We are putting together four mini monologues for Xmas Eve this year. This is my first draft of the first piece. If you happen to come to Westside and are planning to be here on the 24th – you might not want to read any farther, lest it be far less compelling when you hear it live. Then again you can always try to spot the edits… oh what fun.

Part One
First Draft

Welcome, and congratulations. I am delighted you could make it. I know getting here wasn’t easy. You probably had errands to run, last minute presents to buy, sleeping arrangements for family members to determine, children to gather, calm, dress and transport- all of the decisions and the stresses of which a Christmas Eve is built. The indescribably infinite number of variable choices that have led to you- here- in this room- right now. In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than we sometimes give our circumstances credit for.

For instance, behind the choice of which Christmas sweater to wear this evening – for you to be here now, in the words of Bill Bryson, trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and intriguingly obliging manner to create you. It is an arrangement so specialized and particular that it has never before been attempted and will only exist just this once.

Now imagine if you can- using very delicate tweasers to separate out one of those atom, less than a trillionth of yourself. Now take that single atom and miniaturize it to a trillionth of its initial size and into that space- so vanishingly small it could be said to occupy no space at all- pack everything that is- every last atom and molecule and particle that makes up you and me and Calgary and Calcutta and the rocky mountains and the burning heart of the north star – every last particle between here and the edge of creation- pack that all into a space no larger than a trillion trillionth of you- and you are ready to start the process that has led to you- sitting here tonight- 2007- Calgary Ab- Christmas Eve.

Scientists believe that if we could look back 10 to the negative 43 seconds after the moment of creation- that is one million, trillion, trillion, trillionths of a second after the bang that resulted in you and I- that we would see the birth of a universe. Again I’ll turn to Bill Bryson to describe the moment of creation from his book A Short History of Nearly Everything. In a blinding pulse, a moment of glory much too swift and expansive for any form of words, the singularity assumes heavenly dimensions, space beyond conception. In the first lively second is produced gravity and the other forces that govern physics. In less than a minute the universe is a million billion miles across and growing fast. There is a lot of heat now, ten billion degrees of it, enough to begin the nuclear reactions that create the lighter elements- principally hydrogen and helium, with a dash (about one atom in a hundred million) of lithium. In three minutes, 98 percent of all the matter there is or ever will be has been produced. We have a universe. It is a place of the most wondrous and gratifying possibility, and beautiful too. And it was all done in about the time it takes to make a sandwich.

Bryson writes with an endearingly unapologetic passion and- almost reverence for the science of where we started. And though our enthusiasm has sometimes out stretched our grasp it is incredible to discover the secrets of our story the human mind has unlocked; to be able to look beyond our visual capacity- into space and see the beauty of a universe beyond our comprehension.

And yet- with every discovery- with every advance- with every secret that falls to the unending advance of human curiosity and knowledge- the farther we look out into space- it almost seems as if there is no room left for mystery in the universe.

If you and I are simply- trillions of drifting atoms- the composition of nothing more than random chance- the inconsequential outcome of a series of events with neither purpose, nor direction, not intent – than of what value is the beauty of all that is?

All that is- every particle of creation was condensed into a space so infinitesimally small as to occupy no space at all- The beauty of it is sometimes overwhelming.

It reminds of the Christmas narrative. The reason we have brought- each of us- our trillions of atoms into this room tonight.

The writer of the gospel of John writes about the Christmas story in the large and grand scope of the universe’s creation.

He says-

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

That Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and the Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

All that is- every thought and emotion and significance that resides behind the creation of all that is- was condensed into a space so infinitesimally small as to occupy a space no greater than that of a child lying in a manger- in a backwoods town- born to a simple couple- without even the means to find a place to sleep for the night.

I try sometimes to imagine the scope of creation. I try at times to understand my place in the context of a universe that is beyond my ability to comprehend. And I am fascinated- I am captured by the possibilities of learning and discovering and shaping my knowledge of what is-

But

I will never be able to fit into my mind the scope of the mystery that is Christmas. That God would shrink himself down into a space that fits in my head. That I can picture, that I can hold in my mind, that I can choose to believe.

Why do we invest ourselves in the celebration of Christmas? Why do we gather here tonight when we could be somewhere else?

Why is it that every year we trim a Christmas tree?

Because maybe there’s something to this story.