During the Sundays of Advent every week we light a new candle. The candles represent four themes: Hope, peace, joy, and love. On Christmas Eve we light the white center candle which represents Christ, the culmination of all our longings and expectations.
As we welcome the arrival of a new year, may we carry the themes of Advent with us as we greet 2025.
Hope – In 2025 may you always embrace hope. Hope for a better tomorrow. A tomorrow where there is justice, mercy, food, shelter, and freedom from fear for all.
Peace – That 2025 would bring an end to the conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Israel and throughout the world. May we learn to live together without conflict, seeking to solve our differences large or small with dialogue, compromise that will result in reconciliation, not conflict.
Joy – May there be joy in our homes, our towns, our country, and our world in 2025. May human rights be embraced so all can aspire to and attain education, health care, shelter, and sufficient food so no one goes to bed hungry, longing for a day when their stomach is full, their bookshelves overflowing and robustly healthy to face the challenges of our world.
Love – It is said that the world needs love. As the New Year dawns, it does, desperately. Let us embrace Christ’s command that we love our neighbor as ourselves. That means we must first learn to love ourselves; to accept who we are as God’s beloved sons and daughters; we are then empowered to love others. Our neighbor is not just the person who lives next to us, they are everyone we encounter as we travel the roads of life. May we be emboldened to live our lives as a testament to love.
Finally, may Christ shine in your lives throughout 2025. May His presence guide and bless us all. May His light shine before us so that we can find our way through the darkness leading everyone we encounter into His marvelous light.
May we be filled with Hope, Peace, Joy, Love and Christ in 2025, and in all the years beyond. Happy New Year!
In Christ, Pastor Sharon