BLUE CHRISTMAS: A SERVICE OF LAMENT, HEALING & HOPE Singing cheerful songs to a person with a heavy heart is like taking someone’s coat in cold weather or pouring vinegar in a wound. Proverbs 25:20 Welcome to Lutheran Church of the Redeemer’s Blue Christmas worship service. This service is for anyone who feels a dissonance with the merriness of the Christmas season. How can we sing with heavy hearts of loss, anxiety, and struggles? At times, we can carry the chorus, at other times, others carry us. During the service, there will be time to lay down your burdens and receive the healing rest of Jesus through prayer stations where you may write a prayer on a star, light a candle, receive personal prayer and anointing, and contemplate. Now receive the invitation Jesus makes, “Come to me all you who are weary, I will give you rest.” Come as you are. Come out of isolation and into community as the worship service flows through three movements of lament, healing, and hope. May the hope of Christ sustain you through this season. PRELUDE
Nicolas Deuson, guitar GATHERING FROM THE DEPTHS
Standing God, we call out to you! From the depths of our hearts, we cry, “Lord, hear our prayer!” We are consumed by grief. The events of the past few days, weeks, months have overwhelmed us— it’s hard to sleep, it’s hard to eat, it’s even hard to pray. | Where are you, God?
Deep down, we know that you love us— we’ve experienced your mercy and your faithfulness in the past, and it has sustained us through many difficult times. We refuse to believe that you have deserted us,