The Mystery in a Nutshell

FIRST READING—Colossians 1: 26-29 and 2: 2, 3
This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it's out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory. It's that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That's what I'm working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.
I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God's great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we've been shown the mystery!

SECOND READING—Luke 1: 46-55
Mary said:
“My soul proclaims your greatness, O God,
And my spirit rejoices in you, my Savior.
For you have looked with favor
Upon your lowly servant,
And from this day forward
All generations will call me blessed.
For you, the Almighty, have done great things for me,
And holy is your Name.
Your mercy reaches from age to age
For those who fear you.
You have shown strength with your arm;
You have scattered the proud in their conceit;
You have deposed the mighty from their thrones
And raised the lowly to high places.
You have filled the hungry with good things,
While you have sent the rich away empty.
You have come to the aid of Israel your servant,
Mindful of your mercy—
The promise you made to our ancestors—
To Sarah and Abraham
And their descendants forever.”
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God, you call us to a very special place—a place where you walk with us and make known your love for us. God, teach us what you would have us know and give us the courage to embrace all that is mystery. May the words of my mouth and the reflections of all our hearts honor you. Amen

When I was a kid, I liked to sit and crack open the walnuts to get to the meat of the nut that I would then eat or put them in a jar for my mother to use in her baking. You, see, the walnuts grew in our front yard. It was a fun game of sorts. I guess I was easily entertained as a child. It will not surprise most of you, that I tried with walnut after walnut to crack the shell and leave the nut untouched, completely in one piece—a wonderful prize for my careful work. Perfectionism starts early and runs deep. If my sister was also doing this, we had grand contests as to who could crack the most whole, half, and quarters. As I think of it now, I must admit that my mother had quite a scheme going to get those walnuts shelled at Christmas time. Of course, today, I wouldn’t think of spending time cracking walnuts and looking for perfection. Instead, I buy them by the pound, shelled, and I must admit, that although I still love their taste, something of the wonder has been lost in the process.
And so today, we come to hear and understand the mystery that we call Christmas. I believe that the words of Paul to the young Christian Colossians, is one of the most powerful descriptions of the divine mystery written. Paul says: “This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it's out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory. It's that simple” —lovely indeed, but challenging as well. From the very beginning God’s Word calls us to consider the relationship between revelation and transformation. The linchpin of the mystery itself, the proof of the mystery is in the transformation of the ones to whom it is revealed.
Now, while the mystery itself is simple, it remains hidden from a good many folks, perhaps because the actual Christmas story does not line up with their preconceived and deeply treasured vision of God or perhaps because of their inability to see the correlation between revelation and transformation. If one sees God as a Judge, handing out sentences for our spiritual crimes, or if one sees God as the magical genie who is waiting to pour out worldly prosperity upon a demanding world, or if one sees God as a God who takes sides in battles, both physical and liturgical, one will miss the simplicity of the message. If one believes that some are worthy to receive the message, and some are not, one will most certainly miss the message. And it is clear that if one sees God as an aloof divine being who merely controls the creation as puppets or metes out rewards and punishments and expects nothing in return, one will have missed the mystery as well.
To understand the mystery of Christmas, we must be able to sacrifice the expectations of a needy world. Though long expected to come in glory and majesty, God, the creator of the world, came not in glorious triumph; but rather through the moans of childbirth as a tiny baby crying for his mother. And this mother is but a young girl, a young girl who first hears the mystery in the words of the angel and then responds with her complete willingness to be transformed. As seekers together we marvel at Mary’s ability to believe and be transformed. We know that this transformation will be expensive for Mary—some will fail to understand and she will be condemned. Presented with a dangerous and costly mystery, Mary chooses to follow God—“I am the servant of God. Let these things happen exactly as you have said.”
Are we willing to be transformed and blessed as the mystery unfolds? Will we surrender to the divine mystery? Do we even know how? We hear Mary’s longer response in the beautiful song she sings at the home of her cousin, Elizabeth—a song that reveals her complete surrender to God and her willingness to be changed by the unfolding mystery. Mary said: “My soul proclaims your greatness, O God, and my spirit rejoices in you, my Savior.” Mary knows that she cannot understand what God is doing by human reasoning. Her sacred agreement comes from her soul—the spiritual places deep inside her, Mary, the young girl, knows instinctively that the mystery can only be known by the Spirit of God who resides in her. Acknowledging the divine blessing she has received, she says, “For you have looked with favor upon your lowly servant; and from this day forward, all generations will call me blessed.”
Now, quite obviously, we are not all called to be the Mother of God. We are, however, all are called to be vessels who are willing to be changed through a blessed transformation—a conversion of heart that God will use to reveal the mystery to others. And we become the transformed agent of God bringing the message of revolution and change. Seeking worldly understanding, we will all necessarily fail. Patiently awaiting divine revelation, our spirits ready themselves for the visit of the Christ-child again. Paul, knowing that we would struggle, assures us that we have already received the mystery because God has made it so. It is up to each one of us to recognize the mystery and be transformed or to travel on looking for something else. Paul gives us a beautiful description of the outcome of transformation. He says, “I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God's great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we've been shown the mystery!”
One can see that what appears simple to Paul does not always seem so simple to the church universal. Two thousand years later, we are still fighting among ourselves over the content and context of this mystery. Not only what it means to have Christ in you, but also, who is allowed access to the mystery and, more importantly, who isn’t. We’ve come a long way from simple—and somewhere in the mire of creeds and doctrines, rules and policies, we may have substituted complexity for simplicity and lost quite a few folks along the way. Perhaps you are one of the folks we lost along the way. If so, I invite you as I invite all of us, to return to the simple message of Advent—that the Christ-child is coming and we have all been called to welcome him into our hearts and spirits. And rebirth occurs. The ones to whom the mystery is revealed become the ones transformed.
Paul seemed to know, well ahead of the Councils or Conventions or Conferences that we would not do so well with simple. Hear what he said, “We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less.”
There are those of you sitting here today who are celebrating this Christmas season in a community of faith for the first time in years. And you, like all of us, bring wounded hearts and spirits to this time and place. Perhaps you are afraid to let go of the past; perhaps you are still not sure that this mystery and spirit-talk is for you. Today, I ask you, with love in my heart for each and everyone, won’t you open your hearts to the possibility of a mystery so simple, that all can receive.
Some of us may have lost our way while looking for a complex theology or philosophy that answers all our questions. Some of us are seeking a new experience of God. Wherever we are on this day, I invite all of us, to return to spiritual maturity which is basic—that the Christ-child is coming and we have all been called to welcome him into our hearts and spirits—that we are all called to look in the face of a tiny baby and know that God, the Creator of the world is coming to redeem the world again, and again, and again, until the end of time. Hallelujah! Amen and amen.