A song, a church and the NFL

It was more than 27 years ago when a United Methodist bishop sent me to serve a church in south St. Louis. The small congregation, full of senior citizens, was wonderful to us -- and several folks became surrogate grandparents to both our children, born during my tenure there.

A lingering memory had to do with a hymn I'd chosen as a closing song one Sunday morning.

Describing it as the anthem of the civil rights movement, I invited the congregation to sing "Lift Every Voice and Sing."

Just a few weeks earlier, retired football star O.J. Simpson had been accused of killing his ex-wife and one of her friends, a server in a Los Angeles-area restaurant.

Simpson's long trial, which spanned most of 1995, was in the news every day -- and the celebrated athlete, you may recall, was acquitted of murder.

If you were following current events in those days, you may remember the intense interest of the general public.

Everybody had an opinion.

The racial element of the case was front and center -- as Simpson was Black and his late spouse, Nicole, was white.

As I invited congregants to sing the aforementioned song, part of the current United Methodist hymnal, I noticed that while some dutifully sang the tune at my instruction, dozens of others sat in their pews with their arms crossed -- not singing.

Some looked at the floor; others stared at me.

I thought about that long-ago worship moment when I read last weekend that the National Football League has decided "Lift Every Voice and Sing" will be performed before every NFL game this season, along with the National Anthem.

The first NFL contest of 2021, a pre-season game, was played Thursday in Canton, Ohio -- as my beloved and hometown Pittsburgh Steelers played the Dallas Cowboys.

The decision to add the 121-year-old hymn, derived from a poem by James Weldon Johnson, has been both lauded and derided.

I have little doubt how at least some of the folks of the congregation I served as pastor from 1994-1999, should they still be in this life, feel about the move.

A few facts about the song.

• Johnson's brother, a composer, set the poem to music.
• The NAACP, in 1919, coined the song as -- the organization's words not mine -- "the Negro National Anthem," because the verses speak of liberation despite violence and tragedy.
• The originating story giving life to the lyrics is the ancient Old Testament story of the Israelites going from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land of Canaan, now known as modern-day Israel.

If a fair person examines the words to the song, it is difficult to imagine any objection to them -- especially if it is understood how the exodus experience of Israel inspired the tune.

I will use the remaining space in this missive to Johnson's lyrics and invite your consideration of them. You may hear this song a lot during the NFL season, should the TV networks choose to let us hear it.

Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of liberty.

Let our rejoice rise, high as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us.

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died.

Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered.

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.

Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last,

Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,

Thou who has brought us thus far on the way.

Thou who has by Thy might led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.

Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.

Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,

True to our God, true to our native land.