Saturday
12/19/15 Freeville UMC
“Blue
Christmas” Service
Sermon Title: “The Hope of the Gospel”
Old Testament
Lesson: Psalm 80:1-7
New Testament
Scripture: Hebrews 10:32-39
Gospel Lesson:
John 16:31-33
Friends, sisters and brothers, welcome again to this “Blue Christmas”
Service. This service is sometimes also called “The Longest Night Service”, as
this service is often held on the Winter Solstice. This year the Winter Solstice
is on Tuesday December 22nd, which is also the first day of winter.
On the Winter Solstice, which in this case is on Tuesday December 22nd,
it is the longest night of the year. This means that the Winter Solstice is the
day of the year that has the most darkness. The least amount of sun light. This
extra darkness might only be for a few more minutes, but nevertheless this
Tuesday is going to be the longest night of this year.
While some pastors are having their “Longest Night” or “Blue
Christmas Service” next Tuesday on December 22nd, I decided to have
ours tonight. I decided to do this for two reasons. One, one of the titles of
this service, “Blue Christmas,” brings us into the reality that for some people,
the seasons of Advent and Christmas are ones in which we sometimes feel “blue”
or sad. Perhaps we don’t mean to, but maybe we have experienced some kind of
loss. This loss has made us feel “blue” or down. Maybe something else has made
us feel “blue” or down, as well. This can be hard for us, because we are so often
told by our culture that during the Advent and the Christmas Seasons that we
are supposed to be cheery and happy. What if you are trying your best to be
cheery and happy though, and you just aren’t right now? You see while the
Winter Solstice or the “Longest Night” is on Tuesday, this is still a cold and a
dark night. So this is one reason that I chose tonight for this service.
We gather tonight then, to pause in this season of Advent
that will soon become the season of Christmas. Some of us maybe have come here
with pains and hurts, and some of us maybe have come here to pause from the busyness
that is this time of the year. Whatever our reasons for coming tonight, we have
all come out into the darkness to seek the light that is Jesus Christ. Whether
it be tonight or on Tuesday night, we are in darkness, and we seek the light of
Christ together.
The second reason that I have decided to do this service
tonight, is that some of my clergy brothers and sisters will be doing like
services at their churches this Tuesday. For example, my friend and brother Rev.
Harold Wheat will be having his “Longest Night” service on the Winter Solstice,
at the Dryden United Methodist Church, at 7:00 pm on Tuesday. We then have the
opportunity to not only gather tonight, but there will be other opportunities
on Tuesday, during the Winter Solstice to gather again.
One of the reasons that I really love the “Blue Christmas”
or the “Longest Night” service, is that is speaks to our human condition. As Christians,
we are taught and we read in scripture that through Jesus Christ we can have
new life, peace, and abundant joy. In the season that we prepare for the birth of
the savior of the world, many of us have been taught to be cheery, happy, and
full of joy. We are supposed to be chipper and excited. Yet what happens when
we are none of these things? Are we then doing the Christian faith wrong?
Or
is there a strong precedent in scripture for sometimes experiencing suffering,
even when we seek to have joy? The Apostle Paul talked about having a “thorn in
his flesh” all throughout his ministry, and if you have read the Book of Job,
we know that he had some sorrow and misery.
I truly don’t think that God wants us to suffer in this
season of Advent and soon Christmas, but some people just do. Some people might
also come tonight, in need of a break or a “check-in” with God during this very
busy time of the year. So we gather, we are who are feeling “blue,” we who need
a rest, we who are burdened, we who are overwhelmed. I would encourage you all
to uphold each other in prayer and in love on the actual longest night of year,
this Tuesday December 22nd, on the winter solstice. Let us also do
the same tonight, and every night, for Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
In looking at the scriptures for this evening’s “Blue
Christmas” or “Longest Night” Service, we first have a reading from Psalm
80:1-7. In this reading we hear the words spoken to God, “Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved” (Ps. 80:3, NRSV). Despite their best
efforts, the people of Israel in this verse feel cut off from God, and are
suffering. How many of us despite our best efforts tonight, feel like that God
is distant from us and that we are suffering. We don’t desire to suffer, but
sometimes, just like the people of Israel, we just do.
In fact, the scripture then says, “O LORD God of hosts, how
long will you be angry with your people’s prayers? You have fed them with the
bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure” (Ps. 80:4-5,
NRSV). This is powerful scripture, as we can hear about the sorrow and the faith
struggles that the people of Israel are having. How many of us have ever felt
like this? Maybe we feel this way tonight?
The scripture from Psalm 80 for tonight ends with, “You
make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves. Restore
us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved” (Ps. 80:6-7,
NRSV). Perhaps some of us tonight are looking for the shining face of God, so
that we may the joy and the peace of the Lord. Suffering, feeling blue, and
struggling on our longest nights, is something that many people in the Bible
experienced. Despite their best efforts and our best efforts, sometimes we are “blue,”
and sometimes we suffer.
In the New Testament reading for tonight from the Apostle
Paul’s Epistle or letter to the Hebrews he writes, “But recall those earlier
days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with
sufferings” (Heb. 10:32, NRSV). The Apostle Paul is saying, “remember when we
suffered?” The Apostle Paul, the one who had the “thorn in his side”, and the
one who said that he was “the chief of all sinners,” had times of suffering.
How many of us have had suffering or are suffering tonight?
The Apostle Paul goes on to say that the Christians of his
time were “sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and
sometime being partners with those so treated”. (Heb. 10:33, NRSV). Paul then
says, “For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you
may receive what was promised. For yet “in a very little while, the one who is
coming will come and will not delay; but my righteousness one will live by
faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back” (Heb. 10:36-38,
NRSV). The Apostle Paul then concludes this reading by say, “But we are not
among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and
so are saved” (Heb. 10:39, NRSV).
When we feel broken and lost brothers and sisters, we must
put our full trust in God. Not only this, we must come together, so that God
may work in us all, and through us all. Jesus Christ didn’t call one apostle, but
rather he called twelve apostles. Jesus created the church, so that we might be
together, that we might build each other up, and that we might draw faith and strength
from God and from each other.
In the gospel reading from the gospel of John for tonight,
Jesus challenges us to have faith. The gospel says, “Do you now believe? The
hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his
home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is
with me” (John 16:31-32, NRSV). Jesus is saying in this scripture that he is
going to be crucified soon, and all but one of his disciples will flee from
him. In the human sense he will feel very alone, cut off, and “blue”, but in
the spiritual sense will be fulfilled. He will be fulfilled, because he has
faith that God is with him. Jesus then ends this short gospel reading by
saying, “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the
world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”
(John 16:33, NRSV). How do we claim this victory tonight sisters and brothers?
How do we claim this faith if we are suffering? If we are feeling “blue”?
Well brothers and sisters, we must pray hard, we must fully
devote ourselves to God, to Jesus Christ, and we must also build each other up
in faith and love. Jesus did not pick one apostle, in the same way the church
does not have one member. Our faiths are not just built up individually but also
corporately. Jesus knew that as individuals we are weak, but that together we
are strong. This is one of the reasons that I believe that Jesus chose twelve apostles
and not one. We are not alone, for the living is God is with us, is amongst us,
and is working through us. May we claim this faith, and we share it with each
other. For this is the church, all of us together seeking the face of God.
Seeking the light of Jesus Christ in the darkness of this world. Brothers and
sisters, friends, I pray that we deepen our faith on this night, that we deepen
our love on this night, and that we deepen our joy on this night. May we through
our prayers, our faith, and our love, care for each other. May we seek to conquer
death, darkness, and feeling “blue” on this long cold night. For Jesus Christ
is the light and the hope of the world.
I
want to share a brief story of suffering and hope, called “At the End of the
Rope.” This story is taken from Elie Wiesel, The Night (1969). Reported in Moltmann, The Crucified God and Stott, The Cross of Christ. Here is how this brief story goes: “Elie Wiesel was a survivor of the
dreaded Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz. He wrote of his experiences in the
book The Night. In that book he relates the harrowing story
of two Jewish men and a Jewish boy hanged alongside one another. Having mounted
the stairs the two adults cried, “long live liberty”, but the boy was silent.
Behind Wiesel someone desperately asked “Where is God” Where is He?” The chairs
the victims were standing on were kicked out from under them and the three hung
there. The adults died quickly, but the boy’s weight wasn’t great enough to
snap his neck immediately. For more than half an hour he hung there, dying in
slow agony before their eyes. Again Wiesel heard the question “Where is God
now?” And standing there Wiesel heard a voice within himself answer: “Where is
he? Here he is. He is hanging here on this gallows.”
“When Wiesel said it was God hanging
on the gallows he indicated the death of his faith. Faith in God died with that
hanging child. But there is another interpretation that God suffers with those
who suffer, seen most visibly in the death of Christ hanging on his own
gallows, the cross.”
My
sisters and brothers, I truly believe that when we suffer, that God suffers
with us. May we come together on this night, in faith, love, joy, and hope. Come
Lord Jesus. Amen.
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