Driving Home with Jesus

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As we say good-bye to summer, I have been reflecting on the many road trips we have taken this summer.

One of the things that we pack in the car is a box of CDs with various styles of music. We change the CDs up from time to time, but there are one or two CDs that are regulars. One is Gospel Music from the Ozarks. For some inexplicable reason we tend to play that CD last as we are making our way into Missouri and home. Ending the trip on an Ozark Gospel high.

As we were listening to the lyrics on our last road trip, Jerry commented that Gospel music seems to make getting into the “Pearly Gates” easier than the directives, rules, dogma, theology, etc. we have as Roman Catholics to make it to the “Pearly Gates.”

Eulaine, one of the vocalists, makes it clear that she “settled her account long ago:”

There was a time on earth when in the book of Heav’n
An old account was standing for sins yet unforgiv’n;
My name was at the top, and many things below—
I went unto the Keeper, and settled long ago.

Long ago, long ago,
Yes, the old account was settled long ago;
And the record’s clear today, for He washed my sins away,
When the old account was settled long ago.¹

We Catholics might call that making a “general confession.”

Eulaine continues singing “Inside the Gate.” In Gospel mountain music there is a real focus on the hereafter – what is usually called “Heaven.”

And how happy they will be when life’s journey here is run,
And I look upon His Face and I hear Him he say, “Well, done”
Heaven’s joys for me await when I step inside the gate ²

There are in Gospel lyrics a clarity, an assuredness that there is a hereafter and that the believers will be welcomed into that hereafter with open arms.

Another strong theme in Gospel music is Light Over Darkness. Some years ago, I met a person who had been “clinically dead” and was revived. When the person had recovered and returned to normal living he was asked, what was it like, that darkness. He said, “It was a great light.” A very popular Gospel song is “I Saw the Light.”

I saw the light, I saw the light
No more darkness, no more night
Now I’m so happy, no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light

Just like a blind man, I wandered along
Worries and fears I claimed for my own
Then like the blind man that God gave back his sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light ³

My observation of the “theology of Gospel music” is that the relationship with God, especially with the focus on Jesus, is a little more casual and intimate than it is for us Roman Catholics. I listened to a lively Gospel hymn called, “Just a Little Talk with Jesus.”

Just a little talk with Jesus, tell Him all your troubles;
And just a little talk with Jesus makes me whole ⁴

They make praying seem so simple. Which makes me wonder why I have ten or more books on my shelf on how to pray!

Are Jerry and I are heading over to the first revival tent that springs up? No, to be honest, we are members of a very vibrant faith community that does its own share of singing. But now and then it’s worthwhile to check another’s hymnbook. See what we might be missing. Or simply what their style is, if different from ours. No one hymnbook has it all.

The reality is, we’re all singing our way to the “sweet bye an’ bye” whether we’re doing that in Latin, English, Country Gospel, Black Gospel, Native American, or the many other diverse modes of music. There’s room for all of us.

The hymn, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” was composed by the Father of Gospel Music, African American, Thomas A. Dorsey, Pilgrim Baptist Church, Chicago, Illinois. Dorsey composed the hymn in August 1932 following the loss of his wife, Nellie Harper, and their infant son in childbirth. Mr. Dorsey was quoted as saying the song came directly from God.⁵

I would like to close with the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performing, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.”

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Notes and Song Performances

1. “The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago” written by Rev. Frank Monford Graham, 1902.
   Performance by True Harmony from the album This Glad Hour. 
   (https://open.spotify.com › track)
   
   
2. “Inside the Gate” written by J. D. Sumner.
   Performance by Country Gentlemen from the album Calling My Children Home. 
   (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZs_U6O3gGs)
   
   
3. “I Saw the Light” written by Hank Williams, Sr., 1952.
   Performance by Hank Williams, Sr. from the album I Saw the Light. 
   (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv5odWOpVqw)
   
   
4. “Just a Little Talk with Jesus” words and music by Cleavant Derrick, 1937. 
   Performance by Bill Monroe from the album Cryin’ Holy Unto The Lord. 
   (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWRvPA0KmZE)
   
   
5.  “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” written by Thomas A. Dorsey, 1932. 
   Performance by Thomas Dorsey with Marion Williams from the album Precious Lord: Recordings Of The Great Gospel Songs Of Thomas A. Dorsey. 
   (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oVcgrbeByo)