Tag: Light of the World

Lighting the Christ Candle 2025

by Steve Harsh, posted in Advent, Christmas

[The 4 Advent candles should be lit before the service]

During the Advent season, we have waited like expectant parents for God to deliver – to show up like Amazon with the promised gifts of hope, peace, joy and love. We wait in a world that has never needed those gifts more. And God hides our gifts in plain sight, in Bethlehem, right where the prophets told us they would be. And like every year, we’re surprised, still not convinced that God’s Messiah should be born in a barn.


Tonight our waiting is rewarded, as we celebrate again the gift of unconditional love, and the marvelous ways God breaks through the darkness, and leads us to the Light of the World. God showed the shepherds and the magi the way to Bethlehem. And tonight God is showing us the Way again.


[Light the Christ candle as the next paragraph is read]


We light the Christ Candle on this holy night to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. He has led us here and calls us to follow him on a marvelous journey of seeking, finding, waiting, hoping, and spreading His Holy light.

Prayer: (Please join me in the prayer on the screen)


O eternal God, forgive us when we doubt that a peasant boy of low estate could possibly heal our fearful and divided world. When our skepticism threatens to overwhelm us, wrap us in the warm swaddling cloths of hope, peace, joy and love. We have waited and prayed for your Messiah. Now it’s time for us to receive the most precious gift ever. May Christ be born in us this night. Set us aglow with the light of Christ, to warm and heal broken lives and light our darkened world. In the holy name of the one we celebrate this night, Amen.

Northwest UMC, Columbus, Ohio

Lighting of the Christ Candle 2023

by Steve Harsh, posted in Advent, Christmas

December nights are the longest and darkest of the year in our part of the world.  It is a good night to light candles.  Tonight the waiting and hoping of Advent gives way to the celebration of a miracle birth.  It happened over 2000 years ago, but we still marvel at the simplicity and mystery it has held for believers throughout the ages. 

Christmas is more than just a miracle birth story. 

It is about the birth of hope, [light one candle]

And Peace [light 2nd candle],

And Joy [light 3rd candle],

And Love  [light 4th candle].

These four candles stand in a circle that, like God’s love, has no beginning and no end.  Now on this Holy night we light the tallest and brightest candle, the Christ candle, to celebrate the wonderful birth of our Savior and Messiah.  

[Light the Christ Candle]

The Christ Candle is not like those we put on our birthday cakes.  We do not blow this candle out.  Instead from it we will light our own candles to symbolize the light of the world that glows in the hearts of all who follow Jesus.  

Some may ask why we light candles when the darkness is so deep.  Can our tiny flames really make a difference?  Hear this response from theologian Howard Thurman:

“I will light Candles this Christmas,

Candles of Joy despite all the sadness. 

Candles of hope where despair keeps watch. 

Candles of courage for fears ever present,

Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days,

Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens,

Candles of love to inspire all my living,

Candles that will burn all year long.”

Please pray with me:  O Holy One, rekindle that kind of flame in each of us, the kind that burns all year long. We light candles because we can and we must.  Christ came to teach us we are the light of the world, and to honor this Holy infant, our savior, we hold our candles high to witness to the world that the forces of darkness will not prevail.  For this very night in 2023 a Savior is born again wherever meek souls will receive him.  Come, Lord Jesus, come; we pray in your Holy name, Amen

Northwest UMC, Columbus, OH; December 24, 2023