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"He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

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There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came for testimony to bear witness to the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.

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He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of

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man, but of God. When the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. Pray with me.

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Christmas is a time of candles, and candles give off a moving light, soft, glowing shadows, a light that one moment advances toward us and the next moment retreats from us. Candles in a very real sense speak of mystery, and so candles at Christmas, for Christmas

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is a time of mystery. There is first the mystery of Christ as part of the Holy Trinity. There is no word in all of our vocabulary which is as important as God. Indeed, one might say that if we do not understand that word, then everything else we say will

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be quite wrong. It is a very short word, not only in our language but in many other languages, and it is very difficult to explain. There is a scene in the Old Testament in which Moses is speaking to God, and he says, "Let

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me see thee," and God responds, "No man shall see me and live." Now two days ago we had a partial eclipse of the sun, which was visible from certain remote parts of our planet. Those who were able to see this partial eclipse were warned that they must wear thick, dark

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glasses. They must not look directly into the brightness of the sun, even when it was three-quarters eclipsed. Now imagine a star like Dorado's sigma, which is 300,000 times larger than the sun.

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It is inconceivable that we could look at such brilliance, at such brightness, at such power. And that is what is being said to us by God, that he is greater than any star that he has made, that he is greater than all the stars that he has made, and no one can look upon

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the splendor and the magnificence of God and live. The frail flame of life within us would be instantly extinguished before such majesty and grandeur. But God has spoken to us of himself, and he has done that in Jesus Christ.

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Now we cannot comprehend all of God from what Jesus has said to us, but if we listen to his words, we understand that in the fullness of God, he manifests himself as three different persons. Now do not make the mistake, when I use the word "persons," of three individuals.

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That is the way in which we commonly use the word. When we say that God has three persons, we do not mean that we have three gods. We are going back to the Latin meaning of the word "person." The word is "persona," and the persona was a large mask that was worn by an actor on

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the stage. If he was a tragic figure, then the mask showed a very sad face. If he was a happy figure, then the mask was smiling. Perhaps you have been in a theater at one place or another and seen the smiling and

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the frowning masks up on the wall. Those are representations of the persona, the mask. So what Jesus is saying to us is that God appears to us in three different masks. He is hidden forever.

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We cannot contemplate him in this life or in the life that is beyond. Even when he comes among us, he remains hidden in a tiny baby. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now the second mystery of Christmas is the mystery of the incarnation, the birth of the

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baby in Bethlehem. When God threw about his shoulders the rope of human flesh and came into the world as a defenseless child. Now some say that he came because of man's sin in order that we might be saved for eternity,

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and that is absolutely true. But it is just as accurate to say that the reason God came to save us for all eternity is because of the love he had in his heart for us. On whom do you spend the most?

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On the one you most love. To whom do you give the most? To the one you most love. For whom do you sacrifice the most?

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For the one you most love. So God sacrifices, he lays aside in one of his persons all of the beauties of heaven to come into the womb of a woman and be born naked in a stable. He was in poverty three times over.

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He was in poverty first of all because he owned nothing. Jesus never owned land or gold or luxurious comforts. He was in poverty secondly because he knew loneliness and separation. He had very few friends.

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None of them were in places of great influence. He was the son of a carpenter from a very small town, and on his arrival he was applauded only by the shepherds from a nearby field. The third poverty that we see in Jesus is that he laid aside his nature, that he emptied

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himself of the fullness of God, that he depotentiated the word which was within him, that he took upon himself human weakness, laying aside the infinite majesty and power of the divine. And why did he do this? In order that we might be led to discover the divine in us.

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He came as a human in order to exalt humanity, to show that persons are precious. The reason the commandment reads, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image," is not because God thought that someone could fashion some image which would in any way equal his glory and his power.

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No, not at all. God has only one image, and that image is humankind. The scripture says that we are made in the image of God. Remember please, that when after the resurrection Jesus ascended to be with his Father in heaven,

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he ascended in his resurrection body. Now this was a body somewhat different from ours. He could go through locked doors, he could move with great speed, he could rise into the air, but there were also many similarities with our bodies, for he ate food, and he could

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show the wounds that had been placed in his hands. There was then the resurrection body, lifted by Christ and commingled with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the Trinity for all eternity. When the Bible says that we shall see him and be like him, it is not speaking of the

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fullness of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's too much for us to look upon. It is speaking of Jesus. We shall see him still in his human form, and we shall be like him.

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And that means that each and every one of us is more important than that star which led the wise men to Bethlehem. Is he igniting your divinity? Is he setting abroad the light of his holiness in your soul?

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So think of the third mystery of Christmas, which is the mystery of salvation, Christ being born in our hearts. For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given. Are you part of that us?

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Do you know that son, that child that has come into the world? A few years ago there was a motion picture made that drew immense crowds. It was called E.T., which means extraterrestrial, and it was the story of a small creature from another world who got bypassed here on earth and who eventually was helped by some children

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to find his way home again. Now this movie exercised a strange charm over everyone who saw it, and I don't think it's hard to understand why. For you see, E.T. is a figure who parallels Jesus.

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He came from out of this world. The flowers bloomed when he walked by. The children loved to be about him. When he touched someone with his hand, they were healed.

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He longed to go home, and I am sure there are times when Jesus wanted to shake from his feet the dust of Palestine and return to the stardust of the kingdom of heaven. He was slain just as Jesus was slain by those who thought they were doing right. And as Jesus on Easter morn caused the stone to roll away and came forth in regnant power,

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so E.T. is put into a truck, and suddenly this dead E.T. in the truck throws open the doors standing there in a white robe, and shortly thereafter he ascends to his Father, to his planet. And what does he say as he goes?

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He does not say, "Lo, I will be with you always." He says, "I will always be right here." More people have paid more money to see that motion picture than any other motion picture that was ever made.

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And I think the reason is this, because all of us want to feel that there is something beyond us that loves us utterly. We all want that God-shaped hole in our hearts to be filled. If it isn't filled, then for us it will be always winter, but never Christmas.

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If the love of God does not flow into you and through you, then for you it will always be winter, but never Christmas. And so tonight I ask you to focus on Bethlehem. And when I say focus, I mean direct all of your senses across the centuries in your imagination

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to see that tiny place. And as you do that, as you bring all of your senses to bear, as you bring your total concentration to bear upon what happened there twenty centuries ago, you will feel something within yourself respond.

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Oh, you will not understand the dark mystery of the Trinity that is still beyond us. But the miracle of the nativity, that the Word became flesh, will happen in you. And so there are three mysteries to Christmas. We see them tonight by candle glow.

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The mystery of God in himself, the Holy Trinity, that is for all eternity. The mystery of God in Christ, the Incarnation, that is of yesterday and of today. And the mystery of salvation, of God being born in us, that we can claim tonight and for all of our tomorrows.

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On one occasion it is said, "St. Francis and St. Clare were walking together and they came to a fork in the road. He was to go one way, she was to go the other. And she said to him before they parted, 'When shall we see one another again?'

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And Francis replied, 'When the roses bloom.' And then he went off down the road which was his. But suddenly he heard St. Clare call, 'Francis, Francis,' and he turned and they were both standing in a garden of roses that were blooming in the snow."

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They say it's a legend, but I say to you tonight from my heart to yours that when Christ is born in you, it is always springtime. Let us pray. O God, the source of all truth and mystery, give us pure hearts that we may see you, humble

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hearts that we may hear you, loving hearts that we may serve you, faithful hearts that we may remain in you, even as you forever remain in us. Amen. Amen.

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