June 16, 2019
Audio recording: https://8th-day.org/sites/default/files/19-06-16_matthias_martin.mp3?uuid=5d2b8210ad79d
Text: Psalm 8
THESE ARE NOTES FROM MATTHIAS'S SERMON
-“If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9, then you would have the key to the universe.” -Nikola Tesla
Today is Trinity Sunday, a day when we commemorate what we say when we baptize, the power of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And Happy Father’s Day!
Texts:
- Psalm 8
- Proverbs 8
- John 16:12-15
- Romans 5:1-5
-Lots of metaphors today, because they “surround” us and because we now enter “ordinary” time. This is the time where “nothing happens” in the church calendar, which is all the more reason to pay attention because that kind of attitude is the opposite of God’s call at Pentecost.
-The NT scriptures this and last week have focused on the scriptural basis for the concept of the Trinity. That word itself is not used.
-Know people in this group like the Enneagram. You know the nine types that make up the personalities of humans. Willing to bet all nine types are represented among the twelve disciples. They were ordinary men chosen for extraordinary purposes. They needed to represent the fullness of the human student body.
-We’re used to all these numbers in the Bible, not just because it’s full of sacred numbers like 12, 40, 7, or a book by that name (which I find quite boring but I get Fred likes it)… but because our whole Bible is full of them (numbering the verses)! This handy little lectionary strip that David puts together is full of them. Do note though: none of that is in the scripture, those numbers were added later in the 15th and 16th century.
Numbers:
0 - The void, the nothingness. Yet we are required to exist in order to say it is nothing. Perception is existence. So in a very real way “nothingness” is a myth, yet a very critical and base concept that we rely on to begin to make any kind of unique meaning. Hold this against infinity, which also cannot be grasped, and immediately.
1 - 0, 1 binary. The movement toward the first iteration of singular point. Higgs boson.
2 - Parents! Mothers and Fathers, but in order for life you need a garden for growth, a world to live in. Nucleus of the atom, proton/neutron.
3 - Trinity, a critical function in mathematics, the first formed shape, fibonacci sequence, pi, the pyramids. Electron. This represents the end of the atomic triad, where “intention” is governed by chemistry.
4 - Sacred to American Indians, four seasons, four cardinal directions. The cross, the vertical meets the horizontal. This is a “natural” sacredness, because is it balanced from all sides. Basic home is square, four chambers of the heart… First dimension of terrestrial triad. “Flat” bacteria, intentional chemistry.
5 - Here come trouble. Two and two with one in between. You might have a fight. Hmm, Pentagon, Pentagram. Some have say this figure represents the entrapment of the human soul. Structurally very strong, but too enclosed. Terrestrial life.
6 - Balance again, phew, but can it last? Now we have two powerful systems of three balancing each other out. After five a new symbiosis. Intention at the top of this system (where humans are mostly), can potentially destroy all systems below it, because there is now power over the atomic triad and the terrestrial triad. Human/intelligent life.
7 - Holy Number. Mentioned several times in The Bible but also other spiritual traditions, but why? I believe the reason is because it is the next derivation after the danger of 6, (666; ⅔; 6.666). PH of water? Balance. The first iteration of the cosmic triad, here and above is essentially mysterious to us. Perhaps some enlightened monks understand it. To go beyond the power of the 6 requires seeing one’s self as whole, a parcel of all of earth. Protecting earth in totality in light of universal chaos becomes a new motivation.
8 - Sacred in China. Why? Perhaps this is because of the importance of the family unit in the East. Eight represents an intact family supporting a child, a full set of great grandparents. Can also represent the balance of the “natural four” with its negative opposite, Yin Yang. Even the way the figure is written suggests this, the dual worlds spinning, gemini.
9 - 3x3, months in pregnancy, the end of the cosmic triad. This represents full dimensional intentionality. Individuality is difficult to discern, and as the tenth dimension is approached, it disappears completely into the
10 - The fullness of God?! Not quite, but can be a mathematical metaphor for us. The distance from 0 to 10 is a miniature system of powers, and iterates to infinity in both positive and negative. Even in its form, it is 0 and 1 joined. The nothing and the something. This is the equivalent of Teillard de Chardin’s Omega Point Theology, complete oneness with God in all aspects. As an evolutionary biologist and Jesuit he believed this was the course of our evolution.
-I am about to head off to Vancouver, BC for five weeks to take some classes there; the day I return will be Aug 6, the date that we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. That terrible weapon, all of its energy, came from the splitting of one atom. If there is that much energy in one atom, think of all the energy that surrounds us at all times! Think of all the energy within us! Perhaps we can begin to imagine God’s power. Jesus understood this. And he understood that it didn’t just happen. It required our intentionality, our focus, our FAITH.
Romans 5:1-5
Notes:
-Origin of Arabic numerals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Numeration-brahmi_fr.png
-Numbers as angles: https://i1.wp.com/mergueze.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Kabylians-numbers.png?fit=810%2C432&ssl=1
-Look at the I Ching?
-Pi movie - Max Cohen: One: Mathematics is the language of nature. Two: Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers. Three: If you graph the numbers of any system, patterns emerge. Therefore, there are patterns everywhere in nature. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo18VIoR2xU