Age of mystery

As we enter the season when we remember the birth of the Christ Child, I feel called to live into the mystery of the Incarnation. Though I am a scientist, this is no contradiction. The reality science elucidates appears increasingly mysterious.

How did light begin?

A century ago, science gave us greater certainty. Einstein revised our understanding of gravity and moved physics forward. Biologists Crick and Watson described the DNA that was thought to be the basis of life. The structure and architecture of our brain were coming into focus. It was even suggested that all the big problems of science had been addressed.

Today, science stares into mysteries, and while we know much more than Einstein or Crick and Watson, our clarity and certainty have evaporated. While quantum theory successfully describes in its mathematical way what we understand reality to be, even the people who are advancing this theory talk about it as being spooky. Further scientific advances may increase our understanding, but it seems likely that the world they describe will appear more and more strange.

In physics, dark matter and dark energy compose most of our universe but defy explanation and are known only by their effects. Light is both a particle and a wave, depending on how it is measured. Life has a billion-year history, but we have no idea how it all started. We are conscious beings but don’t know what this means – our consciousness may be an emergent property of the brain’s neural connections, but this explanation only leads to more questions. Science is in a place of multiple mysteries, yet this is a good thing, leading to an appreciation of the divine.

Undefinable faith

For much of its history, the church has recognized and struggled with its own mysteries. We can describe the Incarnation as Mary, before she knew a man, being overshadowed by the Spirit and conceiving a child, Jesus Christ, the son of God. But we do not understand this in any real way; it is a mystery.

Our creeds and confessions defined our faith and beliefs hundreds of years ago. Yet today the definition of a single word can divide a denomination. The multiple divisions in the worldwide church suggest that our attempts to define the mysteries of our faith, especially our attempts to define what happens at the Lord’s table, are increasingly unsuccessful. We need to acknowledge the power and richness of mystery in our service to our Lord.

In this season, we celebrate the coming of the God-Man into our world. We believe and trust that this cosmic intervention is God’s chosen way of uniting us to the Godhead. What exactly happened to Mary and the nature of the Child in the manger are beyond our comprehension. But we know the Child’s birth brings peace and justice into this sad, broken world. In his arrival, we are called to join with and serve our Lord, who rose victorious at the end of his time on earth.