“A Better Day is Coming: An Advent Reflection on Hope”

Written By Dr. Tony McNeill

Charles Albert Tindley (1851-1933) composed several cornerstone hymns and gospel songs that help define a core repertoire of congregational song that stretches across denominations and worship styles in the Black Church experience. Titles such as “We’ll Understand it Better By and By,” “Stand by Me,” “Beams of Heaven,” and “The Storm is Passing Over” are part of the common body of songs most church people find themselves humming or actively singing with a choir or soloist without the printed text or hymnal. In the Preface of an anthology entitled, “Beams of Heaven: Hymns of Charles Albert Tindley (1851-1933),” published by The General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, Editor S. T. Kimbrough, Jr. writes:

In this eloquent poet-pastor-musician one experiences a lyrical theology that holds in tension the anxieties of oppression with the vision of a better world, both here and now and beyond. His metaphors, similes, imagery, biblical allusions, and folk expressions are those with which African Americans may readily identify; and yet, his hymns have reached far beyond one group of people to the larger Christian community. 

One of Tindley’s lesser-known hymns, “A Better Day is Coming,” lives up to Kimbrough’s vivid description of the composer’s style of writing. Originally written by a white hymnist in 1875, Tindley took the original text and music and reimagined it to make it relevant for his congregation and other Black churches. In the tradition of our ancestors, Tindley pitched his arrangement a half-step higher, from G Major to A-flat Major; a key that feels and sounds like “Sunday morning” in Black church music culture.  He also opted for a time signature in 6/8 versus ¾, which signals his intentions for a different aesthetic. 

Though Tindley retained much of the first stanza and refrain (chorus) of the original song, stanzas two through four are almost entirely new. While he penned these words 105 years ago (1919), they resonate with us in 2024 and underscore just how timeless hymns are to the faithful.

A better day is coming, 

The morning draweth nigh,

When girded right with holy might 

Shall over-throw the wrong.

When Christ our Lord shall listen

To ev’ry plaintive sigh,

And stretch His hand o’er ev’ry land

In justice by and by

Refrain:

‘Tis coming by and by, ‘Tis coming by and by,

A better day is coming, the morning draweth nigh,

‘Tis coming by and by, ‘Tis coming by and by,

The welcome dawn is hast’ning on,

‘Tis coming by and by.

The boast of haughty error

No more shall fill the land,

While men enraged, their pow’rs engaged

To kill their fellow man,

But God the Lord shall triumph,

And Satan’s host shall fly, 

For wrong must cease and righteousness

Shall conquer by and by

No more will angry nations

In deadly conflict meet,

While children cry and parents die

In conquest or defeat,

For Jesus Christ the Captain,

Will give the battle cry,

The Holy Ghost will lead the host

To vict’ry by and by

No more shall lords and rulers

Their helpless victims press,

And bar the door against the poor

And leave them in distress,

But God, the King of Glory,

Who hears the ravens cry,

Will give command that ev’ry man

Have plenty by and by

*Click here to listen to my interpretation of the hymn.

In the aftermath of the 2024 election season, we who live and worship from the margins find ourselves grounded in both a liturgical and political Advent.  Many are still finding ways to regain a sense of balance and well-being from the grief of what is to come. References to “the already” and “the not-yet” take on additional meanings as the church begins this cycle of the Christian calendar year (Year C). During the four Sundays before Christmas, we celebrate the tension of Christ’s arrival as a conquering, restorative king with the image of Christ coming enfleshed as poor Brown baby born on the bad side of town. Concurrently, there is a larger, political Advent that moves beyond four weeks to four years. The hope we had before November 5 has morphed into helplessness. What do we do while we wait? In the political Advent season, we confront “the boast of haughty error” in the threat of white supremacy, while wondering if “Christ our Lord [is] [listening] to ev’ry plaintive sigh.”  This Advent season, we need space to anticipate hope and to grieve it.

Tindley’s hymn text is a collision of our present realities with an eschatological vision of justice for the least of these. “While men enraged, their pow’rs engaged to kill their fellow man.” This hymn (re)connects us to the wars and rumors of wars plaguing the world today that can easily be forgotten in the face of holiday consumerism and self-preservation. With the same pen, Tindley paints a vivid picture of God, and of Jesus, as liberator, “Captain,” and “King of Glory,” who fends for those not strong enough to fend for themselves. God rescues. God sets all things in order. God makes good on God’s promises to “give command that ev’ry man have plenty by and by.” Our liturgical and spiritual hope lies in the verse that affirms, “God the Lord shall triumph, and Satan’s host shall fly, for wrong must cease and righteousness shall conquer by and by.”


In the meantime, it’s a mean time. The question remains: What do we do while we wait?

How do we grapple with the ecstasy of the holidays and not ignore the angst we feel deeply in our gut concerning the political climate in this country? It is not enough for us to say, “Jesus will fix it after ‘while.”  As quickly as we say, “God is in control,” we also have a responsibility to ask ourselves: “What is my role?”  How can I help “the Holy Ghost . . .  lead the host to vict’ry by and by?” The weekly work of justice-minded clergy and musicians demands we be vigilant to proclaim the first and second coming regardless of the time of year.  When we reclaim these “comings,” we affirm the hope and work implied in both.  Tindley’s hymn invites us to speak clearly to the horror caused by this era’s Nebuchadnezzar. Our speaking and collective efforts are the resistance needed to craft the future our ancestors dreamed for us!

Jesus confronted systems and when Jesus returns, He will reorder them.  In a recent Instagram post shared by noted journalist Joy Ann Reid, Eric Michael Dyson evoked the wisdom of Howard Thurman when he challenged us to

 . . . resist the temptation to reduce your dreams to the event you’re confronting now.  The event you are confronting now will not last always.  Either you are going to be a prisoner of the event you are confronting, or you’re going to be a prisoner of hope.

On the first Sunday of Advent, we boldly choose hope. The hope we proclaim is not a passive one, but one that is active. It is a hope that inspires and requires us to work, to pull the future into the here-and-now. Advent positions us not to leave the government totally on Jesus’ shoulders. We hope in the Jesus our ancestors said, “sits high and looks low.” But we do not stop there. An active hope requires us to awaken the Jesus within each of us individually and collectively. One of the prayers in the Advent section of “Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human,” by Cole Arthur Riley, says it best:

As we wait for healing and liberation—in ourselves, in the world—help us to practice justice, repair, and mercy, never relying on the divine to absolve us of our collective and individual responsibility.

This is how we pull the future into the present.  Hope does not sit outside of us. It is us. Advent hope calls us to re-vision the “by and by” into a present-day experience, not some fantasy or metaphor in a distant time or space. Dr. Itihari Toure, an African-centered scholar and Founder of the Sankofa Center for Strategic Planning and Evaluation, often teaches about the power of vibration. Mama Itihari says, “Vibration is the movement of the Spirit . . . It is the aspect of our humanity that transcends space and time.”  When we sing hymn texts like this one, we should not underestimate the power of the strength in which we sing. “It is our ‘talking drum’.”  We activate our hope in the Jesus of the Scriptures and the hope we inherited from our ancestors. “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.” The hope of Advent gives us permission to see ourselves in the future and find our role in creating that future now. May we teach and sing an active hope.

References:

“A Better Day Is Coming By and By.” | ChoralWiki.org, 2024. 

https://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/A_Better_Day_is_Coming_By_and_By. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024. 


Abbington, W. James, Editor. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism: An African American Ecumenical Hymnal.  Chicago: GIA Publications, 2018.

“Beams of Heaven: Hymns of Charles Albert Tindley 40. A Better Day Is Coming, the Morning Draweth Nigh | Hymnary.org.” Hymnary.org, 2024, https://hymnary.org/hymn/BOH2006/40. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.

Kimbrough, S. T., Jr., Editor and Carlton Young, Music Editor. Beams of Heaven: Hymns of Charles Albert Tindley. New York: General Board of Global Ministries (GMGMusik), 2006.

Reid, Joy-Ann [@joyannreid]. Live panel discussion with Michael Eric Dyson. Instagram, with Jacque Reid, December 21, 2024,

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCpD1y2JWJ-/?igsh=MXdrc3RweGpvZTQ0NQ== .

Riley, Cole Arthur.  Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human. New York: Convergent Books, 2024

Suggested Advent Playlist Resources: 

“ . . . and is to come.”: A Theology of Hope for Advent. Complied by Candice Marie Benbow

Prepare Ye The Way: Advent Playlist in Memory of Maestro Kenneth W. Louis. Complied by Kyle Stevenson.

Ready & Waiting: An Advent Playlist. Complied by Tony McNeill.

When I See Jesus: An Advent Playlist. Complied by Tony McNeill.

Dr. Tony McNeill
Previous

“Peace, Interrupted”