Videos

We are currently experiencing an error with this video. Our team is working to resolve the issue.

November 28, 2021 - #4811 Music & the Spoken Word

The Music & the Spoken Word broadcast airs live via TV, radio, and internet stream on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. mountain time. For information on other airtimes, visit “Airing Schedules” at musicandthespokenword.org.

This live performance of Music & the Spoken Word is produced with The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square practicing COVID protocols.

Music

Conductor: Mack Wilberg
Organist: Richard Elliott
Narrator: Lloyd Newell

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”
Music: Thirteenth Century Plain Song
Arrangement: Arthur Harris

“And the Glory of the Lord”1 from Messiah
Music: George Frideric Handel
Text: Scripture

“Gesŭ Bambino” organ solo
Music: Pietro A. Yon

“Christmas Bells Are Ringing”
Music and Lyrics: Robert P. Manookin

“O Holy Night”
Music: Adolphe Charles Adam
Lyrics: Placide Cappeau
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”2
Music: Felix Mendelssohn
Lyrics: Charles Wesley
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg

  1. On the CDs Messiah - Complete Oratorio and Messiah - Highlights.
  2. On the CD Angels Among Us.

The Spoken Word

An Invitation to Hope

Christmas lasts much longer than one day. Weeks in advance, decorations are hung and stores and streetlights are lit up in happy anticipation. Music sounds merrier, more joyful. People start planning parties and preparing special food. Advent calendars count down the days. Children grow increasingly impatient. The very feeling in the air reminds us that something magical is coming—Christmas will soon be here.

All of this eager looking forward is much of the fun—and a good part of the meaning—of Christmas. During this special season, in some small and symbolic way, we reenact the hopeful anticipation of that first Christmas night. For what happened on that night had been anticipated not for weeks or months but for centuries—even since the beginning. “The hopes and fears of all the years” were met in Bethlehem that night.1

It has been called the greatest story ever told. It’s not a story of hardworking elves, flying reindeer, and sacks of presents, although those stories are fun and exciting. The best thing about the real Christmas story is that it is both miraculous and true.

This story is about a baby, a mother, shepherds, angels, and a star. But more than that, it’s a story about a promise fulfilled. It’s about light shining in the darkness and hope dispelling fear. It’s about good tidings, great joy, peace on earth, and goodwill toward all.2 When Jesus was born, so were hope and light and life—not just for an oppressed nation in the ancient world but for us today.

This old world can seem dark and lonely, and the way forward can seem impossible at times. But Christmas is an invitation to hope—to look forward, to think of the joy and possibility before us, to ponder the miraculous birth of the Christ child and its significance in our lives. This is why we look forward to Christmas. It’s more than a holiday; it’s the “reason [for] the hope that is in [us].”3 This season and always, we anticipate, we celebrate, and we always remember the advent of the Light and Life of the World. Because of Him, we can hope for good things to come.

  1. “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” Hymns, no. 208; emphasis added.
  2. See Luke 2:10, 14.
  3. 1 Peter 3:15.