Beer and Theology

Beer and Theology. I know a funny title for me especially since I don’t even like beer. However, since Doug has entered seminary, he on occasion, joins a group of students and one professor at a local German bar to discuss theology. This takes place just about every Thursday night. I have been asked to join in the past, but truth be told it never held a real interest to me. Now this local bar also serves food at certain times of the day. Not all day, they are a neighborhood bar actually planted in between houses on a street in downtown Dubuque.

So this past Thursday I was lured by the thought of “REAL” German food. Added to that, was the fact that starting the week of April 23rd, I will be working 10 hour days and not getting home until 10:00 PM. So anyway, Doug suggested we go and have dinner first and then if I wanted to I could stay for theology.  Of course I thought I should stay. I know he said that he could get a ride home, but I felt I really needed to be there or should I say that he needed me to be there.

First lets talk about the meal.  It was fabulous! True German food. I had a very good beef, with wonderful gravy, spaetzle, and the ever famous red cabbage.  Anyone who knows me, knows I love red cabbage.  Now my family doesn’t, so I don’t get it very often. Doug noted that to Matt, our server, bar tender and manager of the bar. (To bad not the owner.) Since Doug and Becky didn’t like red cabbage, Matt gave me their portions. I so enjoyed my dinner. Now we also had two cars there, so Becky after dinner drove home.  Wow how different was that for me.  When she left I realized I was entering a new phase in my life.

No more would I have to drive either of my kids anywhere. Both kids are of the age of working and not always attending the same things I do. She and Travis now choose if the want to go somewhere with us or not.  Tough  adjustment, and maybe now the feeling of  why I had this urge to suddenly stay at beer and theology.

Shortly after we finished dinner a few students arrived, so we moved to the back of the bar. Matt greeted each person as this has been going on for sometime now. Of course the students were buying beer. It is a bar after all, so one must have at least one drink.  Pass the coke please.  Anyway on to the evening.

When they were ready to start each person, introduced themselves and what they have been thinking about theologically.  The group would then pick a topic based on what was brought up.  The choice this evening was baptism.

This was a very long deep discussion as to what baptism is, and who should be baptized. Should a person be old enough to confess the words? Should it be the infant who can not speak, yet the words are spoken for them?  There are many different views and opinions on this.  But here’s what I took from this discussion and what I believe is the meaning of baptism.  It’s put maybe as simply as this, in terms that I understand.

Baptism to me is a covenant with God, and a seal so to speak that I am a child of God and that my sins are forgiven.  I’m glad that I was baptized as a baby instead of a little later in life.  I see infant baptism as the mustard seed so to speak.  God says you only need faith as  small as a mustard seed to grow.  That mustard seed needs to be cultivated, watered and fertilized in order to grow.

Since the infant is the mustard seed, then holy baptism is the water that will help nourish the child as they grow.  Now, the Holy Spirit has to be the fertilizer, which also helps the child to flourish. The word of God is the cultivator.  Shaping each child as they grow into adulthood, allowing for mistakes and bad choices, in order to learn and one day understand.

I still do not understand everything, and I know I have a lot to learn. But now when I stand under the water of a shower, or wash my face after a meal, I am reminded that I am a child of God.  My choices are my own, but my cultivator is waiting for me to read the good book, ask the questions and surround myself with others whose roots are planted firmly in the soil.

My “beer” of choice that evening was none other than COKE in case you couldn’t guess.  But I left that night seeing my baptism differently and now trying to act on that new knowledge as I walk through this new chapter in my life.  I am a child of GOD, my path is chosen, I just need to go back to the mustard seed and let it grow.  I also need to trust my cultivator with each and every step I make.