and even who we are is lost to a diverse unification
of worshipers. But God has required worshipers of all tribes and all nations to
come to him (Revelation 5:9) and where there are diversity of nation there
must be diversity of people.
The worship that comes from diversity should never be
an assimilation of something, just vanilla
One trend that I am noticing from many Christian music
radio stations is what I call “me centered worship”. It’s as if most modern day
“praise and worship” music is grounded not in a deep seated gratitude for the
salvific work of Jesus Christ, but in a worship centered in me, myself, and I,
and how the cosmic Santa clause meets all my needs. The proponents of this “Me centered” gospel seems
determined to eradicate many of the old time hymns and African gospel that grew
out of passion and the insatiable desire to know God, to need God and the hope
that God would recompense their circumstance.
Songs like Swing Low Sweet Chariot
(coded gospel) and Rough Side of the
Mountain are uniquely part of the African American Christian
message. They chronicle the slavery experience, and trouble there after that
has become the pillar of the black gospel history. When slave were taken from
Africa and given their master’s name so much more was taken. Yes the body was
taken from their homeland, the identity was taken from the individual, and the
history was take from the people. And because of this we have to create a new
history to remember our struggles and defeats and victories. But slaves were
not taught to read and write, so the only way history could pass from to
another was song, just like the only way a message of importance could be sent was
through song.
Lyrics
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Biblical allusion
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Code Meaning
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Swing
Low
Sweet Chariot,
Coming for to carry me home.
|
This was God’s Chariot of Fire coming to take Elijah Heaven.
2 Kings 2:11 “As they were going along and talking, behold, there appeared a chariot of
fire and horses of fire which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by
a whirlwind to heaven”
|
It alluded to; the conductor
of the underground railroad coming (Chariots) Swinging low (coming from the north to the south) To Carry or
direct them to their new home ( in the North or Canada)
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I looked
over Jordan
and what did I see?
Coming for to carry me home.
|
The
River Jordan signifies the promised land of safety and rest.
Deuteronomy 12:10 “When you cross the
Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving
you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies
around you so that you live in security,
|
It alluded to; the Mississippi
or Ohio Rivers which getting to and crossing was the most difficult part of
the railroad. But once they could get to the other side the troubles got
easier.
Slaves
were told if you cross the Ohio river and look on the hill you would see the
house of John Rankin would a preacher and abolitionist living in Ripley Ohio.
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A
band of Angels
coming after me
Coming for to carry me home.
|
This
is the hope that God will watch over those taking this journey and will task
his angels to watch over them.
Exodus 23:20 “Behold, I am going to
send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring
you into the place which I have prepared.”
Psalm 91:11 “For He will give His angels charge
concerning you,
To guard you in all your ways.” |
It alluded to; The workers of
the Underground Railroad (God’s Angels, [messengers])
helping protecting them on the journey north.
This also
alluded to Ripley’s depot one of the earliest and busiest stations of the
Underground Railroad. Ripley was the home of John Rankin and John P
Parker (1827 - 1900), an abolitionist, former slave, and successful
industrialist. John Parker was also a "conductor" on the
Underground Railroad. To reach the town of Ripley, which sits atop a hill by
the Ohio River, fugitive slaves had to wait for help coming from the hill.
This scene corresponds to the lyrics that refer to a "band of angels
coming across the Jordan River to carry me home."
|
If you get there
before I do;
Coming for to carry me home.
Tell all my friends
I’m coming too
Coming for to carry me home.
|
With history snatched out of our hands we were forced
to create our history anew. But unlike every other race in the world, the
earliest know history of the American Black man began in slavery, so we sang,
and God in his perfect divinity heard the cries of His children and swung low
His sweet Chariot.
So that we as a people would never forget God gave us
song, (like David) to praise his glory, to cry out to him in our suffering, He
gave us these Psalms of the African American Experience. Never to be outdated,
never to be replaced, to remain in time for as long as there are people of
color, so that we never forget how to give him praise!
Just a thought
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