Liturgy For A Longest Night Service
Blue Christmas, Grief Service, or Longest Night - these are all names used to describe a service meant to create space for the heavy feelings and loss that many of us bring into the holiday season. Traditionally, this service happens around the longest night of the year, December 21.
It can be challenging to strike a balance in this service between lament and hopefulness. This liturgy is meant to be a resource and encouragement to those planning a Longest Night service for their communities. Please take and use, modify as needed, and be blessed.
Prelude: Have a playlist of quiet contemplative music playing. Depending on your space and congregation, choral music, contemporary worship, or Christmas hymns might fit.
Setup: Keep lighting as low as possible, even having small clip lights on stage so that the room can be dark and private. Use candles to provide ambient light.
Welcome and Call to Worship:
Tonight we welcome you to our Longest Night service, a service meant especially for those of us who are not feeling particularly jolly.
This service is meant for those who, despite the decorations and music and parties, don’t feel like celebrating this year. This service is meant for those in the throes of grief or loss, illness or loneliness.
We hope that you find this to be a safe place to be real with God and admit that you’re struggling. Look around and know that you’re not alone.
We’ll be sharing a variety of music, readings, prayers, and reflections. We’ll light some candles and spend time in prayer and silence. You can participate (or not participate) in any way that you’d like. Please feel free to just sit and listen. If you’d like to pray with someone at any point tonight, it would be our honour. You can find a pastor in the back corner seats and we’d welcome the chance to pray with or for you.
Call to Worship (based on Isaiah 40: 1-11)
God, who speaks comfort to us, invites us here.
God, who tends to us with gentleness, invites us here.
God, who gathers and carries us, calls us here.
We long for to see the glory of God, and hear God’s voice in our midst. Prepare a way for the Lord.
Worship - 2 songs
The songs that you choose will depend largely on what is familiar to your congregation. Some suggestions below:
O Come O Come Emmanuel
What Child Is This
In The Bleak Midwinter
When The Tears Fall (I’ve Had Questions) - Tim Hughes
There Is No Fear In Love - Eine Blume
How Long - Porter’s Gate
Beautiful Things - Gungor
You Have Me - Gungor
Poem: Longest Night (by Ann Weems, from her book Kneeling In Bethlehem)
The Christmas Spirit
is that hope
which tenaciously clings
to the hearts of the faithful
and announces
in the face
of any Herod the world can produce
and all the inn doors slammed in our faces
and all the dark nights of our souls
that with God
all things are possible,
that even now
unto us
a child is born.
Worship - 2 songs
Lighting the Advent Candles - Candle Litany for Longest Night
Leader: We come as people who have lost hope. We light this candle as we await the coming Emmanuel, our source of new hope. (candle of hope is lit)
People: Thank you, Lord, for the hope of a coming Saviour.
Leader: We come as people who are anxious. We light the candle of Peace, knowing that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. (candle of peace is lit)
People: Thank you, Lord, for the gift of peace in our times of uncertainty.
Leader: We come weary and beaten down. We light the candle of Joy, knowing that the comfort and help we need come only from God. (candle of joy is lit)
People: Thank you, Lord, for the gift of joy in our times of sadness.
Leader: We come lonely and brokenhearted. We light the candle of Love, knowing that God’s love was revealed to us in Jesus Christ. (candle of love is lit)
People: Thank you, Lord, for the gift of love in our times of loneliness.
Leader: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
People: The Word became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth.
Leader: In him was life, and that life was the light of all. We light the Christ Candle, knowing that Jesus is our hope, our peace, our joy and the source of love.(the Christ candle is lit)
Invitation To Light Candles
Leader: We have a number of candles up here at the front and invite you to come up and light one during the following songs. You might light one in memory of a person who has passed away or is estranged. You might light one to honour your own courage which has not been extinguished. You might light one as a symbol of hope for brighter days ahead. We invite you to join us in this simple act of worship together.
Worship - 2 songs
Scripture Reading - Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Reflection - one is provided here, but we encourage you to have a member of your community offer a short reflection or homily on hope or a similar theme.
(written by Natasha Chandler, 2023)
Last week, I saw a post online about not feeling the Christmas spirit.
Maybe you can relate to that - a sense of dread, isolation, or hopelessness, instead of cheer, joy, and peace. But the author of this post wrote that if you’re feeling weary, you’re in the Christmas spirit. If you’re desperate, that’s the Christmas spirit. If you’re unsure whether God will even show up, that’s the Christmas spirit. If you’re afraid of what the powerful people will do, you’re in the Christmas spirit. If you’re longing for something, you’re in the Christmas spirit.
We so often confuse the commercialized “merry and bright” with the true spirit of Christmas. The parties, the gifts, the lights, the music - it’s all good, but it’s not really the point. I think our culture has a very hard time with waiting, and grieving, and hoping…but that’s the point and all the other stuff is just extra. Perhaps we as a culture fill in the discomfort with cheer because we all are bad at being sad. But make no mistake, Christmas is meant for sad people.
Christmas is for a nation that was beaten down, messed up, and often wondered if they’d been abandoned by God. Christmas is for a teenage girl, powerless in her society, misunderstood and shamed. Christmas was for old folks who had waited their whole lives to see their people set free and delivered from oppression. Deliverance came in the form of a baby, not a king. Their hope came in something seemingly powerless. God showed up in the most unlikely way.
Christmas matters because it’s the time when we remember that God shows up. And if you’re waiting tonight for God to show up, know that you’re in very good company. If the story of God’s people tells us anything, it’s that time and time again, God will meet people in the most unlikely ways, and it’s my hope and prayer that you see God meeting you in this season, perhaps in the way you least expect.
It takes a tremendous amount of bravery to keep hoping that God will show up. And perhaps you’re not feeling that courage tonight, but you’re here, and that’s courage in itself. In Romans, the apostle says, “hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for us.” Just at the right time, Christmas came. Just at the right time, God showed up - and by his spirit, who he has given us, he is with us tonight.
Friends, Christmas is for you. Jesus is for you. Bring your broken heart and find God coming to meet you as a baby. Bring your hopelessness and find God right there. Bring your loneliness and find that you have never, ever been left alone.
Worship - 1 or 2 songs on the theme of hope
It Is Well With My Soul
O Come Let Us Adore Him
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
Be Still My Soul
Is He Worthy
Blessing
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.