Tag: Christ Candle

Lighting of the Christ Candle

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christmas, prayer

We know the Christmas story so well it doesn’t shock us like it should. God in human form born in a barn! What kind of delivery room is that for a Holy Child?  But that is what happens when we think outside the box like that humble innkeeper in Bethlehem.  He made room when there was no room, and his stable became a home for the Holy. 

All during the four weeks of Advent this year we have been exploring what it means to create a home for the Holy in 2024. We have lit a candle on our Advent Wreath for each of the core values needed to house the Holy: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. Those are the necessary human qualities for God to set up camp in our hearts.

Tonight we are adding the final piece of our home for the Holy. As the letter to the Ephesians tells us: “with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone; in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”

Christ is the cornerstone who holds any home for the Holy together and preserves it against all threats the forces of evil can muster. The Christ child is born in a stable, not in a mansion or a palace, because God favors the poor and humble over the high and mighty. And the message from Bethlehem is that we can all become a home for the Holy if we make room in our hearts for the strangers and the outsiders in our midst.

And so tonight on this Holy Night we light the Christ Candle to celebrate the coming again of the Light of the World.

Please pray with me:

O God, with grateful hearts we once more give thanks for the gift of a helpless baby who comes to save us from ourselves and from the temptations of the world. He is our cornerstone, the solid foundation upon which we stand when everything else fails us. He will live in our hearts when all the Christmas lights are turned off.  His light will never be out of season. It never burns out or goes dark. Calm our fears on this silent night. Make us brave enough to let Christ into our hearts, that we may all be one small part of his Holy home tonight and forever. Amen

Northwest UMC, Columbus, OH, Christmas Eve 2024

Lighting the Christ candle

by Steve Harsh, posted in Uncategorized

The prophet Isaiah knew all about a weary world.  He said,

“Even youths will faint and be weary,
    and the young will fall exhausted;

but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
    they shall walk and not faint.”

Tonight we celebrate the end of our Advent waiting. 

Tonight we join Christians all over this weary world rejoicing and giving thanks for a God who loves us enough to become one of us.  That God shares our sorrows and removes our fears with a thrill of hope that sets us free to rejoice.  

Tonight we come as people who have walked in darkness, but we have seen the great light.  We have lived in a land of deep darkness—and on us the light has shined.

[Light the Christ Candle]

And so we light the Christ candle as a sign to all who are weary that God invites us to a stable where we, like the infant Jesus, can be wrapped in the arms of our loving God and sleep in heavenly peace.  

Lighting the Christ Candle

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Values, Faith Development, prayer

In the darkest of days we gather once more on this special night to celebrate the holiest of births. We come searching for God in a world that has lost its way. But lest we despair at the state of our world the familiar Christmas stories remind us that things were not all calm and bright that night in Bethlehem.

Jesus was born in a barn because Roman oppression forced his parents to make that painful journey. But there into that terrible situation came an incredible gift, not delivered by FedEx, but by a frightened peasant girl, wrapped in swaddling clothes, announced by a heavenly host, and sent by almighty God who still loves our troubled world.

Tonight that gift comes again silently and calmly to those who have ears to hear the angels and eyes to see the star. It comes to those who take time to pause from the hectic activities of the season, [pause] to be still and at rest in the presence of a baby who sleeps in heavenly peace.

During the Advent season we have lit candles of hope, peace, joy and love. Tonight our waiting is over; our expectations are filled to overflowing as we again dare to light the Christ Candle, the light of the world.

Unison Prayer
O God of Grace and Glory, tonight our hearts are calm and bright, not because of our cares and concerns, but in spite of the things that keep us awake at night. As your Holy Spirit came upon Mary so long ago please send it again to us this very night. Conceive in us a new birth of joy and hope. Fill us to overflowing with your peace and love. Light in us again the eternal flame of your holy presence that we will go forth bravely into the darkness to do the work of Christmas, to feed the hungry, to comfort the sick, to share with all our neighbors the light of the world that no darkness will ever overcome. Amen