Christmas Eve 2021 (B)

JOHN 1:1-5; 3:16-18: The Word Made Flesh

We began by saying that in the precious moments of Jesus' conception and of birth, a vast ripple in the fabric of time and space would burst open for an instant.

And God would become one of us, and be with us.

This indeed is the story of Christmas.

This is indeed the story of Salvation -

a story that Jesus’s most beloved disciple tells in other words and another way, when he writes:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.”

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

Join me in our last responsive reading for this evening

Leader: This is the Gospel of our Risen Lord.

Congregation: Praise be to you, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Leader: Having travelled to Bethlehem together and having beheld the child, born a king, let us pray using the word's of Simeon, a righteous and devote man who looked forward to the consolation of Israel and who beheld his coming:

Congregation: Lord, let your servants now depart in peace,according to your word; for our eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.