Longest Night, Lasting Light (December 21, 2025 Longest Night of the Year Service)

The sanctuary felt different on the longest night: softer voices, slower breath, and a circle of candles passing from hand to hand. We opened a gentle space where grief and fear could sit beside hope without apology, naming what hurts and honoring the love beneath it. With readings from Isaiah and Psalm 30, we walked the honest path from lament to promise, not rushing the night but trusting the morning.

We leaned on practices that steady the heart. A guided silence helped us notice what our bodies carry. We wrote our worries on small cards and placed them on a table, then later picked up a neighbor’s card to carry their burden through the week. Mary Oliver’s lines reminded us that the weight we bear changes as we learn how to hold it; that a box of darkness can become a gift; that loving what is mortal means both holding tight and letting go. And in a tender clip, Andrew Garfield told Elmo that missing someone is proof of love—grief as the echo of joy that once filled the room.

Across the service, a quiet theme kept surfacing: God’s steadfast love does not depart, even when the hills shift and the temple smokes. We sang simple prayers, shared the peace, and watched the room brighten candle by candle. The words “God is no-where” turned into “God is now-here” as we stood together. If you’re carrying something heavy through Advent, we made room for you. Press play to breathe, to be held by scripture and poetry, and to borrow a little light for the road. If this helped you keep vigil, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs gentleness, and leave a review so others can find this space.

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Transcript

Welcome And Purpose Of Vigil

SPEAKER_03 4:05

Friends, neighbors, the Lord with you. Welcome on behalf of the people who are Guilford Carter Presbyterian Church and Fellowship Presbyterian Church. This is one of our joint services that we do. So whether you are joining us on site or online via our live stream, we welcome you in the name of the Lord. Friends, though Christmas is a time of joy and hope, we also recognize that fear and grief are often presents too, weighing on us like a heavy fog. This afternoon, as we approach literally the longest night of the year, we will light candles together and keep vigil, inviting God to join us no matter what emotions are presents too. So if you happen to be joining us online via our live stream, we invite you to perhaps grab a candle that you might have nearby so that you can share your light with us and our light. The candles in our hands can feel fragile, insignificant, their flames easily extinguished. But in a few minutes we will turn to our neighbors to spread the light. The light will multiply, wrapping this whole community and warmth. The darkness around us will not be eradicated. If anything, it further illuminates the flicker of the candles. In these vigil spaces, grief and fear dance with gratitude and hope. In these spaces we find courage and unity. In these spaces we are reminded that God is there. So friends, let us keep watch, let us keep vigil, and let us worship God together. Friends, I invite you if you are able to rise in body or in spirit, as Linda will lead us in our opening candle.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Even through the longest nights, we keep vigil. When days are long and we grow weary, we keep vigilant. When we're running out of hope, we keep vigil. When peace feels like a pipe dream, we keep vigil. When joy seems like a luxury we can't afford, we keep vigilant. When the world is more full of hate than love, we keep vigil. When we're desperate for Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, we keep vigilant. Let us keep vigil for God is surely with us.

Passing Peace And Sharing Light

Isaiah’s Lament And Hope

SPEAKER_01 7:27

But thank you, Stephen. So you are encouraged as Steven and I will take light from the candles, or they will come from the back to share that Christ light with one another. You may keep it lit as long as you wish throughout this service. If at any point you choose to extinguish your candle, you can relight it from a neighbor or feel free to walk up to the candles of hope, peace, joy, and love to use their flame to reignite your own. Friends, may the peace of Christ be with you. Please share the peace of Christ and the light with one another. Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and descend. Make the mountains shudder at your presence. And when a forest catches fire, as when fire makes a pot boil, to shock your enemies into facing you, make the nations shake in their boots. You did terrible things we never expected, descended, and made the mountains shudder at your presence. Since before time began, no one has ever imagined, no ear heard, no eye seen. A God like you who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who happily do what is right, who keep a good memory of the way you work. But how angry you've been with us. We've sinned and kept at it so long. Is there any hope for us? Can we be saved? We are all sin infected, sin contaminated. Our best efforts are grease-stained rags. We dry up like autumn leaves, sin dried, we're blown off by the wind. No one prays to you or makes the effort to reach out to you because you've turned away from us, left us to stew in our sins. Still, God, you are our creator. We're the clay and you're our potter. All of us are what you made us. Don't be too angry with us, O God. Don't keep a permanent account of wrongdoing. Keep in mind, please, we are your people. All of us. Your holy cities are all ghost towns. Zion's a ghost town, Jerusalem's field of weeds. Our holy and beautiful temple, which our ancestors filled with your praises, was burned down by fire, all our lovely parks and gardens in ruins. In the face of all this, are you going to sit there unmoved, God? Aren't you going to say something? Haven't you made us miserable long enough? Holy wisdom. Holy word. Thanks being to God.

Psalm 30 And Sung Response

SPEAKER_03 15:20

So, friends, there will be no sermon this afternoon. We have not gathered in the space to uh to fix one another. Rather, we have gathered simply to open space for the messy, to open space for the grief, to open space for whatever emotion or emotions can bring to this space. So in practicing with that, we will have a series of silent reflections over the next several readings and poetry. So I now invite you into that time of quiet reflection. Close your eyes if you wish and feel the ground beneath you supporting you. Pay attention to what you feel in your body. What is your breathing like? Where do you feel attention? How is your heart? Notice without judgment the way your body may be carrying fear into this space. Gently ask your body in its wisdom, what do you fear? And listen for its response. I will open and close our each time of sonnet reflection with the ringing of a belly. Place a hand on your chest. Relaxing areas of tension, repairing. Be gentle to your body. Breathe deeply. And you have healed me. O Lord, brought up my soul from Sheila, and restored me to life from among those gone down to the dead.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is just for a moment, his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved. By your favor, O Lord, you have established me as a strong mountain. You hid your face, I was the same.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

To you, O Lord, I cried, and to the Lord I made supplication. What profit is there in my death? If I go down to the pit, will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me. O Lord, be my helper.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

We have turned my morning into dancing. You have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Holy wisdom, holy word.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

Thanks, peace to God.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

That time I thought I could not go any closer to grief without dying. I went closer, and I did not die. Surely God had his hand in this, as well as friends. Still I was bent, and my laughter, as the poet said, was nowhere to be found. Then said my friend Daniel, brave even among lions, it's not the weight you carry, but how you carry it. Books, bricks, grief. It's all in the way you embrace it, balance it, carry it. When you cannot and would not put it down. So I went practicing. Have you noticed? Have you heard the laughter that comes now and again out of my startled mouth? How I linger to admire, admire, admire the things of this world that are kind and maybe also troubled. Roses in the wind, the sea geese on the steep waves, a love to which there is no reply.

Writing Grief Cards And Offering

Exchanging Prayers For One Another

SPEAKER_03 23:30

So, friends, during our next silent reflection, you are invited to take the cue card and the writing utensil that you should have been handed when you entered the space. And you are invited to write down one or more of a grief, a loss, or some worry that you are carrying these days, that you have brought into this space. It can be anything. It can be something personal, something local, something global, or some combination. And once you do so, you are invited to walk forward and to place your card face down on the table. If you are unable to come forward, perhaps you can give your card to a neighbor to bring it forward for you. And then during the next time of silent reflection after the next two shorter Mary Oliver poems, you will be invited at that time to come back to the table and to pick up someone else's card and to take it with you that you can carry your neighbor in prayer as we approach the final days of Advent. You may choose to put your name on your card if you wish, or you can keep your prayer anonymous, whichever feels right for you. And for any who may be worshiping with us via our live stream, you are invited to scan the QR code that you will see on your screen and type in your grief, loss, or worry, and it will show up on the sanctuary television here, and we will hold you up in prayer. Likewise, you may choose to put your name on your submission or to keep it anonymous. And again, I will open and close our time together with the chiming of the belly. Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too was a gift. Okay, I'm gonna switch over the right friends. In lieu of a traditional sermon for me, our sermon today is going to come, hopefully, if the audio is working, from Andrew Garfield and everyone's favorite monster, furry monster at Sesame Street Elmo, about a two-minute long video on grief.

SPEAKER_07 29:57

Oh, I'm so happy to see you, Elmo. You have no idea. I'm doing okay, you know.

SPEAKER_04 30:04

What's going on?

SPEAKER_07 30:05

Oh, I don't know. If you want to listen. You know, she she passed away not too long ago. And uh just missed that one. Oh it's okay, you know, it's sorry. It's actually kind of okay to miss somebody. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, me too. But you know that's kind of it's kind of a gift, it's kind of a lovely thing to feel in a way. Because it means you really love somebody when you miss them. When I miss someone, I remember my mom, I remember all of the the colours I used to get from her, all the bugs I used to get from her. Just like that. And um, it makes me feel close to her when I miss the in a strange way. So I'm happy to have all the memories of of my mom and the joy she brought me, and the joy she brought my my brother and my dad and everyone she remembered everyone around her when I missed her. I remember it's because she made me so happy. So I can celebrate her and I can miss her at the same time. Oh my god, I'm gonna really miss it really well. Oh you know what? Nothing would make me happy, and nothing would make her happy. You know what I'm gonna put? Oh my mommy's paper. I love you so much, oh my god. I always have, I always will. That's right, each and every day, all together.

Letting Go In Blackwater Woods

SPEAKER_03 32:27

And now a reading of Mary Oliver's, an excerpt from Mary Oliver's in Blackwater Woods. To live in this world, you must be able to do three things. To love what is mortal, to hold it against your bones, knowing your own life depends on it. And when the time comes to let it go, to let it go. So, as a reminder, during this next silent reflection, you are invited again to approach the table. And if you're able, to grab someone else's card and take it with you and hold that person in prayer throughout the next week.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Oh Lord, hear my prayer. If you choose to turn to it in your bulletin, you will note that there are multiple verses. I will note, though, that the first time we will only uh that we will only sing the first verse and not the second, as those prayers are said, and then they will respond with the song. And so Dr. Bill will prompt us when the time it is to sing. So let us sing it uh one time through now. We grieve over what might have been a death or loss or struggle tarnishes our experience of this season. We feel cut off from joy, lost from what we once felt, wondering if the light will indeed come. We find ourselves adrift, alone, lost. Lord, help us find our way. Loving God, hear our prayer, and in your merciful love, answer. Memories of what was and fears of what may be keep us from the joy of today. All around are the sounds of celebration, but joy eludes us. Be near us this night. Loving God, hear our prayer, and in your merciful love, answer. In this dark night, let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives rest in you, O God. In the quietness of this night, may your peace enfold us and those dear to us and all who have no peace. Keep us in the truth that the night is nearly over, the day is almost here. We look expectantly to a new day. New joys. Loving God, hear our prayer. And in your merciful love answer.

SPEAKER_05 40:13

Oh Lord, hear my prayer. When I call answer me. Oh Lord, hear my prayer. Oh Lord, hear my prayer.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 40:43

Tonight's offering will be split evenly between our two congregations, Guilford Park and Fellowship. So with hearts both tender and grateful, let us give to God our offerings.

SPEAKER_01 45:16

This time from chapter fifty-four, verses ten through fourteen. From the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you. And my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you. O afflicted ones, storm, tossed, and not comforted, I am about to set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all your wall of precious stones. All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the prosperity of your children. In righteousness you shall be established. You shall be far from oppression. Indeed, you shall not fear. And from terror, indeed, it shall not come near you.

Choosing Courage In A Fearful World

SPEAKER_03 46:29

Time after time, the angels break in with a greeting. So when our days are heavy and our sleep grows restless, we believe that God is here. When fear feels greater than hope, we'll look for signs of new life. We'll take a step toward God with shaking me. We'll stand together. And we won't let fear stop us. When we're desperate for Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, we'll remember we are the hands and feet of Christ, made in God's own image, called to be light bearers in a fearful world. For we know that, no matter how it may seem, God is here among us even now.

unknown 47:21

Amen.

God Is Nowhere Or Now Here

SPEAKER_01 52:01

As we look at grief and we know it is there. As I shared with the congregation this morning, there is a sign that a parent sees while walking with his child, just learning to read. The sign says God is nowhere as the father reads it. The son says, Look, Daddy, God is now here. It is true that in the midst of grief and when it seems that all is lost, God is indeed now here. So in a fearful world, may you look for God's fear. May we reach for each other's hands, and may you choose courage wherever you can. And in all things, may you remember that good news is louder than fear. In the name of the one who calls, the one who sends, and the one who journeys with. And be not afraid. Amen.