Give Me Jesus and other spirituals

"Give Me Jesus" is the title of the spiritual that the Christ Church Choir sang Sunday May 25. It is a new spiritual to me so I decided to do some research on the back ground of the spiritual. Here is part of what I found:

Give Me Jesus

The spiritual often elects Jesus as the slave’s closest and most reliable friend. He is coming in person to gather up his friends and

take them to heaven. Give Me Jesus shows a touching faith in that relationship.

“You may have all this world. Give me Jesus”.

There are two different versions of this spiritual. this comes from : http://www.negrospirituals.com/history.htm

The choir sang the second version.

GIVE ME JESUS (Second version)

---

I heard my mother say
I heard my mother say
I heard my mother say
« Give me Jesus »

Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus
You may have all this world
Give me Jesus

At dark midnight, was my cry
Dark midnight was my cry
Dark midnight was my cry
“Give me Jesus”

In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
Give me Jesus

And when I come to die
And when I come to die
And when I come to die
Give me Jes(us)

The first version is:

GIVE ME JESUS (First version)

---

Oh when I come to die
Oh when I come to die
Oh when I come to die
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You may have the world
Give me Jesus

I heard my mother say
I heard my mother say
I heard my mother say
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You may have the world
Give me Jesus

Dark midnight was my cry
Dark midnight was my cry
Dark midnight was my cry
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You may have the world
Give me Jesus

In the morning when I rise
In the morning when I rise
In the morning when I rise
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You may have the world
Give me Jesus

I heard the mourner say
I heard the mourner say
I heard the mourner say
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You may have the world
Give me Jesus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Susan Logan sang:
"Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen"

NOBODY KNOWS DE TROUBLE I’VE SEEN

---

Nobody knows de trouble I’ve seen
Nobody knows de trouble but Jesus
Nobody knows de trouble I’ve seen
Glory Hallelujah!

Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down
Oh, yes, Lord
Sometimes I’m almost to de groun’
Oh, yes, Lord

Although you see me goin’ ‘long so
Oh, yes, Lord
I have my trials here below
Oh, yes, Lord

If you get there before I do
Oh, yes, Lord
Tell all-a my friends I’m coming too
Oh, yes, Lord


Here is the interpretation by Joe Carter http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/joecarter/gallery.shtml

Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen"
The authors of most spirituals are unknown. Various tales, often apocryphal, account for the origins of many songs. One legend has it that upon emancipation, newly freed slaves gathered on a South Carolina island were awaiting promised land grants from the government. "It was a great, wonderful day," says Carter. But when a government agent informed the crowd that no grants were forthcoming, one woman spontaneously began singing this song, making it up as she went.

I usually hum the music that we have sung all week, this week it is "Give Me Jesus". For more information go to the on line resources.
Jeannette Brown

Muhlenberg Hospital Plainfield NJ

Today in church the plight of the people of Plainfield was discussed because of the pending closing of Mulenberg Hospital. The closing was discussed at the New Jersey Association meeting and a letter was generated and sent to the state.
I figured that you might want some background information about the hospital and its closing.
The first article that I found about the closing was in the Star Ledger Saturday February 23, 2008, 4:15 PM "Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center shutting its doors" : http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/muhlenberg_regional_medical_ce.html
The article begins; "Faced with mounting deficits caused mainly by insufficient state aid to cover all its uninsured patients, officials at Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield plan to close the 130-year-old facility later this year." It also said it would temporarily maintain the emergency room service.
The next article is also from the Star Ledger : "500 protest closing of Muhlenberg hospital in Plainfield " Saturday March 15, 2008, 5:02 PM http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/03/500_protest_closing_of_muhlenb.html
That was the second held that month in protest of the hospital's closing. Organizer Lawrence Hamm of the People's of Organization for Progress said the group planed a third rally on April 5 in Trenton.
There is a complete blog about the closing of the hospital that will tell you more than you want to know about the closing. "Save Muhlenberg" http://savemuhlenberg.blogspot.com/2008/03/closings-of-hospitals-such-as.html
For information about the "current" services of the hospital and what would be lost I refer you to the hospital website: http://www.muhlenberg.com/muhlenberg-regional/. There is also information about the Muhlenberg Foundation on that webpage.
I hope this helps.
Jeannette Brown

Sacred Conversation about Race

You may have heard about the UCC churches having a sacred conversation about race on Sunday May 18th. At Christ Church Chuck will start the process by preaching about it. We will have the whole summer to do some reading and thinking and maybe private conversations before we have our "Sacred Conversation" in early September.

The following is a quote from the UCC web:
"The UCC is holding this national dialogue in order to foster a spirit of healing and unity in our churches and communities. While much has been said during the past few weeks about the Rev. Jeremiah A Wright Jr., this dialogue among our members is intended to be a larger conversation, one not focused directly or exclusively on the recent controversy, but one certainly influenced by it.
Sacred conversations are never easy, especially when honest talk confronts our nation's painful past and speaks directly to the injustices of the present day. Yet sacred conversations can, and often do, honor the value of diverse life experiences, requiring an openness to hear each others' viewpoints. Growth often happens when honest conversations are communicated in a respectful environment."

Over the summer you will hear a lot about race as the media and politicians play the race card because of the first possible African American nominee for President. This would be similar to the gender card if the first woman is the nominee. But the difference between playing the race card and the gender card is that the race card hurts. There is a history of people who have been killed only because of the color of their skin. In this country I don't believe we physically abuse women.

The UCC website http://www.ucc.org/sacred-conversation/ has a number of resources that can be used as you prepare for our conversation about race in the fall. Also as a member of the UCC Anti racism task force I have put a lot of material that can be used on the Christ Church website.

First I believe everyone should read the pastoral letter which is posted on the website. Then go through the steps.

The Pilgrim press has listed some books that can be a part of your summer reading. I will bring the books that I have to display tomorrow. I don't know if we have them in the library.

I would also recommend viewing "Eyes on the Prize I & II" to see the history of the civil rights movement. Most libraries have a copy.

For those of you who would like to start an online dialog you may post comments and information on this blog.

My colleagues on the Anti racism task force want to focus on African American racism, although this might be too broad I think racism of any kind against any people is not to be tolerated.

Here is a segment from the Pastoral Letter of 2008:

"As members of the United Church of Christ, we have a rich history of spirited resistance
to racism that can serve as both a resource and an inspiration for this sacred work. One such
resource is the Pastoral Letter on Racism and
the Role of the Church published in 1991 by the Commission for Racial Justice. The biblical,
theological, and political analysis of this ground-breaking document remains relevant for our day. The Pastoral Letter on Racism boldly names the “sin and idolatry of racism” and calls Christians to renew their commitment to be a people grounded in the love and justice embodied in Jesus Christ and the beloved community that King envisioned.
The Pastoral Letter on Racism documented what it called “a sobering truth” – namely, that despite the meaningful progress achieved during the civil rights era, “quality of life for the majority of racial and ethnic people is worse today in many ways than it was during the 1960s.” The letter went on to name a number of disturbing trends that signaled growing racial intolerance and hostility: increasing inequities between the rich and the poor; charges of “reverse racism”and attacks on affirmative action; a resurgence of racially motivated hate crimes and; fear of “foreigners” surfacing in movements such as “English Only.”
Seventeen years later, in 2008, we might wish to believe that we have made significant progress in addressing and reversing those alarming trends. Lamentably, that claim cannot be substantiated."
It goes on but I think that sums up the reasons for this conversation.
Jeannette Brown

Earth Day Prayers

These prayers are from the book "Earth Prayers From Around the World"

Suggested for Earth Day

And now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.....

For once on the face of the earth
let's not speak in any language,
let's stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush without engines,
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man fathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victory with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity
(Life is what it is about,
I want no truck with death.)

If we were not so single minded
about keeping out lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding out selves
and of threatening ourselves with death.

Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive

Now I'll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go

Pablo Neruda

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the Lord your God
is bringing you
into a good land.

a land
of flowing streams,
with springs and underground waters
welling up in valley and hills.
a land of wheat ad barley,
of vines and fig trees and pomegranates,
a land of olive trees and honey,
a land where you may eat bread without scarcity,
where you will lack nothing.
a land whose stones are iron.
and from whose hills you may mine copper

You shall eat your fill
and bless the Lord your God
for the good land
he has given you.

DEUTERONOMY 8:7-11 NRSV
___________________________________________________________________

Don't destroy the world
I've only nibbled
the grasses of my lover's meadow.
We are early May
and clematis has not yet blossomed.
Alyssum, lady's slipper, buttercups
I want to hold the to her chin as we did childhood summers
shining their yellow reflection.

And the large magnificent trees
rhododendrons, splashed pink as dawn
magnolia, white waxy bowls of purple swooning.
I've waited my lifetime for this.
Plums are yet to come, fat, taut
the fragile bloom misting their skin like breath.

Let there be days of grainy juices
sticky on my face I
want time. There's
plush mango I smear over her.
Let me lick the pit clean, memorize
each crevice with my tongue

Don't
destroy
the world
because my child;s five, because
she crises when she scrapes her knee on gravel' skin shredded, blood beading through the dust
cries pitifully and long
while I envision scenes of devastation
holding her against the clawing pain
her screams, my helplessness.

"I hope nothing really bad ever happens to you," I blurt
the accusation, shield for my own hysteria...
Don't Don't destroy the world.

Ellen Bass


Happy Earth Day

Jeannette

Martin Luther King Holiday Musings

Today in Christ Church we celebrated Martin Luther King's birthday. It is one of those flexible holidays which are celebrated on Monday even though Dr. King was born on January 15th.

We heard readings from Dr. King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail. As I listened to the selections I was struck by how appropriate they were for today.

Why we can't wait. People keep telling us to wait and things will be better. We African Americans wonder how long shall we wait. I wonder what Dr. King would have said about the photos of people on the Gulf coast and New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. It looked like a third world country and this was America. Our leaders were saying help would arrive. It has been two years and help has still not arrived for some people. How long should they wait?

Brown vs Board of Education was supposed to integrate schools and make education equal for all students. Well the schools have been integrated but white people (in New Jersey) have moved to the suburbs leaving the urban schools to have a majority of African American and Hispanic students. Is the education equal, no not really. How long can we wait?

The new school funding plan will put more money in school districts with large underrepresented populations statewide. This changes the old Abbott schools who were the urban schools and received more funding. Will this work? I really don't know because not all the extra money in the urban school districts was used for education purposes.

But back to MLK. Dr. King spoke about the fact that African Americans would like to be able to order a cup of coffee from a lunch counter. My cousins who live in Springfield Mass drove my grandmother south to Greensboro North Carolina. They had grown up in the north were there was no overt discrimination. The first thing my cousin Robert noted that he could not stop everywhere for gasoline. He was told to go to the "Nigger" gas station. The other thing he found out that some of our cousins who lived in Greensboro and were attending North Carolina A & T were involved in the sit in at the lunch counter in Greensboro. My southern cousins told Robert to stay away from them because they were afraid since he did not know the problems in the south he might get in trouble.

Dr. King also talked about traveling by car and having sleep in his car. This was shown in the Percy Julian DVD on NOVA were Dr. Julian a respected chemist and business man was also forced to sleep in his car on occasion. When my parents and I traveled we consulted the "Red Book" a book that told Negros the names of hotels that would accommodate them. This book was used not only for the south but the north. My parents consulted that book when they went with me to graduate school in Minneapolis Minnesota. They were given the room that overlooked an air shaft near the elevator. I have been back to Minneapolis since and that hotel has been torn down! My father was so excited when the civil rights act was passed because we could now stay in any hotel in Washington DC!. Even when I was traveling for my company in the south I always had my reservation in my hand when I went up to the desk for fear that they would turn me away. That did happen one time when I had a confirmed reservation at a hotel in New Orleans. But they booked us in another hotel and paid that night's rent and the taxi to and from their hotel. We arrived late at night and they had overbooked the hotel. We also got a free night at the hotel that we had originally booked!

MLK sitings.
My mother and father and I were at Riverside Church when Dr. King preached. My father decided we should go and I went along for the ride.
I also went to the second "March on Washington". I stood in front so that I could see the speakers. I happened to be in DC for an American Chemical Society meeting and decided to go. I got on the Metro and arrived at the mall right in front of the speakers platform!

So these are my thoughts about Martin Luther King's birthday 2008.
Jeannette Brown

New Jersey apologizes for slavery

On Sunday I announced in church that New Jersey was considering resolution that would apologize for slavery. The vote was taken today and New Jersey became the first northern state to apologize for slavery. This resolution was sponsored by outgoing Assemblyman William Payne.

As today's article says: "Payne said an apology will comfort black residents, who make up 14.5 percent of New Jersey's 8.7 million residents.

"This apology is not for deceased slaves," Payne said. "It's an apology for their descendants. It's an apology for the ages and all mankind."

"The Assembly voted 59-8 and the Senate 29-2 to approve a resolution expressing "profound regret" for New Jersey's role in slavery. A resolution expresses the Legislature's opinion without requiring action by the governor.

"This resolution does nothing more than say New Jersey is sorry about its shameful past," said Assemblyman William Payne, D-Essex, who sponsored the measure.

The resolution offers an apology "for the wrongs inflicted by slavery and its aftereffects in the United States of America."

It states that in New Jersey, "the vestiges of slavery are ever before African-American citizens, from the overt racism of hate groups to the subtle racism encountered when requesting health care, transacting business, buying a home, seeking quality public education and college admission, and enduring pretextual traffic stops and other indignities." Note: These traffic stops are not limited to African American males although they are the principal target, I have been stopped by a police man who probably thought I was a man, not a little old African American lady. I have never received a ticket on these stops only warnings.)
Note: Taken from the Associated Press article by TOM HESTER Jr. |Associated Press Writer| http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--
slaveryapology0107jan07,0,2453783.story

Here is some information about the slave trade in New Jersey. In 1800 the number of slave in New Jersey was 12,422 second among the northern states with New York at an estimated 20,613 slaves.
For more information about the slave trade in New Jersey here is a link: _slavery_in_New_Jersey#The_Great_Migration

For information about what New Jersey blooggers think about this, here is a link: http://blog.nj.com/jerseyblogs/2008/01/bloggers_react_to_new
_jerseys.html

What do I think? I think it's great. Anything that might help people to think about history and how what happened in the past reflect the present and maybe the future is a good thing. As a newly minted historian I have seen this time and time again.
Jeannette Brown
A little fuzzy from chemo meds today so I hope this makes sense.

Happy New Year & New York Times Op Ed Article worth reading

I managed to make it to the Christmas eve evening service. It was great although I would rather sing in the choir than in the congregation. I am slowly coming back from the reactions to chemo even though I have four more treatments to go, I seem to be tolerating them better.

I would like to point out an Op Ed in today's (December 30, 2007) New York Times about the end of the slave trade in the United states. It is worth reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/opinion/30foner.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
Here is a summary of it.:

Forgotten Step Toward Freedom

By ERIC FONER

Published: December 30, 2007

WE Americans live in a society awash in historical celebrations. The last few years have witnessed commemorations of the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase (2003) and the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II (2005). Looming on the horizon are the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth (2009) and the sesquicentennial of the outbreak of the Civil War (2011). But one significant milestone has gone strangely unnoticed: the 200th anniversary of Jan. 1, 1808, when the importation of slaves into the United States was prohibited.

-----"In the United States, however, slavery not only survived the end of the African trade but embarked on an era of unprecedented expansion. Americans have had to look elsewhere for memories that ameliorate our racial discontents, which helps explain our recent focus on the 19th-century Underground Railroad as an example (widely commemorated and often exaggerated) of blacks and whites working together in a common cause.

Nonetheless, the abolition of the slave trade to the United States is well worth remembering. Only a small fraction (perhaps 5 percent) of the estimated 11 million Africans brought to the New World in the four centuries of the slave trade were destined for the area that became the United States. But in the Colonial era, Southern planters regularly purchased imported slaves, and merchants in New York and New England profited handsomely from the trade."

Note: New York City was a center for the slave trade and our Congregational forefathers were actively engaged in the slave trade.

"From 1803 to 1808, between 75,000 and 100,000 Africans entered the United States.
By this time, the international slave trade was widely recognized as a crime against humanity. In 1807, Congress prohibited the importation of slaves from abroad, to take effect the next New Year’s Day, the first date allowed by the Constitution.

For years thereafter, free African-Americans celebrated Jan. 1 as an alternative to July 4, when, in their view, patriotic orators hypocritically proclaimed the slave-owning United States a land of liberty."

OK. Enough I hope you will read the full article in the newspaper today or in the library some time this week.
Jeannette