Mary Had a Baby: An Advent Bible Study Based on African American Spirituals
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About this ebook
Dr. Cheryl Kirk-Duggan
Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan is Professor of Theology and Women's Studies and Director of Women's Studies at Shaw University Divinity School in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has authored many books, including Mary Had a Baby and Undivided Soul, both published by Abingdon Press.
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Mary Had a Baby - Dr. Cheryl Kirk-Duggan
Title Page
4469.pngCopyright Page
MARY HAD A BABY
AN ADVENT BIBLE STUDY BASED ON AFRICAN AMERICAN SPIRITUALS
Copyright © 2014 by Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to Permissions Office, 201 Eighth Avenue, South, P. O. Box 801, Nashville, Tennessee 37202-0801, faxed to 615-749-6128, or e-mailed to: permissions@abingdonpress.com.
Scripture quotations in this publication, unless noted otherwise, are from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by the Common English Bible. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.CommonEnglishBible.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN: 978-1-426-79551-0
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 — 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Manufactured in the United States of America
Contents
Contents
Opening Meditation
Introduction
Lesson One: Mary Had a Baby
Lesson Two: Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow
Lesson Three: Children, Go Where I Send Thee
Lesson Four: Go, Tell It on the Mountain
Leader Guide
Opening Meditation
Opening Meditation
Advent
It is a time of expectation and anxiety.
It is a day when we tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
We remember how you came, Lord, and we anxiously await your return.
You promised to return, and like Israel in the days of old, we expectantly await the fulfillment of your promise.
It is hard down here, Lord, and we know that you know all about it.
They treated you mean; treat us mean too!
Your body [would be] broken, but you came anyway.
They made you be born in a manger, but you came anyway.
Our eyes was blind, but you came anyway.
We didn’t know who you were.
And so, sweet, little Jesus boy, we gather today, looking for you to show up in our celebration [and in our study], as we wait for you to come again,
All grown up, with all power in your hands. Hallelujah!
All rights reserved, © Marilyn E. Thornton, 2007. Used by permission.
Introduction
Introduction
The birth of Jesus is celebrated in many kinds of songs: carols, hymns, oratorios and cantatas, and the African American spiritual. And yet the season of Advent is not just preparation for the Christmas season: putting up decorations, buying presents, baking treats, and lighting candles. The Advent season is the preparation in our hearts for the second coming of Jesus Christ. The season serves as our confession that even though we did not know who Jesus was when God came wrapped in flesh the first time, we are cultivating a value system that embraces the hope, joy, transformation, and communal healing that will be realized when Christ returns. African American spirituals provide an excellent medium by which to cross the divide between the first and second coming of Christ. Through them, all people can come to a better understanding of the unconditional love, justice, mercy, hope, faith, and community that Jesus brings for the flourishing of all God’s children.
The African American spiritual represents a unique form in sacred music. The theology of spirituals speaks not only of God who sits high and looks low
but one who profoundly and unequivocally identifies with those experiencing a world of cruelty, injustice, poverty, racism, and oppression. As the spiritual Sweet Little Jesus Boy
describes, They treat you mean, Lord; treat me mean, too! But that’s the way it is down here.
As a song form, the spiritual reflects the African origins, social context, musical vocabulary, Christian ethos, and biblical knowledge of the enslaved black people who created it. The songs in this Advent study point to the Messiah/Christ, about whom Isaiah prophesied: Nations will come to your light and kings to your dawning radiance
(Isaiah 60:3). Yes, in the midst of opposites being drawn together, God’s pulling down the powerful, lifting up the lowly, feeding the hungry, and sending the rich away empty (Luke 1:52-53) a little child
—whom Christians believe to be sweet, little Jesus boy, Mary’s baby—will lead them
(Isaiah 11:6).
Mary Had a Baby: An Advent Bible Study Based on African American Spirituals utilizes four songs: Mary Had a Baby,
Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow,
Children, Go Where I Send Thee,
and Go, Tell It on the Mountain.
The lessons will engage the birth narratives of Christ as found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke and will invite us to a time of rebirth and renewal, to not only welcome the Christ Child but the coming Reign of God. Prepare your heart by listening to and singing along with the downloadable selections, by interpreting the lyrics, by searching the