Go Tell It On the Mountain

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 thru-out the heavens
There shone a holy light.

The shepherds feared and trembled
When lo! above the earth
Rang out the angel chorus
That hailed our Savior's birth.

Down in a lowly manger
The humble Christ was born,
And God sent us salvation
That blessed Christmas morn.

When we chose Christmas carols for our December Advent theme, I contemplated what I wanted to write. As I prayed, there was a song that kept fitting so well with the themes of my life. That song was “Go, tell it on the mountain…”

In a season where I moved from inner cities into the mountains of Kentucky, this song resonated in so many ways with me. It’s a song about no one being left out from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As the hymn goes, even the shepherds were made aware of the moment Jesus was born. Imagine being in the middle of nowhere and angels appearing in the sky alerting you to the birth of a Savior.

Part of my heart in being in Kentucky is understanding how many invisible children there are. There are over 8,000 children in the foster care system. Working in a small church in the mountains where we pick kids up in a van and bring them to church showed me a desperate need to see Jesus’ love. Kids that started coming when we offered them clothing and food they desperately needed.

As I read this hymn’s history, it became an even deeper connection for me in a new way beyond the people of the mountains of Kentucky and my own family’s genealogy. I learned about John Wesley Work. He was a pretty incredible man. It turns out that “Go Tell It on the Mountains” is considered a “Negro Spiritual” (this is not meant as a derogatory term, but literally what it is listed under). Work was an incredible man who was part of the historically black Fisk University in Nashville who received his Master’s in Latin.

In 1871, the “Fisk Jubilee Singers” embarked on a tour to raise funds to keep this historically black university out of financial ruin and preserve the ability for black people to receive education. When they could have been persecuted and faced things like segregation (which, sadly does exist in places today - just in a different way), they travelled all the way into Europe singing a song like “Go Tell It on the Mountain”. What an incredible story!

For me, this makes the hymn even more deeply personal. My family left the mountains of Kentucky when I was a baby embarking on a new adventure. That adventure led me to being raised in an all black community and spending many years in a Hispanic community. My faith has been shaped the most by people whose skin color and heritage were different from mine. I’ve talked about that a lot in Tirzah over the years - so I’m not going to elaborate on that part of my history. But, that makes this hymn even more special.

So, next time you hear this hymn - I hope you pray for the mountains of Kentucky and the parts of the world that are close to your heart. May this hymn remind you that the Gospel is accessible to everyone. God wants His story proclaimed in every part of the world.