Sunday’s sermon was easy. I had help from four experts (surgeon, software developer, baker, and chemist) who shared about what in their field fills them with a sense of wonder. Why wonder? Because before, at, and after the birth of Jesus the Gospel of Luke reports that people were amazed, they marveled. Mary was troubled, she wondered, she treasured things up and pondered them in her heart. A sense of wonder pervades the birth of Jesus, so we celebrate Christmas with a sense of wonder.
We started with a broad sense of wonder at the world God has made. The maxillofacial surgeon shared how she is able to take a piece of a person’s thigh and create a new tongue out of it, or craft a new jawbone from a piece of lower leg bone. After connecting some blood vessels under the microscope, a cancer patient has an imperfect, but working mouth. I think everyone would agree this is incredible, though perhaps also kind of revolting.
Our software developer sent me a list of 6 points and 19 subpoints of things in the world of IT that fascinate him. He condensed that down to two things when he shared with the church: the programming language that humans understand exists in binary units (bits) on the computer. Everything that a computer can do goes back to ones and zeroes. And artificial intelligence, which everyone is talking about now. He is especially amazed how much a computer can learn if fed a lot of data.
The baker said that he had lost his sense of wonder about baking, but when one of his sons asked if he could bake cornbread here like they used to have in the US, he was thrown right back into this thing he loves. He started comparing the grit of European vs American cornmeal and hunting for ingredients.
One of several chemists in the church said that they see the world as if it is a box of Legos. The blocks are all the same, but the number of things you can make with them is infinite. Diamond rings, the air we breathe, the gas formed in a supernova, the leaves on a tree, the oil we use to make our fries – all are basically the same thing, carbon. Without the insulating quality of carbon dioxide, a molecule with a single carbon atom, the earth would be -20 degrees Celsius. Two carbon atoms can make alcohol. Three (plus some hydrogen) makes propane. Five for wood. Six for glucose. Lots of glucose makes starch, which is what our baker uses for a loaf of bread. Eighteen carbos atoms make up animal fat, like butter. I may be weird, but I often think about the atoms and molecules that make up all matter.
Instead of taking it for granted, I am filled with a sense of wonder at what exists. What is an atom even? School should never be boring. There is wonder everywhere.
One effect of wonder is to make us feel small. When I asked my backpacking buddy why he loves the mountains so much, he said, “I like to feel small.” The other side of us being small is God being big. Mary the mother of Jesus said, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” She made God big. Why? Because “he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.” The big God remembered little Mary. This is, in fact, a good feeling. We recognize that we are very small, that our lives are short, but that God is very large, and never-ending.
I mentioned the spectrum of reactions to the birth of Jesus, all of them containing a sense of wonder and amazement. Why? What was God doing?
Obviously something spiritual was happening. Angels delivered messages, the Spirit came upon people. But also something physical was happening. A woman was having a baby. The creator became a carbon-based life form like the rest of us. The Gospel of John sums this up by saying, “The Word became flesh.” Likewise, something eternal was at work, but also something historical. Luke tells us that all this took place when Herod was king of Judea. Further, the highest one was becoming low. Philippians 2 says that Jesus, though he was equal with God, emptied himself, humbled himself, became human, became a slave, and died on a cross.
This is Christmas. The spiritual enters the physical, the eternal enters time, the highest becomes the lowest. An analogy is to think about the writer and director of a movie who also takes a role within the film. They do not cease to exist outside the film, but they do also exist within the film.
And why did God choose to enter the world he created? Mary says that God was simply keeping his promises. “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors” (Luke 1:54-55). Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, says, “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20).
I asked my church to do something this season that would awaken their sense of wonder at the world. Go for a walk. Go to a museum. Read a good book. Watch an interesting movie. Or just sit and think.
Of course the core thing to think about is the birth of Jesus. But thinking about the world and thinking about Jesus go together. According to Colossians, “In him all things were created,” and “In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 1:16, 2:3). So scientists, historians, all who study the world should have a sense of wonder not only at what exists, but at the one through whom it exists – Christ, who became human. In the words of Psalm 111:2, “Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them.” The Lord’s great works are clear in the world and in the incarnation.