The Ever Flowing River

Long years ago when I was a young seminary student, I took courses which were called Systematic Theology.   The course was designed to insure that preachers being turned lose on the church had a correct understanding of theology.  As one professor often said, "You are going to be the resident theologian in your community."  Of course, every community wants one of those!  The Systematic Theology classes presented correct, proper, and precise teachings about all matters pertaining to God.  It was, well, systematic.  It was teaching geared to the mind, head understanding, and articulate communication.

 

While there is nothing wrong with correct teaching, I have thought often about the way such teaching may have been too precise.  It may have been so precise and systematic that there was no room for the heart to be involved.  In these latter years, I have come to a new appreciation for the teaching power of spiritual images.  In his book, "Everything Belongs,"  Richard Rohr writes, "...the Spirit is described as 'flowing water' and 'as a spring of life inside you' (John 4:10-14) or at the end of the Bible as a "river of life' (Rev. 22:1-2).  Strangely, your life is not about 'you.' It is a part of a much larger stream called God."  And then he goes on to add, "I  believe that faith might be precisely that ability to trust the river..."

 

My systematic theology classroom defined God, told me what He would and would not do, and enabled me to understand many different tried and true interpretations of all things theological.  All of it was good stuff, but images give room for us to sit and ponder.  They give us permission not to know everything, but to understand that there is always something more to see and know.  They are not always precise.  Sometimes they leave us in messy theological quandaries.  But, they inevitably bring us to a place of experiencing God with our hearts.  They open up the world of the Spirit and enable us to walk in the ever flowing River.