New Math

Matthew 28:16-20

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

 

I love math. I am not a mathematician, but I was the only one in the Match Club at my college who was not a major in math. Part of this love of math came from a geometry class that proved to me the importance of faith. I remember sitting in the back of the room in the first or second class of the semester and the good teacher went to the blackboard and put one dot on the board and said, "that's one point," he then put a second on the board, "two points make a line," he then put a third point, "three points not on the same line make a plane," then pointing out in the classroom, "and a fourth point not on the plan, makes space," he then paused and said, "that is all based on our faith that one point exists, all math is based on the faith of one point existing." Going to the smallest physical points one can prove that the point is a wave or something else, but math needs for one point to exist. And even if you do not understand what I am writing about, I hope you can understand for me I understood that my life was given meaning and order because I have faith in the One God.

The scriptures are two of the closest ways our scriptures acknowledge the Trinity. However, much of Paul's letters make it clear that he still believed in one God. Even here Paul writes as the Lord Jesus and the communion of the Holy Spirit thus not directly calling those two actually God. It is where he comes the closest, but generally he writes about us getting closer to God through Jesus, and working in communion with the same Spirit. Paul is just as all the early followers believed in the One True God. However, Jesus and the Holy Spirit is difficult for the church to explain to those that did believe in the One God or to those who believed in many gods, that this 3 was also one.

Remember New Math? If you don't it was a pedagogy that was pushed on American students and Western European students in the 1960's with the purpose of catching us up with the Soviets who where in space already. The problem was that this method of teaching emphasized theory, some of which the teachers did not know well (if at all) and the parents were frustrated as they could barely help with their children's homework. Remnants of this pedagogy did remain through our education system, but in a decade or so, making sure the majority of students understood basic arithmetic returned to the classroom.

Just as the tradition of the Triune God, Three in One, the Trinity, can be debated and defined by theologians, it is not important to be hung up on the New Math. Rather the simple arithmetic of this Church Tradition. The Trinity represents that God's self is in RELATIONSHIP with God's self. Thus we are also to be in relationship. If it was just Jesus and the Creator God the model would be God in relationship with humanity. Having the three reminds us that we are in relationship with God, each other, and God is in relationship with us individually and with all of humanity. It is still mystery that the one true God can be of three personas, but that brings me back to having faith in the one true God. To have faith is to be fine with the mystery and thus understand that having faith in the One God will thus make the whole world work together in relationship.