I Want Jesus to Walk With Me

Author’s note: LEVAS refers to one of the Episcopal Church’s supplemental hymnals: “Lift Every Voice and Sing; An African American Hymnal”
 
February is Black History month, so it’s a perfect time to add more hymns than usual from the Black community into our regular worship. It’s also the start of Lent most years; this year, Ash Wednesday falls on February 14th. As I sift through the many spirituals and traditional songs from Black history, it has been interesting to contemplate them through the lens of Lent. We can sing “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me”(LEVAS 70)  any time of year, but it’s particularly poignant to sing as we embark into Lent, where we symbolically walk with Jesus for fifty days in the wilderness. The second stanza repeats, “In my trials, Lord, walk with me,” and in the third stanza, “In my sorrows, walk with me.” We’re walking with Jesus, and Jesus is walking with us.
 
“Give Me Jesus” (LEVAS 91) draws my mind to Ash Wednesday:
 
Dark midnight was the cry, Dark midnight was the cry: Give me Jesus.
O when I come to die, O when I come to die: Give me Jesus.
Give me Jesus! You can have all this world! Give me Jesus.
 
In Lent we’re often asked to give something up, in order that we might grow closer to Jesus. “You can have all this world!” (The impulse spending? The overconsumption? The chocolate??) Take it all– give ME Jesus!
 
“His Eye is On the Sparrow,” (LEVAS 191) a Gospel tune by Civilla Martin and Charles Gabriel, was adopted as one of the theme songs of the Civil Rights Movement. My colleague Michael Hawn encapsulated its significance in a blog post he wrote for the United Methodist Church:
 
“The themes of solace in spite of sorrow, and a profound sense of being under the watch-care of Jesus, who is a ‘constant friend,’ offered the African-American community comfort during the Civil Rights movement. The refrain seals the theme—“I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free”—words that would speak to everyone, but especially African Americans.”
 
I hope these hymns bring you closer to Jesus during Lent, and in so-doing, draw your heart into our work towards racial reconciliation: in our church, our denomination, and our country. If we walk with Jesus, it can, and will, be done. Amen!

-- Ginny Chilton, Minister of Music