{"id":38987,"date":"2018-11-16T13:38:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T13:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/hallelujah-chorus-flash-mob-brings-joy-to-shoppers\/"},"modified":"2018-11-16T13:38:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T13:38:00","slug":"hallelujah-chorus-flash-mob-brings-joy-to-shoppers","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/hallelujah-chorus-flash-mob-brings-joy-to-shoppers\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Hallelujah&#8217; Chorus Flash Mob Brings Joy to Shoppers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In October of 2012, the Opera Company of Philadelphia brought together over 650 choristers to perform a Random Act of Culture in the heart of a busy Macy&rsquo;s store in Philadelphia. Accom&shy;panied by the largest pipe organ in the world the Opera Company infiltrated the store as shoppers, and burst into a rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel&rsquo;s &ldquo;Messiah&rdquo; at high noon.<\/p>\n\n<p>The reactions on the faces of shoppers and salespeople are worth the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">YouTube visit <\/a>&mdash;which has been replayed over 9 million times. People with shopping bags stop to raise their hands. Phones are pulled out of pockets and purses to record the moment. The busywork of a crowded mall in action otherwise stopped in its tracks by words that make it all seem so small.<\/p>\n\n<p><em>And He shall reign forever and ever,\nHallelujah! Hallelujah<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n<p>The most posted comment after the replaying of this random act of culture is the presence of teary eyes and tingling spines. &ldquo;Just beautiful!&rdquo; said one. &ldquo;Moving beyond words.&rdquo; &ldquo;It brought tears to my eyes.&rdquo; &ldquo;It gave me goosebumps.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>Noticeably absent from all this commentary was reaction from those who seem to find something wrong with anything Christian in the public arena. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m an atheist, and I approve of this random act,&rdquo; writes one responder with a smiley face. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m Hindu and I tearfully agree!&rdquo; another replied.<\/p>\n\n<p>Handel and the art that still stirs imagination and gratitude were inseparably inspired by the story of a God who comes near&mdash;the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in Spirit, embodied, in Person. Hallelujah indeed!<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"> <\/h2>","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3387,3600,3907,4061,4153,4232,4303,4463,4506,4508,4662,4677,4984,5305,5306],"tax_ctp_topics":[394,396],"class_list":["post-38987","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-advent","tax_ctp_tags-christmas","tax_ctp_tags-exaltation-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-glorifying-god","tax_ctp_tags-holidays","tax_ctp_tags-incarnation-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-joy","tax_ctp_tags-messiah","tax_ctp_tags-music","tax_ctp_tags-musicians","tax_ctp_tags-pop-culture","tax_ctp_tags-praise","tax_ctp_tags-singing","tax_ctp_tags-worship","tax_ctp_tags-worship-music"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;Hallelujah&#039; Chorus Flash Mob Brings Joy to Shoppers - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/hallelujah-chorus-flash-mob-brings-joy-to-shoppers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&#039;Hallelujah&#039; Chorus Flash Mob Brings Joy to Shoppers - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In October of 2012, the Opera Company of Philadelphia brought together over 650 choristers to perform a Random Act of Culture in the heart of a busy Macy&rsquo;s store in Philadelphia. Accom&shy;panied by the largest pipe organ in the world the Opera Company infiltrated the store as shoppers, and burst into a rendition of the Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/hallelujah-chorus-flash-mob-brings-joy-to-shoppers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/hallelujah-chorus-flash-mob-brings-joy-to-shoppers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/hallelujah-chorus-flash-mob-brings-joy-to-shoppers\/\",\"name\":\"'Hallelujah' Chorus Flash Mob Brings Joy to Shoppers - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-16T13:38:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-11-16T13:38:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/hallelujah-chorus-flash-mob-brings-joy-to-shoppers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/hallelujah-chorus-flash-mob-brings-joy-to-shoppers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/hallelujah-chorus-flash-mob-brings-joy-to-shoppers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"&#8216;Hallelujah&#8217; Chorus Flash Mob Brings Joy to Shoppers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'Hallelujah' Chorus Flash Mob Brings Joy to Shoppers - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/hallelujah-chorus-flash-mob-brings-joy-to-shoppers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"'Hallelujah' Chorus Flash Mob Brings Joy to Shoppers - CT Pastors","og_description":"In October of 2012, the Opera Company of Philadelphia brought together over 650 choristers to perform a Random Act of Culture in the heart of a busy Macy&rsquo;s store in Philadelphia. 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