“AAAAALL ABOARD!!!“
The first time I heard those words, I was 11 years old and about to take my first real train ride! My parents, along with younger sister and brother were making the trip from Hartford to New Haven to see “Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” on the big screen — what EXCITEMENT!! We waited on the platform as the huge locomotive with its many cars steamed into the station and screeched to a stop. Several passengers alighted onto the platform and then the conductor roared — ALL ABOARD ! — and we were off on our great adventure.
Those words “all aboard“ generate feelings of anticipation — that something NEW will be happening! The African - American spiritual published/sung in 1872 by the Fisk Jubilee Singers (a well-renowned a cappella group from Fisk University in Nashville) inspired hope in a “gospel train” of freedom — freedom from slavery — and the anticipation of being treated as a unique child of God, a WHOLE person, not just 3/5 of a person as the government proclaimed (though the 13th amendment officially abolished slavery in 1865, the 3/5 clause was not stricken from the Constitution until the 14th amendment in 1868).
“Get on board, little children — there’s room for many-a-more.
The gospel train’s a-comin — I hear it just at hand!
The fare is cheap and all can go— rich and poor are there —
No second class aboard this train, no difference in the fare…”
In the 1950’s and ‘60’s — the words were revised to reflect civil rights sentiments because — tragically — real freedom was STILL just a hope in many places in our nation - almost a century later. And NOW, 80 years hence — in 2024 — we STILL are working toward realizing that hope — as we watch “white supremacists” (often masquerading as “Christians” in churches across the country) becoming more and more frighteningly active.
JESUS must be drowning in sorrow …. Can you hear Him saying to us —
“No - no- no - no - NOOOO! PLEASE spread the word that is NOT what I preached!”
Jesus commanded us:
“Love one another as I have loved you.”
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, strength, mind — and your neighbor as yourself…”
“As you have done it to the least of these, you have done it unto me…”
Jesus — loved EVERYONE — bar NONE.
Jesus — saw the God-spark in EVERYONE — and tried to encourage each one to kindle that spark of love, to keep it blazing and then — to spread it!
Jesus himself was a middle-Eastern man, for heaven’s sake — a person of color!!
THE FALSE WHITE GOSPEL, a major new work written by Jim Wallis, chronicles the history of “White Christian Nationalism” in our country and describes its path to prominence in so many churches in our land. He turns our attention to the sayings of Jesus which tell us in no uncertain terms what He calls us to do.
Remember the parable of the sheep and the goats?
The Son of Man is sitting in glory with all the angels… the nations are gathered in front of him, about to be separated into sheep (right hand) and goats (left). The SHEEP are blessed and they inherit the kingdom, — because “when I was hungry, you gave me food, thirsty - drink, naked - clothing, sick - care, in prison - a visit” Really??? WHEN was it that we did THAT???
TRULY, JUST AS YOU DID IT TO THE LEAST OF THESE (who ALL are my children) YOU DID IT TO ME.
But — the GOATS are NOT blessed… They are CURSED! WHY???
“Because you did NOT do it for the least of my children, you did NOT do it for me…”
It seems that many churches in this country have cut some pages out of their Bibles, choosing to ignore the cornerstone of what Jesus came to teach —
FAITH. LEADS. TO. JUSTICE.
FOR EVERYONE.
Not just white people, powerful people, male people, wealthy people…
But — people of every color, ordinary people, women and children, the poor…
It comes down to this : DO WE BELIEVE THESE TEACHINGS OF JESUS? Or NOT???
Our choir shared the choral anthem GET ON BOARD on 9/22 (complete with train whistle!) written by Jay Althouse, (click here to listen).
Are we willing to GET ON BOARD the train of LOVE and INCLUSION? And then proclaim - with our lives - the gospel of even MORE LOVE and even MORE INCLUSION???
Jesus really hopes the answer is YES.
Comments