to our friendship the night before, and I was curious to experience this cocktail of sacred and profane. In the car he expounded further. “What the musicians call soul, the colored ministers call the Holy Ghost. But it’s basically the same thing.”
A white box made out of aluminum siding, the church stood on cinder blocks in a field on the outskirts of the town. The hand-painted sign outside said ALL WELCOME ; I was more surprised than I should have been, when we entered the service which was already in progress, to find that we were the only white people in attendance. There was a palpable tear in the fabric of the congregation as we tried to slip in quietly. The minister paused at his lectern as an usher rose and escorted us to the front pew, where we were seated as honored guests.
“I don’t know about you but I been thinking,” said the minister, a powerful balding patriarch with graying temples.
“
Tell it
,” called a voice from the back.
“I hear people complaining all up and down about the heaviness of they load.”
“
That’s right
,” shouted a fat woman in our pew.
“I’m thinking God’s been too good to me for me to be complaining.”
“
Now you’re talking.
”
“Go to somebody’s house, they complaining ’bout this and that.”
“
Say it. That’s right
.”
“Any old body can be religious in church. But it’s what you do in your house. It’s what the friends see and it’s what the neighbors see. That’s where your religion gonna show and tell. When you feeling things is bad, stop a minute. Don’t let the situation dictate to you. Enlarge the place of your tent and your habitation brothers and sisters. You got to get to a place of not letting your barrenness dictate to you. Lengthen thy cords and enlarge thy habitation. You got to break forth. The more you break forth the more you get a crop that breaks forth. So when you want to break through what do you do?”
“
You break forth
,” a dozen voices responded. “
Praise the Lord
.”
The minister surveyed the congregation and nodded approvingly. “The more excited you get the more God gonna give you an excited crop. The more you act reserved is the more you gonna get a reserved crop. The more all fire excited you are the more it gonna break forth to the left and to the right. Where’s it gonna break forth?”
“
To the left and the right.
”
“All around you brothers and sisters. Now the devil, he want us dignified. He don’t want us excited. He don’t want us filled with the Holy Ghost. If we complain in the house we gonna get a crop that’s a complaint. As long as we just sit here and complain that’s all we gonna get is a failure of crop. The more we praise God the more crop we gonna get in the house of God. It’s gonna break forth in my church and it’s gonna break forth in my home and when I go to my home I’m not gonna go complaining and when I go home it’s gonna break forth in my home.”
The woman beside me was crying beneath her white veil; looking around I could see tears on other cheeks. I’d never heard a sermon delivered with such conviction—except perhaps when Father Ryan was railing against sex—nor had I heard a congregation talk back like this one did. Beside me, Will was less animated than anyone in the church, and yet he seemed utterly rapt.
“The Lord know you too well. And the devil he know you gonna go home and turn on the radio and you got to tell him he don’t know you.I want you-all to keep praising God when you go home today and tomorrow and the next day and all the days of your life. Brothers and sisters, let me hear you say ‘Amen.’ ”
The congregation crowned the sermon with a chorus of
amens
, and then the choir rose to sing, the voices washing over us like surf. Along with the others I started clapping. A sweet, powerful voice persistently soared above the rest, and eventually I recognized the tall, elegant girl it belonged to as Lester Holmes’s niece. I
A white box made out of aluminum siding, the church stood on cinder blocks in a field on the outskirts of the town. The hand-painted sign outside said ALL WELCOME ; I was more surprised than I should have been, when we entered the service which was already in progress, to find that we were the only white people in attendance. There was a palpable tear in the fabric of the congregation as we tried to slip in quietly. The minister paused at his lectern as an usher rose and escorted us to the front pew, where we were seated as honored guests.
“I don’t know about you but I been thinking,” said the minister, a powerful balding patriarch with graying temples.
“
Tell it
,” called a voice from the back.
“I hear people complaining all up and down about the heaviness of they load.”
“
That’s right
,” shouted a fat woman in our pew.
“I’m thinking God’s been too good to me for me to be complaining.”
“
Now you’re talking.
”
“Go to somebody’s house, they complaining ’bout this and that.”
“
Say it. That’s right
.”
“Any old body can be religious in church. But it’s what you do in your house. It’s what the friends see and it’s what the neighbors see. That’s where your religion gonna show and tell. When you feeling things is bad, stop a minute. Don’t let the situation dictate to you. Enlarge the place of your tent and your habitation brothers and sisters. You got to get to a place of not letting your barrenness dictate to you. Lengthen thy cords and enlarge thy habitation. You got to break forth. The more you break forth the more you get a crop that breaks forth. So when you want to break through what do you do?”
“
You break forth
,” a dozen voices responded. “
Praise the Lord
.”
The minister surveyed the congregation and nodded approvingly. “The more excited you get the more God gonna give you an excited crop. The more you act reserved is the more you gonna get a reserved crop. The more all fire excited you are the more it gonna break forth to the left and to the right. Where’s it gonna break forth?”
“
To the left and the right.
”
“All around you brothers and sisters. Now the devil, he want us dignified. He don’t want us excited. He don’t want us filled with the Holy Ghost. If we complain in the house we gonna get a crop that’s a complaint. As long as we just sit here and complain that’s all we gonna get is a failure of crop. The more we praise God the more crop we gonna get in the house of God. It’s gonna break forth in my church and it’s gonna break forth in my home and when I go to my home I’m not gonna go complaining and when I go home it’s gonna break forth in my home.”
The woman beside me was crying beneath her white veil; looking around I could see tears on other cheeks. I’d never heard a sermon delivered with such conviction—except perhaps when Father Ryan was railing against sex—nor had I heard a congregation talk back like this one did. Beside me, Will was less animated than anyone in the church, and yet he seemed utterly rapt.
“The Lord know you too well. And the devil he know you gonna go home and turn on the radio and you got to tell him he don’t know you.I want you-all to keep praising God when you go home today and tomorrow and the next day and all the days of your life. Brothers and sisters, let me hear you say ‘Amen.’ ”
The congregation crowned the sermon with a chorus of
amens
, and then the choir rose to sing, the voices washing over us like surf. Along with the others I started clapping. A sweet, powerful voice persistently soared above the rest, and eventually I recognized the tall, elegant girl it belonged to as Lester Holmes’s niece. I
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