The Mystery of Life

A Sermon for the 3^rd Sunday of Advent (RCL B) 12-11-2011

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:              Isaiah 61:1-4,8-11; Canticle 15 ; 1 Thess. 5:16-24; John 1:6-8,19-28

Themes:         the Spirit of God, praying without ceasing, mystery
Title:               The Mystery of Life

Please put down whatever is in your hands, stand up and follow my lead and repeat after me:

Praise be to the Father who makes us (hands straight up, palms upward);

Praise be to the Son who saves us (hands out, like on the cross);
Praise be to the Spirit who fills us with life (hands in, pointing to the heart);
Praise be to God who calls us each by name (hands ahead, palms up and open).
Amen! Please be seated.

There once was an overly confident scientist who took a trip to New York City on a train. In his train cabin, there was also a farmer, upon whom the scientist looked down condescendingly. So, in order to pass the time, the scientist decided to play a little game with the farmer.

"I will ask you a question,” the scientist said, “and if you don’t know the answer, you have to pay me 1 dollar. You ask me a question, and if I don’t know the answer, then I’ll pay you 10 dollars! OK? You go first. Ask me any question."

The farmer thought for a while, and then said. "OK, I know. What has three legs, takes 10 hours to climb up a palm tree, and only 10 seconds to climb back down?"

The scientist was a bit confused by this. He thought long and hard about the question.

Finally, the train pulled into Penn Station. As they prepared to disembark, the scientist took out a 10 dollar bill and gave it to the farmer, and said, "Wow. You stumped me. I have no idea. What in the world has 3 legs, takes 10 hours to get up a palm tree and only 10 seconds to climb back down?"

The farmer took the 10 dollars and then gave a single dollar bill back to the scientist. And he shrugged and said, "I have no idea!"

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ: this morning, I want to encourage all of you to be wary of any hint of over-confidence, to steer clear of any temptation to feel too secure in your knowledge of life and the universe.

John the Baptizer was clothed in camel’s hair, unshaved, a wild man living in wild places. He stood before the people gathered around him and he spoke words of truth and power:

“Among you stands one whom you do not know.”

I have always loved this phrase from the mouth of John the Baptizer because of its recognition of the mystery present in the midst of our life.

Among you stands one whom you do not know. This is just as true in our own day as it was in John’s.  Among us stands those whom we do not know. Around us, and among us, are mysteries unknown, undiscerned, inscrutable. John’s words pointed to the mystery of God hidden in the life of one who appeared as an ordinary human being. Today, we are bombarded by mysteries being uncovered and discovered all around.

Just last week came another announcement from NASA concerning the discovery of a seemingly new habitable planet only 600 light years from Earth – a relatively near neighbor in terms of space travel (see http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/1205/New-earth-like-planet-discovered-by-NASA-spacecraft-Video).

Here is a planet which seems perfectly suited to support life. We do not yet know if there is life on that planet – if there are any conscious, sentient beings.

But such a discovery is inevitable. There are likely to be millions of planets out there with conditions suitable for life. Understand this: at some point, humanity WILL make contact with other life forms.  

Think about that. How does this affect your perception of God as Creator? How might this change your understanding of the meaning and purpose of human life?

Many physicists today speak not of the “universe”, but of the “multiverse”. The growing perception in this field is that our observable universe must, by definition, by only one of many universes that relate to one another in ways which we do not yet grasp. Hence, the idea is that we do not, in fact, live in the “universe” – meaning one, but in the “multiverse” – meaning many.

Other scientists speak of this growing perception as multiple dimensions of reality. Some physicists are speaking now of 11 or 12 or 13 dimensions of reality, far more than what was understood about life just a few years ago.

And what about neutrinos? Have you heard about neutrinos?

Neutrinos are produced by the nuclear fusion and decay processes of stars throughout the universe. They are a natural, normal, and abundant by-product of these nuclear reactions.

It appears that neutrinos are second only to photons in being the most common particles in the universe. Our own star, our sun, produces millions of trillions of neutrinos every second.
In fact, it is estimated that around one trillion neutrinos pass through your own body every single second of your life. They pass through other matter with unstoppable ease. They pass straight through the earth with hardly no resistance at all.
A trillion pass through your body every second, but only one or two of them will impact the cells of your body over the course of your lifetime.
Which ones? Can you feel or see these neutrinos passing through you? Do you know what they are doing inside of you?
Do any of us really know what is going on in the heavens around us every second?
One hundred years ago, people did not know about neutrinos or about the multiple dimensions of reality. They did not have satellite telescopes to observe distant planets.

But what will people know 100 years from now about which we have absolutely no clue today?

All of this new discovery and amazing knowledge leads me consistently back to one question: what does this mean for our lives? How does this knowledge of the complex and multi-faceted nature of the universe guide and shape how I live every single day?

What was it that John the Baptizer spoke? “Among you stands one whom you do not know.”

You see, at the core, I am but one small speck of dust in space. There exists around us and within us and among us mystery that we never will fully fathom or understand.

There is profound mystery in life about which we know next to nothing.

And guess what? We don’t have to know. We need only to be open, to embrace the mystery, to relish the new discoveries of science, to look forward in hope to what is yet to come.

Among us stands one whom we do not know. That one is Christ – the Incarnate Son of God who remains a mystery. How can this person be both fully human and fully divine without the one canceling out the other?

We do not claim that the Son came into this world from beyond it. That is super-naturalism and this the Church rejects.

No, Christ comes from within the world, the full flowering of consciousness, the first fruits of the end toward which all life is moving. In only 2 weeks, we will celebrate the mystery of this Incarnation – this perfect union of the divine and the human, the uncreated and the created in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

How can we understand this? No more than we can understand what happens when we follow the guidance of St. Paul and learn to “pray without ceasing.”

These things cannot be grasped with the mind, but only experienced in the soul.

Be open to the mystery, my friends! Shun the hubris that closes your mind with too much faith in your own ability to understand things. Do not be afraid to experience God standing unknown and hidden in your midst today. For Christ comes to us bringing good news that transforms all those who embrace it.  May it always be so among us. Amen.