Blue Christmas 2010: Dec 21, 2010
Prelude:
Welcome:
Welcome to this service, “A Blue Christmas”... a time when we can…
I have chosen Psalm 13 for this service, and the service is structured around that short Psalm. There are three parts to it, as there are to this service. First is the honest expression of pain. The Psalms are very good at this, much better than we are today. We will find in the words of the Psalm permission to hurt, permission to cry out to God and wonder where He is, and permission to speak our feelings. Second is the turning to God, asking Him to help, seeking Him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. Third, and finally, is the expression of faith even in the pain. We speak, out loud, our conviction that God has been good, God’s love is unfailing, and God will meet us.
The service outline is in the bulletin, which you will need to follow along. Wherever the text is in BOLD, please join in speaking those lines.
Prayer
MOVEMENT #1 – Honest Expression of Pain (Ps 13:1,2)
Psalm 13:1-2
How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Song: How Long (Doerksen) vs 1
Waves (vs. 1)
Responsive Reading: Scripture (Is 59:9; Jn 8:12; Is 9:2,4; Ps 22; Ps 121:1-2):
People: Justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.
Leader: Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
People: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, so far from the words of my groaning?
Leader: O my God, they cry by day, but you do not answer.
People: And by night, but I find no rest.
The Blessed Night Of Two Hearts
Weary
Worried and Frazzled
Frustrated, confused and hurting
Two lonely figures made their way into town
A journey they could ill-afford to make
A poor carpenter and his young wife.
Life was not easy
Rumours wounded their reputations
Talk of fanaticism
Broken dreams
Dashed hopes of a groom longing
For a sweet innocent bride
Desperate surrender to their God
Relinquishment and determination
Bowing to the will of God.
A cold desert night
Beyond their strength
Their only place of respite
A hovel
The pain unbearable
Wracking her slight body
No mother near
No comforting hand
Only a nervous, terrified husband.
Lost together
Found in their divine purpose
Bound by hope
Unified by the wonder of the cry of a newborn babe
Human both
God accomplished His purposes
Through two hearts
Surrendered to his will
The immortal became mortal
That blessed night
Psalm 13:1-2
How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Time of Silent Reflection on Personal Pain
MOVEMENT #2: Turning to God (Ps 13:3, 4)
Preamble…
Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
Song: How Long (Doerksen) vs 1 and 2
Waves (vs. 1, 2)
Testimony – Lyn
Walking the Path of Sorrow
Reader I will light a light for an Agony in a Garden:
When the Son of God faced the bleakness of loneliness
and fear in the face of death.
,
Reader I will light a light for a Scourging:
The Son of God - despised and rejected,
a man of sorrows - acquainted with grief.
,
Reader I will light a light for a Crowning:
The King of Glory with a crown of thorns:
shamed - humiliated -
powerless in the face of evil.
,
Reader I will light a light for a Carrying:
A burden beyond bearing -
the sins of the world,
borne by the Lamb of God.
,
Reader I will light a light for Crucifixion:
Father, forgive them-
they don't know what they are doing.
,
Reader Jesus said, "Do not be afraid little flock
I have overcome the world."
,
Reader I will light a light for hope
the life of God confronting the evil of the world
the light of God: a beacon of hope for his faithful people.
© wellspring 2001
Invite to come forward and light a candle as desired.
Stay in prayer as long as feels comfortable.
Allow people time to be sorrowful - perhaps to share their thoughts and feelings if appropriate.
Music/Ministry time
Here I am to Worship and/or Clinging to the Cross
Find Me in the River
I Belong
God is With Us
Possibly as a “readers theatre”? (red = reader 1; green=reader 2; blue=reader 3; black=unison)
When the world was dark
and the city was quiet,
you came.
You crept in beside us.
And no one knew.
Only the few
who dared to believe
that God might do something different.
Will you do the same this Christmas, Lord?
Will you come into the darkness of tonight's world;
not the friendly darkness
as when sleep rescues us from tiredness,
but the fearful darkness,
in which people have stopped believing
that war will end
or that food will come
or that a government will change
or that the Church cares?
Will you come into that darkness
and do something different
to save your people from death and despair?
Will you come into the quietness of this town,
not the friendly quietness
as when lovers hold hands,
but the fearful silence
when the phone has not rung
the letter has not come,
the friendly voice no longer speaks,
the doctor's face says it all?
Will you come into that darkness,
and do something different,
not to distract, but to embrace your people?
And will you come into the dark corners
and the quiet places of our lives?
We ask this not because we are guilt-ridden
or want to be,
but because the fullness our lives long for
depends upon us being as open and vulnerable to you
as you were to us,
when you came,
wearing no more than diapers,
and trusting human hands
to hold their maker.
Will you come into our lives,
if we open them to you
and do something different?
When the world was dark
and the city was quiet
you came.
You crept in beside us.
Do the same this Christmas, Lord.
Do the same this Christmas.
Amen.
Cloth for the Cradle, Iona Community
Psalm 13:1-4
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
MOVEMENT #3: Affirmation of Faith (Ps 13:5, 6)
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.
Song: Psalm 13 (complete)
Waves (complete)
Video: “Wonderfully Made” http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/index.php?ct=store.details&pid=V00322
The Spirit is breathing. (Dom Helder Camera, Its Midnight, Lord)
All those with eyes to see,
women and men with ears for hearing
detect a coming dawn;
a reason to go on.
They seem small, these signs of dawn
perhaps ridiculous.
All those with eyes to see,
Women and men with ears for hearing
uncover in the night
a certain gleam of light;
they see the reason to go on.
Benediction (selected verses from Isaiah 40):
"Comfort, comfort my people," says your God. "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and that her sins are pardoned. Messenger of good news, shout to Zion from the mountaintops! Shout louder to Jerusalem--do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah, "Your God is coming!" Yes, the Sovereign LORD is coming in all his glorious power. He will rule with awesome strength. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young. Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed out the mountains and the hills? Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
