Koonung Heights Uniting Church – Service of Worship at Home
Blue Christmas Service for the Weary
5 December – 7.00pm or whenever possible
You may like to have a piece of paper, a pen, a bowl of water with you
as well as a candle to light as we remember those who have passed away in 2023.
Acknowledgement of Country:
As we take time to meet together and remember,
I acknowledge the Wurundjeri WoiWurrung People of the Kulin nation,
a people who have cared for this place
from times past, but now remembered.
I pay my respects to their elders,
past and present, and to all their descendants.
I also remember and pay my respects
to those who have faithfully worshipped in this place,
and to all those we have loved and lost.
Gathering & Welcome:
Welcome to this Service for the Weary.
Although the season of Advent is joyful for so many,
we also know that this time of year can be
drenched in fatigue, grief, and loneliness.
Tonight we gather together
to honour that reality as a community.
We also gather as a community to draw near to God
and to allow space for healing and prayer.
Throughout the service there will be time …
time for singing, praying and reflecting.
In preparation, I invite you to take a deep breath in,
and then release it.
Release the tension from your jaw.
Roll your shoulders up and back.
Plant your feet comfortably on the floor.
Release the weariness from your body
into the ground below us
and allow your body to feel lighter.
Imagine the Spirit of God hovering close to this room,
for surely God is in this place.
Now with open hearts, let us come as we can.
We Sing: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” – (Words © Susan Wickham 2021 Tune TiS 265)
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and fill our lives, all dark and fear dispel,
as once an exiled people you found,
redeemed, restored and set on holy ground.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to us and in our hearts will dwell.
Reading: Weariness Feels Like
Weariness feels like an ache in your bones,
or a slow leak from the heart –
a leak that causes hope to pool at your feet.
Weariness feels like the wind knocked out of you –
all of a sudden, it’s impossible to breathe.
Weariness feels like an oversized coat –
it catches on door handles and knocks over water glasses,
turning you into a clumsy mess.
Weariness can hit you all at ones –
when the phone rings,
when the bill arrives,
when your phone sends you an alert.
Weariness can also hem and haw its way into your life,
bit by bit, chipping away at resolve.
And one short poem will not change this truth –
the weary state of our grief-stricken hearts.
But this one short poem can remind you
the one thing we so often forget:
that I can be your shelter for a while.
And we can try and stop the leak in your heart.
And if that’ doesn’t work,
then we’ll stand under the night sky
to look at the starts,
and remember that we do not walk this valley alone.
Advent Candle Lighting:
Friends, in the Advent season, we light the candle of hope.
Tonight we light it for all who feel hopeless.
Tonight, this light shines bright
for prisoners,
for patients with chronic illness,
for individuals fighting to get out of debt,
for refugees waiting for a safe place to rest,
and for relationships that have no clear way forward.
Tonight we light this candle for the hopeless.
May God’s hope find them now.
In this season, we light the candle of peace.
Tonight, we light it for all who need peace.
This light shines bright
for the anxious and unsettled
for those in seasons of transition and discernment,
for all who struggle with mental health,
and for people navigating rocky, new beginnings.
May God’s peace find them now.
In this season, we light the candle of joy.
Tonight, we light it for all who need it.
May this light shine for those who are
overburdened, overstretched, worn out,
and worn down.
May this candle shine for those who need a good laugh,
even in a season of grief.
May God’s joy find them now.
In this season, we light the candle of love.
Tonight, we light it for all who need it.
May this light shine for loved ones lost,
for love that has been betrayed,
for love that has been neglected or forgotten,
and for all who long for love and find themselves lonely.
May God’s love find them now.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
We Sing: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” – (Words © Susan Wickham 2021 Tune TiS 265)
O come, O light of Christ, so bright and clear
and lift our spirits by your advent here.
In all who gather, show us your face,
that we may know the warmth of your embrace.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to us and in our hearts will dwell.
Prayer:
God of comfort and peace,
we come into your presence this night
with a range of different feelings and emotions.
Each of us here comes for our own reasons,
some of which others might know,
some of which are only known to you, God.
May this time be a moment of honesty,
of peaceful healing, of restoration and hope,
as we come together, supporting one another
as we travel through our grief and loss.
Creator God,
For so long we have been bending under the weight
of our own grief, exhaustion and stress.
However, today,
like a flower bending toward the sun,
we are leaning toward you in hope.
Speak a word of encouragement to us now.
Help us to see that we are not alone.
Warm our weary bones from the inside out –
we are listening
we are bending,
we are seeking after you.
With open hearts we pray,
Amen.
Bible Readings:
Let’s hear from the Bible – some different readings that may provide a word of hope and comfort.
Firstly from Psalm 23 – a psalm that names the harsh reality of the valley of the shadow of death, but also names God’s presence with us there.
Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me;
your rod and your staff – they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Secondly from Lamentations 3:19-24 – a passage which is a prayer of honesty, acknowledging individual suffering while also declaring that God’s steadfast love never ceases.
Lamentations 3:19-24
19 The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall!
20 My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
Finally from John 14:35-27 – a passage which is a moving reminder from Jesus that his peace is with us.
John 14:25-27
25 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
It can be easy to feel lost and alone, overwhelmed by stress or grief or loss, but no matter what our present circumstances might be, we are never alone. God is present with us, we are loved and we have the gift of peace, given to us by Jesus. So where is God? How do we know God’s presence? We know it through the friends who support us, those who accompany us on our journey, the ones who bake and hold and share, and sit in silence with us.
We Sing: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” – (Words © Susan Wickham 2021 Tune TiS 265)
O come, O Wisdom, mind and heart divine,
help us restore a world we’ve let decline.
Enlighten us; your way we would know
and show us where new seeds of hope to sow.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to us and in our hearts will dwell.
Reflective Time:
I invite you to take some quiet time now to think about something that is causing you to feel weary, to name the person or situation that you are grieving. You might wish to take your piece of paper and record what you love and miss about an individual, or maybe it is something else you are grieving this night. This grief may be fresh and new, or you may have carried it with you for some time. Take a moment to be honest about it now.
Candle Lighting:
We will now move to a time of action. Shortly, I will read a list of names of members of our church community who have died this year. If I call the name of someone special to you, you are invited to come, lay your paper in the symbolic water of tears, and light a candle. The candle can be lit as a prayer request, to honour someone lost, or as a signal of hope.
Litany of Names:
Another year has passed.
New lives have begun,
babies have been born and hope has come again.
Another year has passed.
Lives young and old have come to a close.
People we have loved
are no longer on the end of a phone,
and the plans we made together for the year to come lie unfulfilled
And while we hold these loved ones in our memories,
they remain a special part of who we are.
And so we remember them,
people who were known and loved,
some who may have been family,
all a part of God’s family.
Grace Chong
Margaret Ogilvie
Barbra Wilson
Don Weaver
… anyone else you have known, loved and lost,
or any situation you are grieving.
We have lit these candles to remember those we have lost,
as silent prayers and beacons of hope.
May we remember them,
and live into the legacy of God’s love
that binds the generations.
Amen.
Prayer:
God of our joy and God of our weariness,
we have brought our worn-down hearts to you this night –
hearts full of grief,
hearts carrying fear,
hearts, tender to the touch.
We have brought our weariness to you this night,
because we know that you are present with us in the valleys.
We know that you were born into a quiet night like this one,
so surely our tears from the night are not unfamiliar to you.
Therefore, as we prepare to leave the safe protection of this sanctuary,
as we prepare to return to the business of our lives,
we ask that you would contine to walk with us.
Stay by our side through the valley.
Stay by our side as we climb our way out.
Just stay close.
For we cannot move from weariness and grief to joy without you.
With honesty and gratitude,
we give you these prayers of our hearts –
those named and left unnamed.
We give them all to you.
Amen.
We Sing: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” – (Words © Susan Wickham 2021 Tune TiS 265)
O Advent God of hope, joy, love and peace,
in you we pray our sad divisions cease.
Bind us as one, a people of grace,
for at your table each one has a place.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to us and in our hearts will dwell.
Blessing:
Family of faith,
as you leave this place you go into a weary world.
Speak tenderly.
Do the good that is yours to do.
Choose connection.
Hold only hope.
And remember that Christ took on flesh for you.
You are God’s beloved.
So go rejoicing.
The world needs it.
Amen.
Thanks to all those who have assisted in preparation for this liturgy with encouragement, prayers and conversation. I have also utilised the following resources: A Sanctified Art (How does a weary world rejoice?)