Service of the Longest Night

Living God, we come to you during this pre-Christmas season, just as we are, each of us with our own kinds of sadness and loss… each of us with our own strengths, our own measure of resilience. Come and visit us, God, through the words of our readings and songs and through the prayers and presence of one another. In your name we pray… amen.

First Reflection:  Feel  by Chicago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJn7azWR2i8

So everybody's pulling you in all directions
You don't know how much longer to take it
So you've learned how to fake it
That smile on the outside's fading fast
Like the things that you thought for sure would last
But they didn't
You know something's missing
Is it your life you're not living?

[Chorus:]
Your heart is cold, your soul is numb
You don't like who you've become
You played the game and paid the cost for long enough
So grab the reins, yeah, take the wheel
Lose what's not and keep what's real
It's not too late,
Just close your eyes and feel, feel

You can't tell if you're happy or sad
Can't tell the good from bad
It's senseless
To waste your senses
Maybe stop thinking with your head
Start using your heart instead
Just try it
You just might like it
Aren't you dying to start livin'?

[Chorus]

Every breath that's going thru you
Take each day that's given to you
To love back the ones who love you

[Chorus]

You can't tell if you're happy or sad
Can't tell the good from the bad
Feel and stop thinking with your head
Start using your heart instead

Lord Jesus, you were born into our world feeling all the same emotions we feel, suffering all the kinds of losses that we suffer. And you know how we tend to bottle up our negative stuff so we can function our way through the day. Give to us a safe place to feel now what it is that we need to feel… whether that is loneliness or fear or anger or confusion… or peace and strength and gratitude… or just a wild mix of emotions. Thank you for songs that give us permission to feel and for those who write and perform them. In your name we pray…amen.


Second Reflection:  Pre-Christmas Grief a la Psalm 42
 by Kari Henkelmann Keyl
As a deer leans forward, aching for water,
     so am I thirsty for you, O God.
I so need to know that you haven’t dumped me.
     I have to somehow see your face.
I’ve sobbed myself dry; still relief eludes me.
    I ponder good times, but they feel far away.
Christmas songs in the air
     leave me breathless with loss.
Deeper I sink, ‘til there’s just nothing left,
     nothing but you, God, nothing but you.
I grope in the darkness, some presence is there.
     I remember you once were a rock in my storms.
I’ll give trust a try; I’ll peek out of this hole,
But you, God — oh please, God —
     must make a move, too.
Hum your tune as I sleep,
     so I’ll wake warmed with song.
Let me feel my wounds healing,
     and I’ll know you have come.
Confident once more,
     I’ll have hope for tomorrow,
My whole life a prayer, to the God of my soul.

Like that thirsty deer, O God, we are leaning toward you. We need to know that you are here… that you are here for us. Refresh us with your Spirit. Energize us with your healing. Give us courage to lean further, into a hopeful future, with you by our side. In your name we pray… amen.

Third Reflection: Matthew 11:28-30 
(from Eugene Petersen's The Message)

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Friend Jesus, sometimes we can't handle all that weighs us down. Do as you have promised in your words. Help us to breathe freely. Give us your kind of peace… so we'll be strong enough to care for others. Amen.

Simple Lessons

Reflections 1:


Luke 3:7-18 (The Message)

7-9When crowds of people came out for baptism because it was the popular thing to do, John exploded: "Brood of snakes! What do you think you're doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to deflect God's judgment? It's your life that must change, not your skin. And don't think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as 'father.' Being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there—children of Abraham are a dime a dozen. God can make children from stones if he wants. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it's deadwood, it goes on the fire."

10The crowd asked him, "Then what are we supposed to do?"

11"If you have two coats, give one away," he said. "Do the same with your food."

12Tax men also came to be baptized and said, "Teacher, what should we do?"

13He told them, "No more extortion—collect only what is required by law."

14Soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?"

He told them, "No shakedowns, no blackmail—and be content with your rations."

15The interest of the people by now was building. They were all beginning to wonder, "Could this John be the Messiah?"

16-17But John intervened: "I'm baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I'm a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He's going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned."

18-20There was a lot more of this—words that gave strength to the people, words that put heart in them. The Message! But Herod, the ruler, stung by John's rebuke in the matter of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, capped his long string of evil deeds with this outrage: He put John in jail.

Reflection 2:

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN by Robert Fulgham

(a guide for Global Leadership)

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.

These are the things I learned:

• Share everything.

• Play fair.

• Don't hit people.

• Put things back where you found them.

• Clean up your own mess.

• Don't take things that aren't yours.

• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

• Wash your hands before you eat.

• Flush.

• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

• Take a nap every afternoon.

• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.

• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.

• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Reflection 3: Keep It Simple by Van Morrison

Mocked me when I was singing the songs
Trying to get back to something more simple than we have
They mocked me ?cause I told it like it was

Wrote about disappointment and greed
Wrote about what we really didn’t need in our lives
Make us feel alive and whole

Illusions and pipe dreams on the one hand
And straight reality is always cold
Saying something hard edged is off the wall
And it might seem too bold

Mocked me when it got out of hand
Nobody tried to understand
Now we got to keep it simple and that’s that

Illusions and pipe dreams on the one hand
And straight reality is always cold
Saying something hard edged is off the wall
And it just might be too bold

Well, I’m down here on the running board
Where I’ve been many times before
But we got to keep it simple to save ourselves

Mocked me when I tried to get back
Said the train was completely off the track
And we got to get back to something simple to save ourselves

Whoa, we got to get back to something simple
Just to save yourselves
Well, got to get back to something simple
Just to save yourselves

Well, you got to keep it simple
Keep it simple just to
And that’s that

Whoa, you got to keep it simple nowadays
And that’s just that
Whoa, whoa, you got to keep it simple nowadays
And that’s just the way it is

And you got to keep it simple these days
‘Cause that’s the way it is
Well, you got to keep it, keep it simple
And that’s that