What is the Meaning in the Numbers

The last time I explored the meaning of the numbers in the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Each of the twelve days represents something e.g. the Four Calling Birds of day four represent the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John). This time I want to explore further two of those twelve numbers – specifically day 7 and day 9.    

The Seven Swans a-Swimming of day 7 refers to the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  The Nine Ladies Dancing on the ninth day of Christmas represents the nine Fruits of the Spirit.  That said, it is reasonable to ask, what are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; and what are the nine fruits of the spirit?

Fortunately, we can find out the answers to these questions with the help of our friend Google.  The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are an enumeration of seven spiritual gifts first found in the book of Isaiah. They are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

The nine fruits of the Spirit, listed in Galatians 5:22-23 of the Bible, are: love, joy, peace, patience (or forbearance), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  These are divine qualities that grow in a believer's life through the work of the Holy Spirit, reflecting God's character.

Of course, this calls for further exploration of each of these qualities e.g. wisdom or love.  However, those are subjects for other days.  I want to close with the significance of numbers in another old song which is reminiscent of the Twelve Days of Christmas – Green Grow the Rushes O.  This is one I used to sing in my childhood, and which is, I believe, an old English folk song.  It is in a familiar call and response setting:

I will sing you one o, green grow the rushes O. 

What is your one O. 

One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so. 

As in the twelve Days of Christmas, each number has a meaning.  The exact meanings and lyrics can vary depending on tradition.

One: Is one and all alone, generally referring to the single, all-alone God.

Two: The lily-white boys, clothed all in green, often interpreted as Jesus and John the Baptist, or sometimes the Old and New Testaments.

Three: The rivals (sometimes "thrivers" or "strangers"), usually interpreted as the Three Magi (Wise Men), or possibly the Holy Trinity.

Four: For the Gospel makers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), the four Evangelists.

Five: The symbols at your door, often linked to the five wounds of Christ or the five points of a protective pentagram.

Six: For the six proud walkers (or "six water-pot bearers"), referencing the six water pots at the Wedding at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine.

Seven: For the seven stars in the sky, typically the seven classical planets or the Pleiades star cluster.

Eight: For the April rainers (or "eight archangels"), possibly referring to the eight people saved on Noah's Ark or the eight Beatitudes.

Nine: For the nine bright shiners, often seen as the nine orders of angels or the nine joys of Mary.

Ten: For the Ten Commandments.

Eleven: For the eleven who went to heaven, referring to the twelve Apostles minus Judas Iscariot.

Twelve: For the twelve Apostles.

There is often meaning underneath the surface in numbers as there is in many things.  Take some time to explore the hidden things.  Blessings

 

Dare To Imagine God’s Dance Part 1

Sunday, I was invited to preach at the Nairn Mennonite Church.  The theme I was asked to preach on was the last in a sermon series they were using - Dare to Imagine.  The theme I was given is Dare to Imagine God’s Dance.  The sermons in this church are in the Protestant tradition of being twenty minutes or more in length which is significantly more than, the usual Anglican ten minutes I am used to preaching, but I thought it was a great opportunity to explore a theme more extensively than usual so I embraced the opportunity.  I am sharing the sermon in three parts – this week and next two – to make it more in line with the usual length of this missive.  Here is the first installment.

The theme of God’s Dance is a wonderful one and I want to thank Jay for the invitation and opportunity to share in the exploration of this theme.  As it happens, today is the ninth day of Christmas – so I think that our topic – Dare to Imagine God’s Dance is particularly appropriate.  After all you know what happens on the 9^th day of Christmas?  Well, according to the song the Twelve days of Christmas:

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me - Twelve drummers drumming, Eleven pipers piping, Ten lords a-leaping, Nine ladies dancing. 

So today we have nine ladies dancing – a coincidence, or synchronicity, or perhaps good planning?  Did you know that each of the gifts in the twelve Days of Christmas represent something?  The nine ladies dancing represent the nine fruits of the Spirit as noted in Galatians 5:22-23, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  That is a wonderful way to begin to consider God’s dance.

I want to begin by a quote from Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis:

 In its truest sense, religion should reconnect human beings—bind them again—to the creation, to one another, to the Divine, to Love. Rituals, song, prayer, preaching, reflection, dancing, meditation—all of these religious practices are intended to bind us together in love and restrain us from harming one another. Religion should reconnect us to the ground of our being, to the source of our existence. . . .

Religion should help us see how our biases about color, gender, sexuality, and class cause deep hurt to both body and soul.  Religion should reconnect us to the ground of our being, to the source of our existence. 

Here we have someone’s vision of what religion should and can be.  Dr. Lewis mentions many different ways which we can do this – one of the ways is to dance.  I believe that they all can be summed up by the dance – to dance together to overcome our biases and to heal the deep hurts which those biases have caused.  How are we to learn to dance the dance that God has called us to?  To find the road which God calls us to travel, we need to go back to the beginning and see where we have been – indeed where all of creation has been and how God’s dance came to be.      

To do that, I want to tell you a story - let us image how God’s dance came to be.  Many of the best stories begin, “once upon a time.”  However, this one is different – it begins, “once upon before time.”  That’s right it begins before there was time.  Indeed, it begins before there was anything – no earth, no sun, no stars, no planets and certainly no people.  However, here was one thing – a very important thing.  There was God.  God was alone – alone all by God’s self for – well, I can’t say this was a long time because there was no time yet.

God was just God and wasn’t doing anything except being God.  Then everything changed and God decided that things should change.  God decided that rather just be, God would do – God would act.  God decided, in a flash of brilliance worthy of God, that God would dance.  Now there had never been any dancing before so it was new to God and God had to figure out what dancing was.  After some thought, God decided that to dance you had to have music so God called on the music of the spheres…

Tune in next week for the next part of God’s dance.  May you be blessed to hear the music of the spheres on your journey.