The Twelve Days of Christmas Carols
Christmastide Reflections on Songs of the Season

When the shepherds heard from the lips of the angels the Good News about the birth of a Savior they had a two-fold response – they went and saw, and then they went and told. The story of the shepherds is included in many Christmas carols. In the Glory to God Presbyterian Hymnal, part of their tale is described in selection 136 “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” The editors give us this detail about how we came to treasure this telling: “Like other material from oral traditions, 19th-century African American spirituals flourished without being written down. Their refrains were their most stable parts, and narrative stanzas were often improvised to fit. These Nativity stanzas attempt to recall that tradition.”

Refrain:
Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere;
go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born!
While shepherds kept their watching o’er silent flocks by night,
behold, throughout the heavens there shone a holy light. [Refrain]

Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere;
go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born!
The shepherds feared and trembled when lo! above the earth
rang out the angel chorus that hailed our Savior’s birth. [Refrain]

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 the humble Christ was born,
and God sent us salvation that blessed Christmas morn. [Refrain]

 Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere;
go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born!
As people who have heard the Good News, our task is simple:

 Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere;
go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born!

Prayer

Dear God, give me the courage to speak Your Word wherever (and everywhere) I may find myself today. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.