“Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

It may be your last.

Next year, we may all be living in the past.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

Pop that champagne cork.

Next year we may all be living in New York.

No good times like the olden days.

Happy golden days of yore.

Faithful friends who were dear to us,

Will be near to us no more.

But at least we all will be together,

If the Lord allows.

From now on, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.

So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

 

Notes:

 

John 11:1-44 (CSB)
Now a man was sick—Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick. ³ So the sisters sent a message to him: “Lord, the one you love is sick.”  ⁴ When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. ⁶ So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was. ⁷ Then after that, he said to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.” ¹¹ …and then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on my way to wake him up.” ¹² Then the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.” ¹³ Jesus, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought he was speaking about natural sleep. ¹⁴ So Jesus then told them plainly,  “Lazarus has died. ¹⁵ I’m glad for you that I wasn’t there so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.” ¹⁷ When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. ¹⁸ Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, ¹⁹ and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. ²⁰ When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” ²³ Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. ²⁶ Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” ²⁷ “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.”  ²⁸ Then she returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, “The Teacher is here and wants to see you.” ²⁹ So Mary immediately went to him. ³⁰ Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him. ³¹ When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there. ³² When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³ When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. ³⁴ “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Then Jesus wept. ³⁶ The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” ³⁷ But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?” ³⁸ Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. ³⁹ “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”

Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume breathes a life of gathering gloom; sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in the stone-cold tomb. ⁴⁰ Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” ⁴¹ So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. ⁴² You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” ⁴³ Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

 

Notes:

 

Glorious now behold him arise, King and God and sacrifice: Alleluia, Alleluia, sounds through the earth and skies.

Peace is not found in the absence of bad circumstances, but in the presence of Jesus.

 

Notes:

 

John 11:35 (NLT)
³⁵  Jesus wept. 

 

Notes:

 

LIGHT THE CANDLE

• Someone else will come out and light the candle in this moment.

 

Leader:

Father…We come to You today in the quiet, in the heaviness, in the places of our hearts that don’t always fit the season. In the season of joy and peace, we sometimes feel grief and sorrow. Sometimes our hearts feel the weight of what used to be… or what we hoped would be… or what we’ve lost along the way.

Everyone:

And yet—You are here.
Emmanuel.
God with us… right now, in the aching and the longing.

Leader:

Lord, today we remember that the first Christmas wasn’t tidy or polished or picture-perfect. It was raw, confusing, dark. A young couple far from home, a birth surrounded by uncertainty, a world full of oppression and fear. And into that world, Your light broke through.

Everyone:

So, Father—if You met Your people in the darkness then, we trust You to meet us in the darkness now.

Leader:

We lift before You, tenderly and honestly, those who grieve the loss of someone they love.
For empty chairs at the table…
for phone calls that won’t be made…
for voices we can still hear in our memories but not in our homes…

Everyone:

Lord, hold them close.
Give them the permission to grieve deeply, and remind them that Jesus wept, too—that our tears are not signs of weak faith, but of honest love.

Leader:

We lift those who are carrying the silent grief of miscarriage… or the ongoing ache of infertility.
Father, You know the longing for life—You knit us together in the womb, You called children a blessing, You welcomed them with open arms. So You know this pain. You see the hidden tears.

Everyone:

Lord, today surround these precious hearts with Your peace… with gentleness… with the assurance that their sorrow matters to You. Wrap them in Your compassion.

Leader:

We lift those who walk the road of divorce—the unraveling of something they prayed would last.
Lord, You are near to the brokenhearted, and You save those who are crushed in spirit.

Everyone:

Where there is shame, speak dignity.
Where there is anger, bring calm.
Where there is loneliness, fill the space with Your presence.
Where there is fear of the future, whisper Your promises again.

Leader:

We lift those who carry the pain of estrangement—family members no longer speaking, friendships fractured, holidays once full that now feel fragile.
Father, You are the God who reconciles, who restores, who runs to prodigals and softens hearts.

Everyone:

Today we ask for Your patient, persistent grace. Teach us to wait with hope, to pray without giving up, to forgive even when restoration feels far away.

Leader:

We lift those who feel the sting of distance—those who are far away from family… or whose loved ones now live in another state, another country… another time zone. We lift those who have someone deployed in the armed forces far from home.
Lord, You stretch across every mile.
You bind hearts together in ways deeper than geography.

Everyone:

Give those who feel isolated the comfort of knowing they are not truly alone—you are closer than breath.
Give courage to those who wait, strength to those who worry, and hope to those counting the days.

Leader:

We pray for families walking the painful road of dementia and mental illness. You see the confusion, the fear, the exhaustion, and the questions they carry.

Everyone:

Wrap them in Your steady presence and hold their loved ones gently.

Give them strength for today, compassion for the journey, and moments of unexpected grace.

Remind them that You are near to the brokenhearted and that Your light still shines in the darkness.

Leader:

And Lord, we lift those who can’t quite name their sorrow…
Those who say, “I’m fine,” but inside feel empty…
Those who are exhausted, discouraged, anxious, depressed, confused, or numb.

Everyone:

Jesus, Shepherd of our souls—gather them close. Let them rest in Your love today.

Leader:

In all these stories, Father, we acknowledge our need for You.
The Christ who stepped into our tears,
the Savior who entered our suffering,
the King who conquered death not by avoiding it, but by walking straight into it.

Everyone:

Remind us that the gospel doesn’t skip over the dark chapters.
It redeems them.
It carries us through them.
It meets us in them.

Leader:

So today, in this Blue Christmas moment, we choose to bring You our grief.
We choose to bring You our questions.
We choose to bring You our unmet desires, our broken places, our fragile hopes.

And LORD we ask—
Do what You have always done.
Be the God who stays.
Be the God who heals.
Be the God who listens to every cry and renews every weary soul.

Everyone:

Lord Jesus, in Your birth You brought light into darkness.
In Your death You brought hope into despair.
In Your resurrection You brought life out of loss.

Leader:

So today, shine Your light where shadows still linger.
Breathe Your hope where dreams have been buried.
Speak Your peace where fear tries to take root.
And surround every hurting heart with Your faithful love.

Everyone:

We wait for You, Jesus, with honest hope.
Hope anchored in the manger…
hope secured at the cross…
hope guaranteed at the empty tomb…
hope that one day, You will wipe every tear from our eyes.

Leader:

Until that day—
hold us.
Strengthen us.
Carry us.
And remind us that even in the blue of this season…
You are still Emmanuel.
You are still here.
You are still enough.

Everyone:

In the name of Christ our Savior, who is the Resurrection and the Life —
Amen.

 

Notes:

 

Help Everyone Find & Follow Jesus