A Service of Remembrance & Hope
| This year, our Blue Christmas Worship Service will be on Thursday, December 19, at 6:00 pm at First Lutheran Church (1206 Whitehall Road, Muskegon). Pastor Mackenzie and several other local pastors are working together to create this important community service. We hope you will come and worship with our wider faith community for this special service. A Blue Christmas Service is also called A Longest Night service. The name comes from that time in December when we experience the shortest days and longest nights of the year. But the name also applies to the feeling many people have during the Christmas season, feelings of grief and depression. It is the “long dark night of the soul,” or “the winter of our discontent” in which the memories of the past and the pain of the present darken our lives. And so, we bring our pain and our anguish, our doubts and our fears to this service, acknowledging the reality of sorrow and suffering amidst the lights and glitter of holiday cheer. But we do not come as those who have no hope, for we trust that the baby born in Bethlehem is the light of the world, the light no darkness can overcome. We do not walk alone during these long dark nights. We walk with each other and with Jesus the Christ who was and who is and who is to come. We hope you can join us for this special service. |
