It's Saturday night. Sermon is about ready for preaching. I've been looking up verses for a Bible study which begins tomorrow. Actually, it's not so much a Bible study as it is a Study of the Christian Faith. We will be studying theology. So I've been thinking about theology this evening, both the basics that I've learned, and the experiences and questions that I've had. I've got the movie "2001: a Space Odyssey" on in the background.
May I say it? I have never understood this movie. I don't remember seeing in the theatre because I was only about 9 or 10 years old when it came out. But I remember my dad and my uncle having a conversation about the movie, and what they thought it meant. It was a theological conversation, that's all I remember. They were talking about things that were beyond me, but I was curious.
My uncle died just after Christmas, so he's been on my mind. I've got "2001" on in the background, and I'm still not sure what it means, and I'm thinking about my uncle, and theology. It's that part at the end of the movie, where the old man becomes a baby, that I think my uncle and my dad were talking about.
It's funny what you remember, on a Saturday night
My uncle was one of the forming influences on my life. I thought he was a smart adult, and I always got the impression that he thought I was smart too, and that made a difference. He was interested in a lot of things, and one of those things was theology. He talked about Bonhoeffer, Niebuhr, Barth. He knew about the historical critical reading of the Bible. He was passionate about grace, I think because he knew he needed it.
So, tomorrow I'll be starting this study of Theology. A lot of people think that theology is boring. I think theology has to do with everything in life. So if you do it right, it can't be boring. Ordinary life and extra-ordinary life, questions and certainties, whoops of joy and sobs of sorrow, everything goes into the theological mix.
I couldn't go to my uncle's funeral this week. I have been thinking about that too.
Tomorrow morning, when we introduce the study of theology, perhaps the music of the movie "2001" will be playing in the background of my mind. And maybe the music of my uncle's life.
And then we'll go to worship, and we'll remember the baptism of Jesus, and dip our fingers in the water, and remember our own baptism too. We'll dip our fingers in the water and maybe we'll remember the other times we dipped our fingers in the water, or how we never learned to swim, or how we were scared of the water or how we loved the feeling of it. We'll dip our fingers in the water and wonder what it means to be children of God.
Tonight I'm thinking about my uncle, and theology, and "2001" and the water. And theology.
It's funny what you think about, on a Saturday night.
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