At Christmas Eve Candlelight Worship, as the lights are turned out and candles are lit, we encounter the Word of God. A few years ago I put together this reading in two parts that merges together Genesis 1 and John 1.
Reader 2: In the beginning when God began to create the heavens and the earth,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep while a spirit from God swept over the face of the waters.
He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.
Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.
What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
And God saw that the light was good.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’
So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. And God blessed them.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth
God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.
From the fullness of the Word made flesh we have all received grace upon grace.
Note: This reading is based on the NRSV translation of the text. Adapt as needed for other translations.
