Sweet Chariot

Can you whistle? If you can, I am sure you could whistle for me the song “Swing Low Sweet Chariot. Heck, I bet you could sing me several verses of it. It has had play in many ways in the American experience. The song was probably composed a little after 1865. Having many of the features of a black spiritual, this part surprised me: it is the work of Wallis Willis a Choctaw Freedman in the old Native American territory near what is now Hugo, Oklahoma.

This is a song woven deeply into the fabric of our awareness. It has been used in a couple of dozen of films. It had a resurgence in the 60s in the folk movement, making it into Woodstock, thanks to Joan Baez, and the poignancy of the civil rights struggle. It might actually have been inspired by Willis’s sighting of the Red River and recalled to him the significance of the Jordan River and the Prophet Elijah being carried off by a chariot of fire pulled by fiery horses of heaven. It is reported this and another song of his, “Steal Away” allude to the Underground Railroad, the system that helped people escape from Southern slavery to the North and Canada.

This Sunday, we will hear again the story of Elijah being whisked off to heaven in a heavenly chariot, dropping his mantel for his pupil, Elisha, who would take his place delivering the word of God to the people of Israel. I want to say more about the Elijah and Elisha story from 2 Kings 9:2-12 later in the week, but for now let me just say this: sometimes the action of God takes place in unexplainable supernatural ways. Sometimes it takes place through our decisions and actions in the world. In other words, even if it is not fiery and flashy—even if it is built of kindness, quietness, and behind-the-scenes effort, your time, and your sweat—you might be one of the ways God’s chariot swings low to bless someone’s life with divine grace. The task will not be to carry someone to their heavenly home, but you will be away for a little bit of our home with God to be glimpsed here in our earthly home. And I am sure it will be just the warmth that person needs.