The particular Collect for Christmas which we used on Christmas Eve . . .  observes that the Lord God Almighty has caused that holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light; . . . and so, we ask God to grant that “we, who have known the mystery of that Light on earth” . . . might also enjoy Him in heaven.  . . . The Collect for Christmas refers to the birth of Jesus, which we call the Incarnation of God’s Son by virtue of the angelic Annunciation to Mary and the angelic visitation to shepherds on the night of His birth; . . . the Collect for Christmas refers to the birth of Jesus as a mystery.  . . . And it occurs to me to ask if you understand what the Church means when She uses that word, . . . mystery.

    You see, in its ordinary usage the word “mystery” describes an outcome for which there is no readily apparent explanation as to what may have caused it.  The fun of “mystery” stories is in discovering, by logic and reason, what the circumstances and events were that led up to a particular outcome.  In other words, we “solve” a “mystery” by making the outcome understandable.  But when the Church speaks of a mystery . . . She has in mind a sacred mystery, which is quite a different breed of cat from an ordinary mystery.  . . . Because, while an ordinary mystery describes an outcome with no apparent explanation, a sacred mystery describes circumstances and events for which there is no apparent outcome!  So, while an ordinary mystery might be solved; . . . a sacred mystery is not.  A sacred mystery is not something to be comprehended, . . . it is something to be apprehended.

    And this is certainly the case with the festival of December 25th . . . and the twelve days which follow, . . . because the outcome of that marvelous and quaint birth about which we read in Saint Luke’s Gospel; . . . the outcome of that marvelous and quaint birth certainly had no observable result.  The shepherds returned to their flocks, Mary pondered all these things in her heart; the infant was circumcised eight days later and given the name “Jesus,” . . . and that pretty much ended the matter.  Certainly Alexander the Great and Ghengis Khan, for example, had far more spectacular lives for which there is far more contemporary evidence of their greatness than there is for this obscure Jewish boy named Jesus who grew up in Nazareth and eventually so enraged the religious authorities at Jerusalem that they contrived for the Roman governor to order him crucified.  And so, Saint John rightly observes:

He was in the world, . . . yet the world knew him not.  He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.

And yet, here we are, two thousand years later, . . . gathered not in the name of Alexander or of Khan, . . . but we are gathered in the name of Jesus, Whom we honor as our Saviour and Lord.  This is the mystery of the Incarnation at work:  each of your forbears . . . and each of you have apprehended far more in the birth of Jesus than is discernible from the mere facts.

    And understanding that this is what the Church means when She speaks about sacred mysteries, . . . suggests different expectations from the Church’s preaching and teaching.  I cannot explain a mystery to you; . . . God must do that.  But there are certain tools which are useful to God in helping us with the task of apprehending His sacred mysteries, . . . and the Church has a lot to say about spiritual tools.  For instance, Saint John identifies a number of important spiritual tools in the course of his own exposition on the sacred mystery of the Incarnation.

    First, John tells us that,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

Now, when John talks about the “Word”, he is saying, in Greek, “Logos.”  And the word “Logos” does not signify speech in the sense of conveying information, but rather, expresses the notion of articulating something definitive.  That is to say, the “Word” is different from “words”.  We tend to fill silence with words, and, in fact, become quite uncomfortable if we haven’t any words to fill our minutes.  But, you see, God is wholeness and completeness.  He does not need information, nor does He need to be entertained or amused.  And so, in the Beginning God uttered only one Word -- one Logos -- one expression of Himself which makes all other expression unnecessary, because that one Word brought all things into being and defined them.  The Lord God Almighty is present to us in His Word which articulates all of His reason, will, and love, . . . but is otherwise silent.  All of which means that God communicates Himself to us by His silent Presence.  The Psalms talk about this.  For instance, we read God’s admonition in Psalm 46 to “Be still, then, and know that I am God,” and in Psalm 62 we are counseled that “For God alone my soul in silence waits.”  . . . Silence is the first of the tools needful for appropriating the sacred mysteries.

    Silence is a needful tool, and yet, when I am on holiday and sit in the Nave of other churches prior to the Liturgy . . . there is an astonishing amount of chatter going on.  Now, I don’t need everything around me to be quiet in order to be silent, . . . but I wonder when the people about me make their own use of the tool of silence.  Because, you see, if God communicates Himself in silence, . . . then we miss an awful lot if silence is not part of our worship of God; . . . if silence is not part of our preparation for worship; . . . if silence is not part of a portion of each day when we may “be still” and know God.  So, I encourage you to save your talk for the Parish House, and when you come into church let silence prevail in your pew; … and when you go from here . . . I encourage you to make silence a part of your day . . . throughout this new year.

    The second sacred tool of which Saint John speaks derives its usefulness from understanding that the result of God’s utterance of His one Logos -- His one Word -- is that

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

In other words, . . . the life that is in you didn’t come from your father or from your mother or from little chemical threads.  The life that is in you comes from God.  God’s creative Word made the dead darkness come alive with life and made it glow with living fire:  drove away the darkness with the light of you!  But more than that, . . . just as a Mother sings to and comforts a child with Her presence by which that child will know love and be in communion with the source of its life, . . . so God enfleshed the Word with our humanity . . . and He came to us . . . to sing to us and to comfort us with the Presence of His divine Life.  . . . But we hated Him for it!  … But for those of us who did not make ourselves His enemies,

to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.

Jesus is the second tool by which a holy life may apprehend the sacred mysteries.  For, all who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus have His precious life as the well from which they might drink and never thirst; … by which they might be conformed to Jesus in their thinking and in their speaking and in their praying and in their doing.  For, Jesus is Who each of us truly is.  Jesus is the very Life that is in us; . . . without Whom there is no life.

    Finally, about this life which we have in us . . . John says:

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

I may be a bit backward, . . . but I am still afraid of the dark.  Oh, I’ve got it under control, . . . but when I go into dark places . . . I still get very edgy.  And, you know, it’s a funny thing, . . . but when you’re worried about the dark -- about the things you cannot see but which might be there; . . . when you’re worried about the dark . . . your attention becomes focused upon darkness:  the dark and horrible and black things of existence seize our attention, and they become the focus of our lives.  The avoidance of evil becomes the work of our living!  . . . But, you see, Holy Scripture counsels exactly the opposite:  “Be not afraid . . . for to you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  . . . “do not fear to take Mary your wife, . . . she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”  . . . “Why do you seek the living among the dead? . . . Be not afraid . . . [Christ] is risen!”  . . . And this is the third tool for apprehending the sacred mysteries of God:  focus . . . to fix your attention upon the certain light . . . and not to gaze at the dark.  For, you are children of the Light; you are the sons and daughters of God.  You bear the divine life which is the light of the Word, . . . and the light shines in the darkness . . . and the darkness has not overcome it.

    These three things, then -- silence, Jesus, and focus on the sacred -- are useful things to keep in your spiritual tool pouch if you wish to see more of the sacred mysteries than simply what lies on the surface.  What the outcome of your faithful use of these things will be, I cannot say, . . . but if the Gospel Lesson appointed for today is any hint, . . . it will be glorious!