Roll, Jordan, Roll

Gospel music legend, Mahalia Jackson, would have been 100 this week. Perhaps her signature song was "Roll, Jordan, Roll". In this tribute, we also open the Joshua text to consider what happened when Joshua prayed that the Jordan would, indeed, roll.

Imagine the scene. It's 1950, and in Carnegie Hall, just off Broadway in New York City an historic event is taking place. The famous venue, which has hosted world-class musicians and singers throughout its history, now for the first time, sees a gospel singer take the stage, a colored singer at that. She glides to the stage and stands before a sea of faces that are not like her face -- at all! Lot of white folk there. But then the orchestra plays and then, from the depths of her soul, her powerful contralto voice brings forth the words:

Roll, Jordan, roll;
Roll, Jordan, roll;
I want to get to heaven when I die,
To hear old Jordan roll.

The fact that she's standing on that famous stage at all is a wonder. She is almost 40 years old on that night, and her life story is one of crossing over boundaries, just like the song she sings. Truth is, we're not certain that she sang "Roll, Jordan, Roll" on that night in Carnegie, but it's highly likely, and it was to become one of her signature songs.