This is one of the liturgy pages for the Methodist Church's Hush the Noise Advent and Christmas campaign 2024. A full list of the services can be found here. A PDF containing all the services can be downloaded here.
Blue Christmas
Bible reading
Luke 2.8-14
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’
Songs and hymns
O Lord, hear my prayer (Taizé)
O Come, O Come Immanuel (StF 180)
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear (StF 205)
Opening liturgy
Loving God,
Whose song of love is being sung always,
Offering unconditional love and grace to all you have made.
Thank you for your love.
Living Lord Jesus,
Who came to share our humanity, our fragility, and our pain.
Thank you that you do not leave us alone.
Holy Spirit,
Who came upon the Virgin Mary,
Bringing the eternal Son into the world through a human body.
Thank you for bringing God’s love to us.
Eternal God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
An everlasting communion of love,
Whose song of love the angels sing,
We confess that so often our ears are closed to you.
There is so much that drowns out your song of love.
We hurt ourselves and others, and others hurt us.
And sometimes we are simply sick and sad
And our pain makes it hard to pay attention.
Please forgive us for the things we can control
And help us with the things we can’t.
Break through the Babel sounds of our world
And help us hear the song of the angels
And send back their song to you.
We pray in the name of Jesus,
Whose birth we are here to remember.
Amen.
Background notes
Christmas can be a very difficult time, both for unaffiliated people and for Christians, for all kinds of reasons. It is a time that can magnify emotions: happy people feel happier and sad people feel sadder. Some will be spending their first Christmas without someone they love. Others may have had an empty place at the table for many years, and yet it still hurts, particularly at Christmas. People without children, whether by choice or circumstance, may wonder if there is a place for them in a festival with such a strong emphasis on young families. Children and adults with a history of trauma may carry memories of stressful and frightening Christmases when tensions ran high. People experiencing poverty may find themselves in the painful position of being excluded from the rampant consumerism – or forced to go into debt in order to participate. People struggling with chronic pain, illness or disability may find it hard to summon up the jollity that seems to be demanded of them.
A ‘Blue Christmas’ service provides a space for painful emotions to be held and acknowledged rather than dismissed or hidden amidst all the jollity. It offers a quiet and reflective space in which people can feel what they feel.
A Blue Christmas service needs to offer good news of hope for the future without minimising the pain that is felt now. It is likely to demand less of participants: music may be performed rather than people being expected to sing along. Careful thought needs to be given in terms of pastoral care. Prayer and/or listening could be offered at the end of the service for people who want this, and signposting to other services, such as counselling, may be helpful.
Questions for discussion
- How do you feel about Christmas music in shops – love it or loathe it?
- What makes Christmas hard for some people?
- What’s the difference between cheerfulness and joy?
Hands-on activities
- Give out simple Christmas themed colouring sheets, glue sticks and craft materials in shades of blue (tissue paper, sugar paper, yarn, scraps of fabric etc). Have people make a blue collage to reflect the sadness some people feel at Christmas.
- Offer an opportunity to light a candle to remember someone who has died.
- Paint a Christmas tree ornament blue and take it home to hang on your tree.
Prayer ideas
Loving God,
We pray for those of us who are grieving,
Who have an empty seat at our table.
Please bring comfort to all who mourn,
And fill us with your love.
God who heals,
We pray for those of us who are ill and in pain.
Please bring us relief and comfort us when it hurts,
Remind us that you never leave us alone.
God of justice,
We pray for those of us for whom life is struggle.
Remembering that you have brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
May this be true for us today.
God of hope,
We pray for those of us who are feeling hopeless.
Thank you for the angels’ song of love and joy and peace.
We look forward to the promised time
When all the world will repeat the song
which now the angels sing.
We pray in the name of Jesus,
Whose coming we remember at Christmas
And whose second coming we await.
Amen.
The good news to get across
There is much ‘noise’ at Christmas. Quite literally: you cannot buy anything in many shops without a background of Christmas music. There are lots of tasks and events that demand much of us: gift-giving, food shopping, family gatherings, perhaps work Christmas parties. And we are expected to do all this with a smile on our face, though this may not chime with how we feel inside. In the words of It came upon the midnight clear, we may be solemn and still; weary; sad and lowly.
The angels came to the shepherds to sing a new song of love and joy and peace. And this was not a one-off event: the angels are always singing God’s love song to creation. Though there is much that can drown out that beautiful song – things we may not be able to fix or take away – nevertheless we can take moments when we deliberately try to pause, tune out the noise, and listen for the song that declares the unconditional love of God for all of us, no strings attached. A song of hope that declares, things are really hard now, but they won’t be always.
Ways people can respond
Finish by leaving a space with quiet music playing, allowing people to stay and listen and think or pray for as long as they wish.