CANDLELIGHT SERVICE
DECEMBER, 24, 1973
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f Our faith rests on two simple but incredible assertions:\ First, that there is a God;

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that in ‘order_to_be God hemst be eternal, omnipotent, all wise, all powerful, all just.
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The Second_assertion is that this God, about whom we must talk in superlatives, has

lived among us in the very_human life of a man, Jesus of Nazareth, whom we know as Lord

and Savior.
The event of God's intrusion into history becomes the event most worth celebrating.
For faith, it is the turning point, after which nothing is evetr the same. \ For faith, it
becomes the event that confirms our hopes, that stills our fears.\ It becomes, for faith,
the promise that love and compassion and healing are the really indestructable realities.
it becomes, for faith, a ray of light shining in the darkness. | Aid so we light candles.....
(ca far better thing to do than curse the dark"/someone once observed. | And it is.
"Candles of joy, despite all sadness
Candles of hope when despatr keeps watch.
Candles of kape courage for fears ever present
Candles of peace - grace - love
Candies that will burn all the year long."
Because God came among us as light shining in the darkness, light which darkness
cannot overcome.
The way he chose to_work this most miraculous of all miracles itself tells us much
about God's way with us.\ He chose the birth of a child, the one experience universally

common to all nen; | the awesome, yet simple miracle of new life being born\, From the

beginning, that is, it was the intent of Almighty God to balance his Almightiness with his

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humanity. \ And so a child was born, in a stable because there was no room in the inn.\ And
——

shepherds, rough, rude, were the first - and apparently the only ones - to know it was
happening.

It is a beautiful story.\ But what makes it more than beautiful | what makes it the

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story - is the fact that the light kindled in human history that night has never_gone out.

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What makes it a saving story is the fact that the light kindled in human hearts nearly

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2,000 years ago burns brightly in the hopes and faith and courage and love of people today.

—

There is more to lighting a candle than mere renenbering.\ Rather, what we do this

CANDLELIGHT SERVICE R28 (2)

DECEMBER 24, 1973 ;

evening, is an expression of ur deepest and dearest convictions about God and life and the ..
world and the future. \ For, each of us, as we reflect on its has experienced some form of

darkness.\ Sickness, grief, lonliness, remteimens. | It's not a rare affliction to stand

‘alone in the darkness.

But a candle - the light from a candle - means that ~ there is no need to fear the

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dark tt means that there is always light regardless of our circumstances | Because Almighty

God, in all his eternity and power, has come among us ~ in birth - in the life of a family -:

because he shared the human experience totally, even wxkx urito death, |we live not alone,

not ever, but with him alwas coming into our lives.

So we light small candtes.| It is time, as the shepherds did, to see this thing which God

has done.\ It is time, as the Magi did, to kneel, humbly bathed in the light of God's love.

For in the dark of a night stable, somewhere behind a drowded inn, the true Tight

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came into the worid.

Jesus Christ was born.

The sanctuary is full of light from our candles - just as the world ts full of the
light of God's love. The candles will be extinguished momentarily and discarded until
next year. But the light they symbolize cannot be scart it continues to burn
brightly.

For Jesus Christ is Born. "In him was life and the life was the light of men. The

light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcame it.” AMEN

Father, you have come among us in a birth which we have celdbrated together this evening.

You have come among us as light in the darkness. May the 1ighting of these small candles be,

for us, the beginning of a new day of light,a day of hope and. peace and love; through

Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN |

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