Post by Admin on Jun 13, 2016 19:29:37 GMT
The Creed
Over the course of 20+ years of ministry I have been to lots ordinations. Some denominations are very formal; some are very loose. Some have a very structured format, some not so much. Last week during our District Assembly I was struck by two things, one of which I want to talk about here.It is always a moving moment for me when a congregation stands and in one powerful unified voice says these words:
I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth
And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell
The third day he rose again from the dead
He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead
I believe in the Holy Ghost
I believe a holy catholic church; the communion of saints
The forgiveness of sins
The resurrection of the body
And the life everlasting. Amen.
And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell
The third day he rose again from the dead
He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead
I believe in the Holy Ghost
I believe a holy catholic church; the communion of saints
The forgiveness of sins
The resurrection of the body
And the life everlasting. Amen.
In my heart I am a mystic. By that I mean that there is a blurring of time and space in my communion with God and communion with our brethren. There is a realness to words like “draw near to the throne of grace” I am with you always” “the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
But there is another passage that has direct bearing on what I was feeling at District Assembly. It is found in Hebrews 12:1 “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.” I can in my mind’s eye and with my heart see all the Nazarene’s that have or ever will be. As a denomination, we say these words often and these words unite us.
While not explicated stated, there is an element of covenant and consecration when we say these words. We are binding ourselves together on the things that unite us, pledging not to let culture, politics, or personal opinions divide us.
But this cloud of witnesses is not just the 300 or so people who were at the ordination the other night. Nor is it the Nazarenes living on the Earth today – although it surely includes both of those groups. The inclusivity and the exclusivity is much larger on a far grander scale.
The history of the Creed is to lengthy for me get into here. But glimpses of it can be seen as early as Irenaeus in the second century. But by the mid-fourth century, the Fathers had come up with what we would recognize as the Creed. Augustine preached on the clauses of the Creed more than once. Rufinus wrote a commentary on it.
Why is this important? If the words and underlying thought of Hebrews is true – that the saints of old are not dead, but alive in heaven with Christ – then the moment we say those words we are declaring to them, to all of hell, to all of heaven, that we believe just as they did! Augustine, Athanasius, John Wesley, John Goodwin, are not “dead” in sense that we usually think of. They are saying the words of the Creed just as we are!
Just as when we hold the bread and the juice, when we say the Creed we are uniting with every Christian that ever was, is, or ever will be. The mystical Body of Christ is present in all of its glory at that moment. Most of the time we say “I believe” but never ever forget that being a Christian is not an individual occupation. It is only done in community. I am reminded of the words of Cyprian “No one can have God as Father who does not the Church as Mother.”
One final thought. The Creed is sometimes referred to as Symbolum Apostolorum. When the Creed is referred to as “The Symbol” it is not in the modern English way of thing of Symbol. It is thinking of an older way. The Greek underlying idea behind the word “Symbol” is the idea of “token for identification.” That is to say, Muslims, Buddhists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Church of Latter Day Saints are excluded by the “We believe” of our Symbol. They cannot identify themselves as Christians because they cannot say the same things we do. Nor should we let them.