The Afro-American Spiritual (2)

The Afro-American Spiritual (2)
WALK OVER GOD'S HEAVEN

This is an example of the loose oral tradition of the Afro-American spiritual, where even the name of the song is difficult to pin down! This famous spiritual has been titled in numerous ways, as "Heaven, Heaven," "I Got a Robe,""I Got Shoes," etc. This is also an example of how spirituals were coded messages among slaves in the American South, attacking their slave masters in the form of worship by saying "Everybody talkin' about Heaven ain't going there" (in other words, the white slave masters aren't going to Heaven)! But God gives everything needed to the Faithful (shoes, harp, robe, etc.). Keep in mind that, at a time when slaves would probably have walked barefoot, these images were not heavenly at all, but earthly, speaking of the deprived existence of slaves here below! Mahalia Jackson, who sings this song here, is generally considered the greatest of all Gospel singers and, in the minds of many, is the face of Gospel.

I got shoes, you got shoes,
All God's children got shoes
When we get to Heaven we going to put on shoes
We gonna walk we gonna talk all over God's Heaven.
I got a robe, you got a robe,
All God's children got a robe
When we get to Heaven we going to put on a robe
All over God's Heaven.
Heaven! Heaven!
Everybody talkin' about Heaven ain't going there, Heaven, Heaven
Everybody talking' about Heaven ain't going there.
Heaven, heaven.
Everybody talkin' about Heaven ain't going there, Heaven, Heaven
We gonna walk, we gonna talk
All over God's Heaven.

I got shoes, you got shoes
All God's children got shoes
When we get to heaven we're gonna put on shoes
We gonna walk, we gonna talk all over God's Heaven
I got a robe, you got a robe, etc.
We gonna shout all over God's Heaven.
Heaven, Heaven, everybody talking about Heaven ain't going there, Heaven, Heaven!

This is the same song sung remarkably well by the Taipei Chamber Singers

Added words, include "I got a harp."

IF YE LOVE ME
(JOHN 14:15)

This is church choral music by the 16th century British composer Thomas Tallis, in syllabic style (that is, each syllable gets one note rather than many notes as in melismatic music). The text is from the Gospel of John, elaborated more fully in the First Epistle of John, chapter 2. A tension between faith as belief and faith as act is often lost in today's churches, but this tension is clear in the writings of both Paul and John; that is, the Christian is saved from sin, but also must not sin! Faith, in other words, is an unfinished process, not a finished product. This is clear in the song text below, from John 14:15; that is, "comfort" (from the Comforter, the Spirit of Jesus) can only come by keeping God's commandments; it cannot come simply by believing in Jesus, as many Christians have believed for centuries. The great German theologian, Rudolph Bultmann called this the tension between the "indicative" and the "imperative"; that is, the Christian is without sin (indicative) but therefore must not sin (the imperative: do not sin). Therefore one cannot be baptized into the faith, one must live the faith.

If ye love me,
keep my commandments,
and I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another comforter,
that he may abide with you forever,
e'en the spirit of truth.

STEAL AWAY

This is another example of the coded Afro-American spiritual, which tells the slave to escape (steal away) to freedom, but also to Jesus.
Steal away, steal away to Jesus. Steal away, I ain't got long to stay here. My Lord he calls me and he calls me by the thunder. The trumpet sounds within my soul, I ain't got long to stay here. Steal away, steal away to Jesus.