by Roland Wrinkle
What’s A Creed? A creed is a settled statement of what precisely it is that defines our faith. The first creed in the bible is known as the Shema, found first in Deuteronomy 6.4 and lots of other places, including the sayings of Jesus. “Listen, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your might.” Later on, Jesus added “with all your mind” to the list. It simply and elegantly meant that there aren’t, and never were, a bunch of different gods (like the Greeks, Romans and most everybody else thought) –and the Israelites and we should love and devote our entire being to the Lord and Creator, i.e., love God with everything we have. And God made a really big point of his people saying the Shema all the time and passing it on to their children.
What Are the Creeds We Occasionally Recite in Church? We have our own creeds today. Reciting creeds makes a confessional church. On the occasional Sunday morning, we will stand to recite either the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed, each found in the front of our hymnals. It seems to me that we ought to head in a different direction. Both creeds should seem quite strange to understanding Christians. They both pronounce dogma or doctrine which is undoubtedly correct, as each addresses the nature and characteristics of the three persons of the Trinity. Thus, each has a section on God, another on Jesus the Christ and the third concerning the Holy Spirit—all rightly and biblically based. But notice how the middle, when it comes to Jesus, is weirdly truncated. In tandem, the twin creeds recount that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary as truly human, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, rose from the dead on the third day and ascended to heaven.
The Big Hole. Notice anything missing? How about his three-year ministry–along with all of his teachings, parables, miracles, prayers, history, encounters, significant events, sayings, blessings, exhortations, condemnations, sermons, speeches, explications of the Hebrew Bible, assurances, promises, prophecies, and about three- quarters of the content of the four gospels? What these creeds also skip over is the entirety of Christ’s post-resurrection activities and real-life encounters with hundreds and hundreds of his disciples.
Why the Big Hole? Why do we go so quickly from birth to death and resurrection?
The answer is not complicated. These particular creeds were the products of councils
convened in the 4th and 5th centuries—councils that were called to resolve certain controversies that had inevitably cropped up as the early church was getting itself off the ground. What was heresy (wrong thinking) and what was orthodoxy (right thinking)? Was there really one God or three Gods? Was Jesus a human being who only appeared to be divine? Or was he the Son of God who only appeared to be a human being? Did Jesus actually get bodily resurrected from the dead or was this all just the wishful thinking of devasted, devoted followers? What is the role of the Holy Spirit? The losing sides of these debates had names, i.e., they were called Marcionism, Docetism, Arianism, Gnosticism, Donatism and others. To greatly over-simplify, these heresies don’t carry much weight today because these councils were convened and established the framework of our faith. Generally speaking, we don’t have to continue debating these issues because they were mostly worked out in these creeds. But this still leaves an infinite number of questions and issues left unresolved by official church conclaves.
Now, a $25 Word. That’s why, when we limit ourselves to the Nicene and Apostles Creeds, we are limiting ourselves to issues that dominated discussions seventeen hundred years ago…and stifle our thinking about the thousands of questions and issues raised by the bible and our faith. Reciting these two ancient creeds has become anachronistic. I know I am losing some of you here, so let me explain. An anachronism refers to placing something in the wrong time period, such as thinking that 4th or 5th century debates were answering 21st century questions. For example, the Reformers of the 16th century had cataclysmic differences with the Roman Church over issues such as justification by faith, works righteousness, predestination, the irrevocability of salvation and such. But they made the mistake of thinking that the apostles and their confidants were addressing these same issues in the four gospels and the various letters of the New Testament. They weren’t. So they wound up with answers drawn from the wrong questions.
So What Now? So, if we excise these two ancient creeds from our worship, do we leave a big hole? Not at all. Hymnals and creeds also include a creed which is called A Brief Statement of Faith and, in my judgment, it’s simply terrific. In 1983 the two largest Presbyterian churches in the United States reunited. The “Plan for Reunion” called for the preparation of a brief statement of the Reformed faith. I think it’s terrific. Read it. Read it again. Put a copy in your bible and use it as a guide to interpreting and understanding the sweep and scope of scripture. The early Christians had what is called The Rule of Faith, which they used to put the ancient Hebrew writings and the newly minted Christian writings within the context of the entirety of the revealed word of God. Paul declared, “All Scripture is God- breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (Tim 3.16). Our Brief Statement of Faith is an indispensable tool to do precisely what Paul called for. It serves, in my judgment, as a corrective for the current inadequacies of the ancient creeds. There is a Balm in Gilead –and this is it.
In life and in death we belong to God.
Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit,
we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve.
We trust in Jesus Christ,
Fully human, fully God.
Jesus proclaimed the reign of God:
preaching good news to the poor
and release to the captives,
teaching by word and deed
and blessing the children,
healing the sick
and binding up the brokenhearted,
eating with outcasts,
forgiving sinners,
and calling all to repent and believe the gospel. Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition, Jesus was crucified,
suffering the depths of human pain
and giving his life for the sins of the world.
God raised this Jesus from the dead,
vindicating his sinless life,
breaking the power of sin and evil,
delivering us from death to life eternal.
We trust in God,
whom Jesus called Abba, Father.
In sovereign love God created the world good
and makes everyone equally in God’s image
male and female, of every race and people,
to live as one community.
But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator. Ignoring God’s commandments,
we violate the image of God in others and ourselves, accept lies as truth,
exploit neighbor and nature,
and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care. We deserve God’s condemnation.
Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation. In everlasting love,
the God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant people to bless all families of the earth.
Hearing their cry,
God delivered the children of Israel
from the house of bondage.
Loving us still,
God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant.
Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child, like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, God is faithful still.
We trust in God the Holy Spirit,
everywhere the giver and renewer of life.
The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith,
sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor,
and binds us together with all believers
in the one body of Christ, the Church.
The same Spirit
who inspired the prophets and apostles
rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture, engages us through the Word proclaimed,
claims us in the waters of baptism,
feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation, and calls women and men to all ministries of the church. In a broken and fearful world
the Spirit gives us courage
to pray without ceasing,
to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture,
to hear the voices of peoples long silenced,
and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace. In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit,
we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks
and to live holy and joyful lives,
even as we watch for God’s new heaven and new earth, praying, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
With believers in every time and place,
we rejoice that nothing in life or in death
can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen and Amen