Plenty Good Room: A Lenten Bible Study Based on African American Spirituals

by Marilyn E. Thornton, Lewis V. Baldwin, Lewis V. Baldwin (With)

Overview

This unique short-term Bible study combines an in-depth look at Scripture, American history, and the music and lyrics of six African American spirituals. The six-session study provides biblical, social, and historical analyses of the spirituals: 'Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit," "This Lonesome Valley," "Bow Down on Your Knees," "Plenty Good Room," “Ain't Dat Good News," and "Were You There?" Marilyn E. Thornton wrote all-new lessons appropriate to the season.

Leader helps can be found in the book providing discussion questions and activities. Plenty Good Room is a powerful resource for small groups, Sunday schools, choir groups, and any setting where persons seek to enrich their devotional and spiritual experience through God's Word and music.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501822490
Publisher:	Abingdon Press
Publication date:	12/20/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	64
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Marilyn E. Thornton (Master of Divinity, Vanderbilt) has degrees in music from Howard University and from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. She is the lead editor for Abingdon Press’s Bible study series based on spirituals, the songbook Zion Still Sings: For Every Generation, and VBS programs. She has taught at Howard, Tennessee State, and Trevecca Nazarene universities and serves as Campus Minister of the Wesley Foundation at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Lewis V. Baldwin is a native of Alabama and received his B.A. in history from Talladega College. He then received an M.A. degree in Black Church Studies followed by a M.Div. degree in Theology at Colgate-Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, New York. In 1980 Dr. Baldwin earned a Ph.D. degree in American Christianity from Northwestern University. He has taught at Wooster College in Ohio, Colgate University in New York, Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, and currently is Professor Emeritus in Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Baldwin is the author of over sixty articles and several books. He and his wife live in Nashville, Tennessee.

Read an Excerpt

Plenty Good Room

A Lenten Bible Study Based on African American Spirituals

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By Marilyn E. Thornton, Lewis V. Baldwin

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2016 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5018-2249-0

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CHAPTER 1

Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit: A Mountaintop Experience

BIBLE LESSON: Matthew 17:1-9

KEY VERSE: When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. (MATTHEW 17:8)

1 Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them to the top of a very high mountain. 2 He was transformed in front of them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.

3 Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Jesus. 4 Peter reacted to all of this by saying to Jesus, "Lord, it's good that we're here. If you want, I'll make three shrines: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

5 While he was still speaking, look, a bright cloud overshadowed them. A voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son whom I dearly love. I am very pleased with him. Listen to him!" 6 Hearing this, the disciples fell on their faces, filled with awe.

7 But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid." 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Don't tell anybody about the vision until the Human One is raised from the dead."

"Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit"

Refrain:
Ev'ry time I feel the Spirit
Moving in my heart, I will pray. (2X)

Verse 1:
Upon the mountain my Lord spoke,
Out of his mouth came fire and smoke.
Looked all around me, looked so shine;
I asked my Lord if all was mine.

Verse 2:
Jordan River is chilly and cold,
Chills the body but not the soul.
There ain't but one train on this track,
Runs to heaven and right back.

Lenten Meditation

The season of Lent reminds the Christian disciple that Jesus' life was steeped in prayer and meditation. Throughout his life and particularly as he moved towards the cross (Matthew 16:21), Jesus took numerous opportunities to retreat. On at least one occasion, he and his disciples experienced a communal theophany, a visual and aural indication that they were in the presence of God, often called the Transfiguration. What a divine connection! High on a mountain, they saw a glorious vision. Everything was shining with God's glory, brilliant, dazzling white! They saw their ancestors, Elijah and Moses. They wanted to build structures for worship, but then God spoke. They were not ready and quivered in fear. When they returned to the community, after a failed healing attempt (Matthew 17:14-21), Jesus told his disciples that some things only happen through much prayer and fasting. As we pray through this season, let us envision the ministry Jesus has for us, understanding that we are building the kingdom as God wills, not as we will.

Prayer

Be thou my vision, dear Lord. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

First Edition Notes

"Rock of One's Soul," pages 10–11

Many spirituals reflected the slaves' sense of self-worth in the face of an unjust system that questioned and violated their humanity. A major belief in society was that slaves had no souls; they were viewed as slightly above animals. In the minds of some slave owners and many others of European descent, this belief justified the slaves' subhuman treatment. Yet the slaves believed they did have souls and, furthermore, that their souls were intimately connected to God.

Slaves knew from deep inside their beings that within their souls was the life and vitality stemming from the presence of God's Spirit and that this Spirit moved within. This was a Spirit they could feel! One of the reasons worship was so popular with the slaves, even after days of hard, draining work, was that the activities of praise and worship confirmed that they were alive and connected to the Divine.

Place and Time (Matthew 17:1)

Thus far, despite Peter's declaration that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16), Jesus was not all that different from the regular traveling prophets and preachers that the Hebrew children had experienced throughout their history, with miraculous feedings and healings, great sermons, and even resurrections. This is what it meant to be a great prophet. But Jesus was more, and they had come to the time and place for this revelation, the time and place that would reveal what it meant to be so intimately connected with him — that they must take up a cross as he must take up a cross (16:24), and that their perspective must mirror his vision.

Six days after Jesus tells them that some of them would see the glory of God's kingdom (Matthew 16:27-28), he takes Peter, James, and John to a high mountain. No one else was with them. Rather than praying alone (Luke 6:12-13; Mark 1:35) or sending all of the disciples away (Matthew 14:21-23), at this time and place, Jesus takes three disciples with him. They had to do what he was doing and see what he would see.

Discussion Point

What is a theophany?

Theophany, Part I: What Did They See? (Matthew 17:2-4)

What the disciples saw was their friend and rabbi, Jesus, changed in appearance before their very eyes! His face was shining like the sun from which one must shield one's eyes. He "looked so shine," even his clothes shimmered in a white light, his entire being covered in transcendent, divine glory. They saw Jesus, not just a regular itinerant prophet, not just a healer or teacher, not just Mary's baby; but they saw Deity, a glorified being, God!

And they also saw Moses and Elijah.

Like Moses, the Lawgiver, who had met God on Mount Sinai and set the foundation for what it meant to be a prophet, Peter, James, and John had the privilege of seeing the glorified face of God.

No prophet like Moses has yet emerged in Israel; Moses knew the LORD face-to-face! That's not even to mention all those signs and wonders that the LORD sent Moses to do in Egypt — to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to his entire land. (Deuteronomy 34:10-11)

And then there was Elijah. Elijah also met God on Mount Horeb, instructed by God to "go out and stand at the mountain before the LORD. The LORD is passing by." After experiencing a mighty wind, an earthquake, and a fire, God spoke to Elijah in the silence (1 Kings 19:11-12).

Neither of these prophets had seen death in a conventional way. Elijah was carried off alive in a whirlwind by a flaming chariot drawn by horses of fire (2 Kings 2:11). Moses had been laid to rest by God's own self in the land of Moab (Deuteronomy 34:1-6). Yet here they were, recognizable to the disciples, talking with Jesus, clear evidence that there is life after death. Perhaps they were discussing how the circumstances around Jesus' death would be so unconventional that it would result in making eternal life available to all.

The first to gather his wits, Peter proposed to build a dwelling, designed for worship as in God's tabernacle (Exodus 40:34) or like those used during Jewish festivals. However, as he spoke something else happened!

Discussion Point

Speak to the importance of Moses and Elijah.

Theophany, Part II: What Did They Hear? (Matthew 17:5)

What they heard was a voice coming out of the cloud that overshadowed them. "Upon the mountain my Lord spoke. Out of his mouth came fire and smoke!" It was a bright cloud as in the days when God led the Hebrew children out of Egypt in a cloudy pillar of fire and smoke. The voice spoke plainly and clearly, "This is my Son whom I dearly love. I am very pleased with him. Listen to him!" It was none other than the voice of God, whose three-part announcement accomplished a number of things:

1. The disciples knew who Elijah and Moses were. They understood their role in the relationship the people had with God. They were just beginning to understand who Jesus was. According to the voice of God, Jesus was greater than the greatest of Hebrew prophets. He was the Son of God. God was his Father in a way that was different from the rest of humanity.

2. The voice let the disciples know that Jesus the Son was loved by God, who was pleased with him. Family love is not automatic, nor is paternal favor. Even as sonship is an elevated patriarchal status, from Isaac/Jacob/Esau to David/Adonijah/Absalom, the biblical record is full of stories of family treachery. For God to claim Jesus as Son, the Beloved, with whom God was well pleased, was significant and purposeful.

3. The voice told the disciples to listen to Jesus and follow his teaching. Hebrew culture at that time was still mostly an oral tradition with knowledge passed down by word of mouth. This is why Jesus often prefaced his teaching with, "You have heard ...," something in relationship to the law of Moses (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-30, 38-39). His teaching often pushed the envelope on what they had been practicing for centuries. The Law was perfected in the teachings of Jesus. God's command for the disciples to "listen to Jesus" echoed the Shema:

Israel, listen! Our God is the LORD! Only the LORD! Love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your strength. These words that I am commanding you today must always be on your minds. (Deuteronomy 6:4-6)

Just as they obeyed the law of Moses, now they were to obey Jesus.

Listening is not just about the physical ability to hear. Listening means to take into one's heart and mind what another is saying and to act accordingly. Loving Jesus means to obey his commands. And he only gave one — that we should love one another.

Discussion Point

What are three points made by God in this encounter?

Theophany, Part III: What Did They Do? (Matthew 17:6-8)

Peter, James, and John seemed to take the presence of these long-gone ancestors (some might say ghosts) in stride. Perhaps it is because their worldview was similar to an African worldview that the departed remained intimately connected with the living as part of their daily existence. The ancestors have a double existence; they are with God in a spirit world and among the people, watching over them and protecting them. As Lewis Baldwin writes in the first edition of Plenty Good Room, "The African worldview affirmed the sacred world as thoroughly enmeshed and central to all aspects of life. God was everywhere and experienced in all things" (page 34).

Nevertheless, upon hearing the voice of God, the disciples were filled with fear. Fear was common to people who experienced God's presence so abruptly: the father of John the Baptist, Zechariah (Luke 1:11-12); the shepherds at Jesus' birth (Luke 2:9). It is an unpleasant emotion caused by a sense that danger, pain, and/or threat is near. As did the Roman soldiers who were confronted when the angel of the Lord rolled away the stone of Jesus' tomb, the disciples fell down, overcome with fear (Matthew 28:4).

Jesus' response was a God response: comfort and assurance. He moves away from his heavenly companions to be close to his earthly ones, touching them, encouraging them to get up! Jesus is right there. There is no need for fear. And when they look up, they see only Jesus: their rabbi, leader, healer, and friend. Jesus remains as the abiding presence of God, a presence that "soothes our doubts and calms our fears," and empowers us to get up and do what has to be done.

Discussion Point

What causes you fear?

Coming Down the Mountain (Matthew 17:9)

What goes up must come down. Coming down from a high time may provide an opportunity to debrief and to share what has happened, an examination of life-changing experiences. But Jesus instructs Peter, James, and John that what happened on the mountain is between him and them, not to be discussed even with the other disciples. Having had an out-of-mind, out-of-body experience, in which the mundane things of life had been suspended, time and place once again become important.

Lent is a time when certain mundane things are suspended. We may eat less, take more time to pray and to meditate, spend more time in sacred spaces. It is a time when we may experience the abiding presence of God in a special way. Like the Transfiguration, however, we cannot stay in the moment.

Transfiguration events inform and facilitate our transformation into more disciplined and empowered followers of Christ. They are meant to help us remember to pray every time we feel the Spirit and that feeling the Spirit is necessary for true discipleship. They are meant to prepare us for the work ahead: the work of listening to Jesus, the imaginative exertion to continue to see the sacred once we get to the foot of the mountain, the challenge not to bend down in fear as we encounter the low places and valleys of life. They are for the purpose of moving us to be as fully human as Jesus, the Human One, and connecting us with the divinity placed in us by Creator God.

The Lenten journey begins at the top of a mountain but is informed by the time and place of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, the good news, which for the Christian disciple gives meaning to all of life.

Discussion Point

After a mountaintop experience, what aspects of transformation did you gain?

CHAPTER 2

This Lonesome Valley: A Time of Temptation

BIBLE LESSON: Matthew 4:1-4

KEY VERSE: Jesus replied, "It's written, People won't live only by bread, but by every word spoken by God." (MATTHEW 4:4)

1 Then the Spirit led Jesus up into the wilderness so that the devil might tempt him. 2 After Jesus had fasted for forty days and forty nights, he was starving. 3 The tempter came to him and said, "Since you are God's Son, command these stones to become bread."

4 Jesus replied, "It's written, People won't live only by bread, but by every word spoken by God."

"Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley"

Verse 1:
Jesus walked this lonesome valley.
He had to walk it by himself.
Oh, nobody else could walk it for him.
He had to walk it by himself.

Verse 2:
I must walk this lonesome valley. I have to walk it by myself. Oh, ...

Verse 3:
We must walk this lonesome valley. We have to walk ...

Lenten Meditation

Life contains its lonesome valleys: times when you hit bottom, when you go so low, you can go no lower, times when you feel as alone as alone can be, with no shoulder to cry on and no one to hold your hand. Indeed, there are experiences that, despite your preference, you cannot avoid; no one else can take your place. You have to do it, nobody else.

Geographically, valleys are elongated depressions between hills or mountains or flat, low regions drained by river systems. Figuratively, they may be periods or situations that are filled with fear or gloom such as "the valley of the shadow of death" (Psalm 23:4, KJV). Jesus, like all of humanity, had his "lonesome valley" moments. He was actually guided into this one by the Holy Spirit. And though he was physically weakened and bereft of human companionship, God's Word accompanied him in his heart. During this Lenten season, let us take opportunities to hide God's Word in our hearts. God's Word will ready us for lonesome valley moments and remind us that God's hand and shoulder are always available.

Prayer

Thank you, God, for your presence in every situation. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger because you are with me; in Jesus' name. Amen.

First Edition Notes

"Escape and Deliverance From Slavery," page 15

Escaping slaves traveled through dangerous territory, hid in swamps from bounty hunters, and ran from wild animals. Runaway slaves typically traveled by foot at night and slept during the day. Often, slaves would hide in the homes or on the property of kind people who would provide them with food, clothing, and medical assistance. A large number of persons who aided slaves on the Underground Railroad were white and belonged to religious groups such as the Methodists and the Quakers. Houses and other places in which slaves were allowed to hide were called "stations" because they were the stops slaves would make while traveling on the "train." Singing must have helped to inspire the slaves with a sense of divine sanction for their escape. They believed that God wanted them to be free; and the holy, authoritative sound of the song encouraged that faith.

Into the Wilderness (Matthew 4:1)

Another song in the Negro spiritual tradition asks the question,

Tell me, how did you feel when you come out de wilderness,
Come out de wilderness, come out de wilderness?
How did you feel when you come out de wilderness,
Leanin' on the Lord?

In order to come out of the wilderness, you had to have gone into the wilderness — a dry, unfriendly place — where it may appear that God has not touched at all. Indeed, the Hebrew word for "wilderness" or "desert" is midbar, meaning "without word," either a place that bears no description or a place where no other human voice can be heard.

The Middle Passage was a wilderness and a lonesome valley for Africans stolen from their homelands and transported into chattel slavery. The bottom of those ships where they lay was indescribably horrible! The captured listened for voices they could understand but had been deliberately separated into different language and cultural groups. Just as immigrants from Mexico or Syria cross borders into desert lands, escaping slaves went into the wilderness of swamps and unknown territories in order to come out of the moral wasteland of slavery. Wilderness places represent the valleys of life, and Jesus, as any human being, had to go into the wilderness.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Plenty Good Room by Marilyn E. Thornton, Lewis V. Baldwin. Copyright © 2016 Abingdon Press. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Preface,
Introduction,
LESSON ONE: Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit: A Mountaintop Experience,
LESSON TWO: This Lonesome Valley: A Time of Temptation,
LESSON THREE: Bow Down on Your Knees: A Time of Repentance,
LESSON FOUR: Plenty Good Room: Preparing the Guest Room,
LESSON FIVE: Ain't-a Dat Good News? Shouldering the Cross,
LESSON SIX: Were You There? A Collective Memory,
Leader Guide,