The power of math.
Stories about math.
We don’t usually think about math making for a good story, but it does, if we have ears to hear.
I did have a mystical experience in Calculus once, I saw the infinite plane spreading outward in all directions. And then I lost it and never saw it again. I barely passed the class, which was a minor miracle. It was a religious experience.
The power of math.
It is proof that the universe has a deep order to it. Math works.
The numbers add up. I like that story. I can hear it.
1+1=2
Sometimes the numbers do more than add up, they multiply, they go exponential:2x2x2x2x2 multiplying into a rapidly climbing wave, the bigger it gets the more rapidly it grows.
The numbers go viral.
I think we have all become very aware of the power of that wave. That story can be unsettling.
The power of numbers can overwhelm, in one case a hundred-fold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
We begin Matthew chapter 13 today, a chapter of seven parables. It will take us three Sundays to hear them all.
Jesus climbs into a boat and starts to teach in parables. Stories that reveal what the Kingdom of Heaven is like, and for Mathew that kingdom is all about God’s judgement. These are parables about what God’s judgement is like.
The parable of the sower, a parable of God’s math.
God’s Judgement is like being overwhelmed by an exponential wave of grain, a tidal wave of abundance. It swamps the boat.
Sometimes 1+1=infinity, the math of the kingdom, the math of God.
Proof that the universe is a deep miracle.
The numbers don’t add up, they wash us away, an exponential tidal wave of grain.
Give God just a little bit of room, and stand back.
It reminds me of lighting fire crackers as a child, lighting the fuse of a pack of 200 firecrackers, and running like crazy as the percussions flash outward, swelling up and nipping at my heels as I fled for my life. The things we do for fun!
Give God a little room, and the power of God’s math changes the physics of our lives.
The resurrection of Jesus.
Death folding back on itself.
When subtraction becomes infinity.
An exponential wave, nipping at our heals.
What is God’s judgement like? It’s like a sower, and as he sowed a startling wave of grain was brought forth.
It’s a story about the power math, and the miracle at the center of everything, an overwhelming love that never ceases. Can I hear it?
That is what God’s Judgement is like, for some a hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty. The singular seed of Jesus body planted in the earth, becoming 100, becoming 10,000, becoming 1 million, then 100 million, then 10 billion, the infinite wave of resurrection overwhelms.
The wave of forgiveness rising from the grave.
Do we live like that? Is that our vision of God? Is that how we experience God? Is that the math that we live with?
What story does my life tell? What are my ears hearing?
The power of God’s math. Can you hear it?
Ride the wave.
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