Ain’t No Grave
Refrain
Ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down,
ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down.
When I hear that trumpet sound,
I’m gonna get up out of the ground,
ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down.
Go down yonder, Gabriel,
put your feet on the land and sea,
but don’t you blow your trumpet
until you hear from me.
Look way over yonder,
I see people all dressed in white,
I know they are God’s people
’cause I see them doin’ right.
Refrain
Christ the Lord is coming,
descending with a shout.
Sing glory hallelujah,
from the grave he’ll call me out.
Meet me, Jesus, meet me
meet me in the middle of the air,
and if these wings don’t fail me,
I’ll meet you anywhere.
Refrain
Devotion
What a joy this past April to have arrived early for the first live Easter services in over two years. If I had come at my normal time, I would have sat way back in the narthex watching the service on a screen. What a joy to overhear so many warm greetings after long separations. Just as the service was to begin, a jazz violinist began playing this American Spiritual.
Matched to a haunting tune, these celebratory lyrics were written by twelve-year-old Claud Ely while suffering from tuberculosis in 1934. As his family prayed for his healing, the words came to him. Later in life he became a preacher in the state of Virginia. This old time Appalachian gospel song is filled with Easter hope.
For those who use a creed as part of their worship service, the next time you confess “the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting,” you might say to yourself, “Ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down.”
Prayer
Thank you, Lord, for not only the promises we confess in worship, but those in the songs we sing. Amen.