Advent Spirituals

Here are a few highlights of our studies of four spirituals.


"Mary Had a Baby"

This spiritual emphasizes the joy and wonder of new life, even in the midst of the slave experience. It urges us to view each birth as the birth of a possible liberator and to view each mother as the bearer of such a potential worker and witness.


"Rise Up Shepherds and Follow"

In this spiritual, the stories of shepherds and wisemen found in Luke and Matthew are combined. Is this a capsule of the memory of illiterate slaves or is there a deeper theological and cultural point? Perhaps the slave theologian-composers accutely understood the meaning of spiritual leaders such as the wisemen and outcasts such as the shepherds meeting around the child Jesus.


"Children Go Where I send Thee"

Slaves would have loved the opportunities we have to fulfill the Great Comission, but they were not free to go and teach. This spiritual provides a program for how God's mission in the world is to be done - in community.


"Go Tell it on the Mountain"

Here we hear about the angels - God's messengers, supernatural and human. The challenge for us is to be open to God's messengers and to be willing to be such messengers ourselves.