“Can't no grave hold my body down
Can't no grave hold my body down
When that first trumpet sound,
I’m gonna get up out of the ground
Can't no grave hold my body down...."
When I was growing up as a Holiness Pentecostal preacher’s kid, I always looked forward to Easter time. In addition to the Easter Egg Hunt and the multigenerational program during the service that always included a play, the music was the best part. Every year, the one song that all the program participants sang together was, “Can’t No Grave Hold My Body Down.”
The version we sang as a multigenerational urban Black choir was taught by rote, and its arrangement was never on sheet music. Never. It was a call and response song that, from beginning to end, was spirited with fast foot-stomping and hand-clapping—in true Pentecostal fashion. The fire, the joy, the celebration... I looked forward to singing it every year.
When I became a UU, that song was never sung. In fact, most songs aren’t in the Pentecostal style, and definitely not about graves holding bodies. However, in recent times, this song has come back to me. Why is it resurfacing after all these years, when my theology has transformed as well as my faith?
In an era of certain oppression, living our values calls me to resistance. Fear of harm, fear of death, fear of erasure, forced into closets and into stealth mode: living our values calls us to action. The voice and guitar playing of Sister Rosetta Tharpe in her 1956 rendition of “Can’t No Grave Hold My Body Down” inspires me to not fear harm when resisting oppression.
For nearly a hundred years, the triumph of Jesus’ death has inspired Black Pentecostals to sing with vigor that “We will rise,” as they believed Jesus did. He suffered for his beliefs; he resisted, he loved, and he died. It inspires me to not fear death when resisting erasure.
We will not be forced back into closets or forced to engage our stealth mode. Why? Because can’t no grave hold our bodies down! They will try us, but in love, we will rise.
Prayer
Spirit of life, Spirit of love, Spirit of Sister Rosetta Tharpe. We are grateful for the inspiration of a triumph resurrection. May it fuel the fires of our commitment in the face of oppression, hurt, harm, and even death to not live in fear, but know that we, too, will rise again, and again, and again. Amen. Ashe. Blessed Be.