After our first Sunday of Advent conversation, Lysander and I continued to wonder at the implications of God’s creative intention in the beginning: What if we have always had the ability to do magic, but God hid the knowledge of it from us because God knew we would not use it with an understanding of the bigger picture? What if we have always had the ability to make full use of and command of the physical world—manipulation of laws of physics, if you will? But, because God knew, because of out limited capacity, we might use it for ill, so God hid it from us? When Adam an Eve ate the fruit, what happened, exactly? It isn’t that God did not want us to possess knowledge, per se. Rather, it is that we would generate knowing apart from God, formulate a line of thinking that was separate from what would result from being perfectly unified with God in Spirit. By eating the fruit, something was triggered in the physical world that started the law of physics that is expressed by entropy—everything began to decay, fall apart, die. And, then the garden was hidden. Where did it go? What if God is keeping it hidden until that time when we are able to see God as God IS—the final redemption, the Kingdom on earth, Jerusalem come down. What if Jerusalem that is come down is, in truth, Eden revealed to us again? And, it will be revealed as such that we are able to see it, and it will be a possibility for and open to everyone (Lysander’s distinct thought)? To enjoy that perfect union with God in the perfect climate of the garden, all things held together.
One significant innovation in the field of physics this year is the development of a simplified (for physicists, anyway) model, or sketch, to describe what occurs after particles collide. Nima Arkani-Hamed, a Princeton physicist, discovered a shape that could describe the condensed calculations involved in all the possible outcomes of particle collisions, the multidimensional amplituhedron (say that ten times, fast). What is interesting is it can only be conceived when allowing the originating point of the particles to be outside of space-time, a constraint that scientists now concede is ill-fated. One must change perspective from what has been accepted wisdom and permit alternatives to the universe we all thought we knew. According to this new model, the collision still happens in space-time, but it is only possible to really understand the potentials of collision effects when first the scientist allows the originating point to occur outside it.
This week of Advent focuses on peace, the peace that Christ came to bring. As you can imagine, our Sunday dinner conversation this week was filled with beautiful imaginings regarding the effect peace might have on all of creation. And, if it has anything to do with our eyes being opened to the forces and particles and physical universe we can measure only from this very limited end—seeing the possibilities that lie outside what is not possible to conceive—even the thought of seeing it is thrilling!
But, how easy is it for me to get absorbed and crushed by the simplest of setbacks or irritations. It is incredible how quickly I can be waylaid by a thoughtless remark, or not being able to find something fast enough! Yet, that is what Christ came for—the possibility to live outside those irritations—and, even those more serious griefs that also occur. Christ made it possible to be at peace with the One who is outside of space-time, while meeting me in it. Not all will be able to see and enjoy that perfect union with God in the perfect climate of the garden, all things held together, because some will refuse to consent that the originating point is outside the “comprehensible” laws of our world. But, we will celebrate this Advent the reality that Christ came to make possible again, and reveal to us that decay, entropy, sorrow, pain—disconnect—is not God’s creative intent. Peace on earth—in space-time, all that lives and moves outside it, and everything in between. That is, Peace has come for all creation. Peace has come. Be at peace.
Yes! Amen! 🙂