December 21, 2022

Dec 21

Blue Christmas

Enhance your online worship experience

Whether you’re a first-time online visitor or a life-long member, we welcome and celebrate the ways you enrich our collective worship of a scattered yet gathered Children of God. As we begin our service, we invite you to light a candle, just as we do in the prelude during our in-person worship. Our two altar candles symbolize that Christ was both a human being and God. A light being carried into the world shows that Jesus Christ is for all people - everywhere. Just as a the acolyte carries the lighted candlelight into the congregation, the light symbolizes the light of Jesus Christ preceding us into the world where we as the church are to serve.

Call to Worship

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by God, and without God nothing came to be.
What came to be through God was life, and this life was the light of the world.
The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Hymn

211 O Come, O Come Emmanuel vs 1,2,6 & 7

Readings from the Psalms

Psalm 22
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?
O my God, I cry by day but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
In you, our ancestors trusted. They trusted and you delivered them.
It was you who brought me from the womb,
you who kept me safe on my mother's breast.
Since my mother bore me, you have been my God.
Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
God does not despise the affliction of the afflicted.
God does not hide from me.
When I cry to God, God hears me.
Thanks be to God.

Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul;
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his Name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
thou annointest my head with oil;
my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Litany of Remembrance

Officiant: We light this first candle to remember those whom we have loved and lost.
We pause to remember clearly, their faces, their voices, their bodies.
We embrace and give thanks for the memories that bind them to us in this season of expectation,
when all Creation waits for the Light.
All: We remember them with love. May God's eternal love surround them.

O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here, until the son of God appear
Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, 0 Israel.

A period of silent reflection

Officiant: We light this second candle to remember the pain of loss:
loss of relationships, loss of trust, loss of jobs, loss of health, loss of faith, the loss of joy.
We acknowledge and embrace the pain of the past, O God, and we offer it to You, asking that into our wounded hearts and open hands You will place the gift of peace, shalom.

All: We remember that through You all things are possible.
Refresh, restore, renew us, 0 God, and lead us into Your future.

Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, 0 Israel.

A period of silent reflection

Officiant: We light this third candle to remember ourselves this Christmas time.
We pause and remember the past weeks, months, and for some of us years, that have been heavy with our burdens.
We accept and lay before you, God, the sharpness of memory, the sadness and grief, the hurt and fear, the anger and pain.
We accept and lay before you the ways we feel we have fallen short, and the times we have spent blaming ourselves, and you,
for all that we have suffered.
We accept and lay before you the time we have walked alone, in darkness; and in knowledge of our own mortality.

All: We remember that though we have journeyed far, and that, while lost, we may have turned away from the light, the light itself has not failed.
O come thou day-spring, come and cheer our spirits by thy advent here.
Rejoice, rejoice Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

A period of silent reflection

Officiant: We light this fourth candle to remember faith, the gift of light and hope that God offers to us in the stories of Hanukkah and of Christmas,
which both also began in abandonment, insecurity, and humbleness, in a time of war and in a poor stable.
We remember that the loving God who kept the light shining in the temple and who came to share this life with us promises us comfort and peace.

All: We remember the One who shares our burdens, who shows us the way to the Light, and who journeys with us into all our tomorrows.

O come desire of nations, bind in one the hearts of all.
Bid then our sad, divisions cease, and be thyself our King of Peace
Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

A period of silent reflection

Music Interlude

Readings & Reflections

Reading: John 20:24-30

Reflection

Lighting of candles

Hymn

218 It Came upon the Midnight Clear

Benediction