Last night I watched Super Bowl LIX.
I still vividly remember watching Super Bowl I as an excited ten-year-old kid, and I have watched every Super Bowl since.
It is a touchstone, uniquely American, begun within my lifetime, that has become an integral part of the rhythm of my years and my cultural identity.
Like watching SNL.
Or listening to the music of Paul Simon.
The Super Bowl has become quite a spectacle. The first Super Bowl, in 1967, was all about the football game. Tickets sold for $12, and even at that price, the stands were only about 2/3 filled.
Today, the game is almost an afterthought. The Super Bowl has become a destination vacation for the wealthy (ticket prices averaged around $5,000) whose parties are more memorable than the games.
It is all about high-production commercials costing $8,000,000 for 30 seconds, and mega-stars performing before the game and at half-time.
It is about which celebrities we can see in attendance. “Ooh—there’s Paul McCartney! There’s Kevin Costner and Pete Davidson! Who is that sitting with Taylor?”
And then, there is the music.
This year’s half-time show featured 22-time Grammy winner Kendrick Lamar, complemented by a dancing Serena Williams, and Samuel L. Jackson decked out in a full Uncle Sam costume!
Pregame music featured New Orleans musical institutions: a rousing rendition of the National Anthem by John Baptiste, “America the Beautiful” sung by Lauren Daigle (accompanied by Trombone Shorty), and Ledisi singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
That last selection, apparently, has caused some controversy. This morning right-wing commentators are expressing “outrage” that the NFL included in the program this song that has been referred to by some as “The Black National Anthem.”
One writer opined: “the 'Black National Anthem' is a racist relic left over from the BLM era. Get rid of it."
In reality, the song has a long and rich history. It was written way back in the late 1800s, and has provided hope and inspiration for generations—long before “the BLM era.”
Personally, I don’t get the outrage. The only thing I thought was “outrageous” last night was how Philadelphia’s defensive line dominated the Chiefs!
As for “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” what I heard was an uplifting song, performed brilliantly by a hometown hero on a world stage. Good for her! And good for anyone who felt encouraged and hopeful listening to her!
I wish that anyone unfamiliar with this hymn would take a moment and think about its lyrics. They speak of overcoming pain and oppression, of striving for liberty, and praying that “shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand, true to our God, true to our native land.”
This is a hymn that makes me stand a little taller. It makes me give thanks for all the pain and toil our ancestors lived through so that we could be free. And it strengthens my resolve to lift up and encourage others around me.
That is pretty good medicine for all of us, whatever color skin we happen to have!
Here are the lyrics:
Lift ev’ry voice and sing,
till earth and heaven ring,
ring with the harmonies of liberty.
Let our rejoicing rise
high as the list’ning skies,
let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us.
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.
Facing the rising sun
of our new day begun,
let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
bitter the chast’ning rod,
felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat,
have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our people sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path thro’ the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past,
till now we stand at last
where the bright gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
thou who hast brought us thus far on the way,
thou who hast by thy might
led us into the light,
keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee;
lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee;
shadowed beneath thy hand,
may we forever stand,
true to our God, true to our native land.
[“Lift Every Voice and Sing” was first written as a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson in the late 1800s. It was then set to music by his brother, John Rosamond Johnson, and adopted by the NAACP as their official song in 1919.]