ADVENT 2025
WEEK 5 – Christ
Reader 1: Tonight, we light the Christ candle (light the candle). Through the Advent season we have waited…lighting candles of hope, peace, joy, and love…each one pointing to this night. Now the center candle is lit, because our waiting has a name and a face: “The Word became flesh”. God did not send an idea, a philosophy, or a creed. He came Himself, in Jesus Christ, to dwell among us. John 1:14 says:
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Reader 2: John tells us that when Christ came, God “dwelt” with His people. The God who once met His people in a tent now meets us in a person. And because Christ has come near to us, we are drawn near to one another. Our unity as the church does not begin with shared habits, backgrounds, or opinions…it begins with shared life in Christ.
Reader 1: The glory we see in Jesus is described as “full of grace and truth.” Grace welcomes us; truth binds us together. Grace without truth would leave us scattered. Truth without grace would leave us divided. But in Christ, grace and truth meet…and so do we.
Reader 2: The Christ candle reminds us that the unity of the church is not something we manufacture. It is something we receive. We are one body because we share one Lord. And as Christ lives among us by His Spirit, He calls us to live with one another in patience, humility, forgiveness, and love.
ALL: As the light shines from this central candle, may it remind us that Christ is our center. In Him, God is with us. In Him, we belong to one another. And in Him, the world sees the glory of God made visible. Amen.
HYMN #152 “Angels We Heard on High”
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