September 27, 2020 - #4750 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 encore performance of Music & the Spoken Word has been specially selected for airing while the Choir and Orchestra are practicing social distancing. It contains a new Spoken Word, written and delivered by Lloyd Newell.
Music
Conductor: Mack Wilberg
Organist: Richard Elliott
Announcer: Lloyd Newell
“When in Our Music God Is Glorified”
Music: English melody
Lyrics: Fred Pratt Green
Arrangement: Emily Crocker
“Look to the Day”1
Music and Lyrics: John Rutter
“Presto” from Concerto in F, op. 4, no. 5 (Organ solo)
Music: George Frideric Handel
“Consider the Lilies of the Field”2
Music and Lyrics: Roger Hoffman
Arrangement: A. Laurence Lyon
“I’ll Fly Away”3 from O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Music and Lyrics: Albert Brumley
Arrangement: Sam Cardon
“He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”
Music: African-American spiritual
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
The Spoken Word
Our Common Bond
Several years ago, a team of rescuers helped an older couple evacuate their home after a hurricane. Their house, which the husband had helped build, was flooded. The wife had serious health problems that made their situation more perilous. And yet, they were smiling. One of the rescuers asked how they could stay positive in the midst of this difficult tragedy. The woman answered, “That storm can take my house, it can take my car, it can take my furniture and my pictures, but it can never take my spirit.”1
Few of us know what it’s like to lose our possessions in a hurricane. But we have all been sharing a difficult experience that we will never forget. During this COVID-19 pandemic, our courage and endurance are being tested. Some have lost loved ones or livelihood. All have been reminded that the future can be uncertain, even scary at times.
Sometimes it takes a difficult shared experience to teach us that possessions and position do not define us and should not separate us. Our inherent worth, who we really are inside, remains permanent, unchanging. The spirit, the soul, is eternal. And it’s what makes us all part of the same human family.
Speaking before the United Nations in 1987, U.S. president Ronald Reagan said, “Perhaps we need some outside universal threat to make us recognize [our] common bond.” He went on to suggest that if we faced such a global danger, “how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish.”2
Well, we’re facing that kind of threat. And we’re learning that with all the damage a virus can do, it need not damage our spirit. In fact, the opposite is happening. We’ve mourned together. We’ve struggled together. We’ve become more aware of the needs of people around us—along with things we can do to help. And somehow, we’ve found hope that things will get better and we can find joy in our new normal.
No, life’s tragedies can never take our spirit if we don’t allow it—instead, such tragedies can actually make us stronger.