Candles in the balcony (Isaiah 9:2-7)

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For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century.

When I was a middle-school girl in Virginia, with a Baptist mother and a Methodist father, I would pester my dad to take me to the late Christmas Eve service at his church just for the candles.