God like Math - The Rev. Melanie W. J. Slane

Sermons from the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

In case it's been a little while, since you were in math class, remember that geometry is the study of shapes and forms. Some simple and some very complex, some flat and some multidimensional. And calculus on the other side is the study of the rate of change made complicated by instantaneous rates that lead to integral movements toward an infinite answer. I wish someone would have told me a long, long time ago that math is actually just a lot like God. Maybe then I would have liked it a little bit better or understood it a little bit better. Maybe if you love math, you're thinking, now I understand God. We observe God like math in many forms, many shapes from many angles while the world around us is constantly changing. And as Christians, we are constantly making instantaneous decisions about how to observe and perpetuate God's divine nature in the world. Our decisive actions say something true about her integral, whole self. Geometry, the study of shapes and calculus the study of change, are actually a lot like God. Algebra then is the human side of the equation, because algebra deals deeply in generalizations and assumptions about how it all adds up. That's why we usually start with algebra. that's why we usually start with prejudice and fear, safety, and security. We usually start with the less complicated side of God, just like we start with the least complicated side of math.