Finding our Middle – 40 Days with Anna

Day 26 – Thursday after 4th Sunday of Lent 

To Read:

Anna saw the ‘most important number l’ as the apex of a triangle – only her triangle was the other numbers standing on that apex!  Number 1 had to bear THE WEIGHT of all Words were different.  Words seemed to stand on piles of other words.  These other words served the purpose of explaining the use and the meaning of the word on the top.  The word ‘God’ stood on the top of the pile that contained all the other words and somehow or other you were expected to climb to the top of this pile to understand the meaning of the word ‘God’.

This was a daunting idea. The Bible, the Church, the Sunday School were all busy building this colossal mountain of words and it was doubtful if anyone could climb to the top of such a pile.  Fortunately good old Mister God had, in his wisdom, already solved the problem for us.  The solution of the problem did not lie with words but with NUMBERS.  The number 1 bore the weight of all the other numbers so it must be wrong to expect words to bear the weight of the meaning of the word ‘God’. No!

It must be that ‘God’ is the word that bears the weight of all the other words.  So the pyramid idea of words with ‘God’ on the top is WRONG SIDE UP;  SO turn it UPSIDE DOWN.  That’s better.  Now the whole pyramid of words is standing on its apex like the numbers.  The apex of the word ‘pyramid’ is ‘God’, and that must be right because now the word ‘God’ carries the weight and meaning of all the other words.

From the Scriptures:

I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ² with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: ⁴ there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.     (Ephesians 4v1-6)

To Reflect:

Unlike Fynn and Anna, I am not very attracted to the world of numbers.  I ventured into the mysterious world of Quadratic Equations when deciding which subjects to study at ‘A’ Level in school and just one bite made me even more determined to study pure Science.  After all when you’re calling is to tell people about eternity numbers don’t count any more do they?   Or one would hope so….

Some people, sadly some religious people, seem to value numbers more than they should.  This is more than about the much groaned about Statistics for Mission and extends to the fatalistic and controlling dressing up of  numerology as faith – number of the Beast anybody?

This is something that is not restricted to the world of faith.  It used to be a commonplace to say ‘I’ve got your number’ referring to this new-fangled thing called the telephone.  This was quickly jumped on by those in the world of entertainment and advertising being used by Lottery Game shows and two very annoying black-haired moustachioed twins wearing running vests who proclaimed that 118 188 was the answer to all our problems.  And there was me thinking that the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything was 42….

Anna, with her usual ability to look sideways at things knocks all our futile games of Numberwang into a cocked hat and reminds us, as a governance once sang to the children in her care to ‘Start at the very beginning’…

As she turns our picture of Mister God upside down, (or is it the correct way around?) she reminds us that the smallest number, 1, weighs the heaviest and only small/big Mister God can carry the weight of the whole world.  There was no chance that the world could carry the weight of Mister God all it, with its desire for control and process and permission, could do was make life more difficult.  Or as Anna would describe it;

The Bible, the Church, the Sunday School were all busy building this colossal mountain of words and it was doubtful if anyone could climb to the top of such a pile.

It does not take much of a survey of the literature of the heroes of the Christian Faith to see how we have fallen into the trap of having to climb somewhere to meet Mister God who is everywhere.  From the Ladder of Divine Ascent in the Ancient Easter Church, to Theresa of Avila’s Interior Castle, and in recent times even the Seven Storey Mountain of Thomas Merton proclaims the faith journey as something to climb.

And Anna sits looking lovingly as clever Mister God at the bottom of her upside-down pyramid and reminds us that our faith is not about us climbing or achieving  anything other than believing the Creed we frequently say;

[Who] for us and for our salvation came down from heaven,
was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made man.

Anna reminds us that we don’t need to climb up to Mister God, in fact it is doubtful if anyone could climb to the top of such a pile, but God comes down to us and asks us to make him our ‘Number One’.  After all if anyone has ‘got our number’ then it has to be The One Who Loves us Best?

To Do: 

On our journey home we pick up many habits or devotions which we have been told are essential for the journey.   Sometimes they get in the way and just become part of a pile of things obscuring God.  Do you have one of which you need to let go?

 

Please Note:  These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Bluesky as @suffolkvicar.bsky.social, and on my public Facebook page  Suffolk Vicar – Rev Andrew Dotchin.  If you would like them as a daily email please send a request to revdotchin@gmail.com

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