Blue Christmas Longest Night Liturgies

Blue Christmas/Longest Night Services

Not everyone is up and cheery for the Christmas holidays. Some
people feel blue as in “the blues” at Christmas. Dealing with the
death of a loved one, facing life after divorce or separation, coping
with the loss of a job or of a home, living with cancer or some other
dis-ease that puts a question mark over the future, and a number of
other human situations make parties and joviality painful for many
people in our congregations and communities.

Churches are increasingly attentive to the needs of people who are
blue at Christmas. They are creating sacred space and hospitable
settings to include those faced with Christmas synchronous with loss,
grief, or depression. Such services are reflective, accepting where
we really are, and holding out healing and hope.

Some churches hold a service of worship on the longest night of the
year in the northern hemisphere (hence calling a “Longest Night”
service), which falls on or about December 21st, the Winter Solstice.
There is an interesting convergence for this day as it is also the
traditional feast day for Saint Thomas the Apostle. This linkage
invites making some connections between Thomas's struggle to
believe the tale of Jesus' resurrection, the long nights just before
Christmas, and the struggle with darkness and grief faced by those
living with loss.

Other churches schedule “Blue Christmas” services at other times in
days near Christmas.

If you are looking for resources and ideas about how to plan such a
service for your setting, or if you just want to know what the flow of a
"Blue Christmas Service" might look like, the following links should be
helpful to you.

Do a web search and you will find many additional links.

"I will not believe
unless I put my finger
in the nail holes
and my hand into
his side" said Thomas

"How ghastly" said one
who could believe with
alot less hard evidence.

I watched a show on
the History channel
that explained in exquisite
detail how crucifixion
was done to maximize
the torment of the victim
to the very last moment

That human beings are
capable of such cruelties
only adds to the assault
which nature blindly
inflicts upon us with
incurable diseases that
rob us of our minds and
bodies before we die
Or wipes out whole populations
with a single wave or a quake.

Would it have been
easier to believe
if Jesus died of old age
in a rocking chair?

Or Lincoln or Mahatma Gandhi
or JFK or Martin Luther King
had all died peacefully in their beds?

Some say the myth of redempive
suffering
breeds the very violence that leads
to such tragdic deaths and martrydoms
But I doubt that John Wilkes Booth
wanted to make Lincoln into a martyr
He had already reserved that honor
for himself

None of those named
were passive unwilling victims
of the violence that befell them
They chose to live in harm's way
rather than to submit to a worse death
in which one lives on without a soul

I could not believe in a god
who would not share the sufferings
of humanity made in the image
of such a god.
Such a heartlesss divinity is not
God but the Devil

Either God chose to be in Jesus
on the Cross or we live in a godless
universe with human life
a biological accident akin to fruit flys

Unless I touch, Thomas said
and was chastised by John
as a literalist insisting on truth
tested by flesh and blood
Like Thomas I need to touch
the wounds of Christ to believe

When devil made madness
draws near to overwhelm me
I reach out to the crucifix
to put my finger in the nail prints
and my hand upon his side

Gruesome, Sicko, you say?
Yes,I reply
That is the world we live in
And he endured it
so I might believe
Love is stronger than
death.

God is either in Jesus
on the cross or we are fruit flies
waiting for the frost.

Copyright (c) 2008 Sarah Flynn, OSL.
Used with the author's permission.

Thomas by Diego
Velasquez, 1599-1660

For the text of the Blue Christmas Service at The
Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew, Honolulu
Hawaii click here.
This service is a facsimile of the service leaflet used at The
Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew, Honolulu, HI. As offered
here, it does not fully reflect the very attractive layout and
spacing of the folio printed on 11x18 paper. The service is
available on this website by arrangement with the cathedral’s
Provost, The Very Rev. Timothy W. Sexton. Churches wishing
to use this service in whole or in part should acknowledge
the source with this or a similar attribution: “The ‘Blue
Christmas’ service used today/tonight is based on an order
developed and used at The Cathedral Church of Saint
Andrew, Honolulu Hawaii.”

For additional commentary and notes on the service
see click here.

Blue Christmas / Longest Night