WEEK FOUR | CHRISTMAS DAY | LUKE 2:30-31
John Wesley Work, Jr. (1871–1925) was a professor, college president and musicologist. He is commonly recognized as the first Black collector of slave songs and spirituals passed down in America by people of African descent. Because most of these songs existed only in the oral tradition of the people who sang them, writing them down was a monumental task. Among Work’s collection—and a song he is thought to have helped compose—was “Go Tell It On the Mountain.” This joy-filled African-American spiritual continues to be a passionate call to us today: Go + Tell everyone, everywhere, the Good News. Christ is born!
GO, TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN,
OVER THE HILLS AND EVERYWHERE;
GO, TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN
THAT JESUS CHRIST IS BORN.
DOWN IN A LOWLY MANGER
OUR HUMBLE CHRIST WAS BORN,
AND GOD SENT US SALVATION
THAT BLESSED CHRISTMAS MORN.
GO, TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN,
OVER THE HILLS AND EVERYWHERE;
GO, TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN
THAT JESUS CHRIST IS BORN.
More than 2,000 years after Christ’s birth, the global Church continues to proclaim the Good News—on mountains, in valleys, villages, and cities across the world. Jesus Christ is born! Who will you Go + Tell today?
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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