The readings for this Christmas day are:
Tag: Advent
December 24th 2025
The readings for today are:
Isaiah 9:2-7, Psalm 96, Titus 2:11-14, Luke 2:1-20
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.
Why not join us to explore why you are a gift to the world, details of our Advent servicea can be found here.
On Christmas Day our service will be at 10:30am at United Church Cade Road, all are welcome!
December 23rd 2025
The readings for today are:
Luke 1:46b-55; 2 Samuel 7:18, 23-29; Galatians 3:6-14;
Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and said, ‘Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?
Why not join us to explore why you are a gift to the world, details of our Advent servicea can be found here.
On Christmas Day our service will be at 10:30am at United Church Cade Road, all are welcome!
December 22nd 2025
The readings for today are:
Luke 1:46b-55; Isaiah 33:17-22; Revelation 22:6-7, 18-20;
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
48 for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Why not join us to explore why you are a gift to the world, details of our Advent servicea can be found here.
On Christmas Day our service will be at 10:30am at United Church Cade Road, all are welcome!
December 21st 2025
The readings for today are:
Isaiah 7:10-16, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.
Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
Why not join us to explore why you are a gift to the world, details of our Advent servicea can be found here.
Today’s services are at 10:30am at both United Church Cade Road and also at Kennington United Church and at 3pm at United Church Cade Road.
December 20th 2025
The readings for today are:
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; 2 Samuel 7:23-29; John 3:31-36;
The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. 33 Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified[a] this, that God is true.
Why not join us to explore why you are a gift to the world, details of our Advent servicea can be found here.
On Sunday services are at 10:30am at both United Church Cade Road and also at Kennington United Church and at 3pm at United Church Cade Road.
December 19th 2025
The readings for today are:
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; 2 Samuel 7:18-22; Galatians 4:1-7;
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. 6 And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our[b] hearts, crying, ‘Abba![c] Father!’ 7 So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
Why not join us to explore why you are a gift to the world, details of our Advent servicea can be found here.
On Sunday services are at 10:30am at both United Church Cade Road and also at Kennington United Church and at 3pm at United Church Cade Road.
December 18th 2025
The readings for today are:
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; 2 Samuel 7:1-17; Galatians 3:23-29;
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock!
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.
Stir up your might,
and come to save us!
Why not join us to explore why you are a gift to the world, details of our Advent services can be found here.
December 17th 2025
The readings for today are:
Psalm 42; Zechariah 8:1-17; Matthew 8:14-17, 28-34;
These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgements that are true and make for peace, 17 do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the Lord.
Why not join us to explore why you are a gift to the world, details of our Advent servicea can be found here.
Emmanuel: The Incarnation is Scandalously Good News
By Revd Adrian Roux
What if everything we think we know about God’s presence is gloriously upside down?
This Sunday’s texts, of Isaiah’s promise to a terrified king and Matthew’s account of Jesus’ irregular birth, reveal something radical about how God works in the world. God doesn’t arrive with power and spectacle. God shows up in vulnerability, in scandal, in places ‘respectable’ religion might rather avoid.
Emmanuel means “God with us,” but notice where God chooses to be present: with a teenage girl facing social ruin, in a pregnancy that breaks all the rules, through a man who chooses mercy over law. This is God’s scandalous solidarity with the vulnerable, and it changes everything.
Think of Joseph, declared “righteous” yet about to break the law to protect Mary’s dignity. His story echoes through history, from Beyers Naudé standing against apartheid to sanctuary churches welcoming asylum seekers today. Real righteousness sometimes requires holy disobedience, choosing people over protocols, mercy over maintaining appearances.
Consider Isaiah’s promise to Ahaz during national crisis. God doesn’t remove the chaos; God promises presence within it. That’s our invitation too – to trust Emmanuel not as a magical rescue but as the sustaining power for prophetic witness. From climate activists to food bank volunteers, people are discovering God’s presence precisely in the struggle for justice, and the working for peace.
Here’s the scandalous heart of it: if God is truly Emmanuel, truly with us, then God is with refugees in detention centres, with people the benefit system has failed, with everyone polite society dismisses. God’s preferential option for the margins isn’t about loving some people more. It is about how the gospel looks different depending on where you stand.
This is Wesley’s social holiness made real. We can’t claim God’s presence in our prayers while ignoring God’s presence in our suffering neighbours. Emmanuel is both promise and demand: the promise that we’re not alone, and the demand that we live as if love is stronger than fear.
The incarnation tells us God doesn’t wait for us to get respectable before showing up. God comes precisely to the irregular, the messy, the places we’ve been trained not to look. And when we encounter God there, it transforms everything. The joy of discovering that God’s scandalous, persistent, transformative presence makes anything possible.
That’s not just good theology. That’s spectacularly good news.