Sermons on the Ecumenical Creed of 381 AD

“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, (God from God), Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.”

Scripture Readings: Amos 5 21-24, 8:11-12; John 1:1-5 and 9-18; Luke 4:14-21

Parable

A parable tells a story which can fascinate us, and in the process of listening to it, really listening to it, can change our life. The largest section of the Christian Creed tells the story of Jesus Рconceived, born, suffered, crucified, risen, ascended, seated at the right hand of God, coming again to judge the living and the dead; telling the story of Jesus with the aim of drawing us into God. A parable, and especially this parable, is not complete until it has led us into the presence of the living God. The story of Jesus as the story of God̢s love reaches for our hearts. It is complete when it has arrived in our life and through us in our world.

Language

Some people have objected to the language:

ã… eternally begotten of the Father, (God from God), Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.”

They say the language is too flowery, too removed, too intellectual, too philosophical, too sophisticated. They say that with this kind of language the church has departed from the Jesus of the New Testament. Indeed, there are some thinkers in the church who say that we must speak of Jesus in non-credal language. They say that the creeds have distorted the picture of Jesus.

Experience of delight

But what do you do when God grants you an experience of delight? When God with the story of Jesus speaks joy and meaning into your life? What do you do when faith in Christ brings to you a life changing experience? What do you do when you fall in love? What do you do when a new child is born into your family? What do you do when after estrangement you learn to look and to touch again? What do you do when some really good news explodes into your life?

Have you ever written a letter from the heart – a love letter, for instance? What was it? A historical account, that on Friday the 20th of August at 8 pm in Telopea Park you held hands with another human being. All true, historically true. But does it convey what happened, the real truth? Or was it a scientific report? That evening some hormones changed in my body and created unusual reactions. Or was it a parable of dreaming? Words like ãsunsetä and ãcloudsä and ãwavesä becoming metaphors for the language of the heart?

All the stories about Jesus in the Bible are love stories. The gospels were not written by historians; they were written by lovers. People who had become infatuated with Jesus. Jesus had won over their hearts. The gospels are parables of grace coming from overflowing hearts. And is this not the same with many of the paintings that you have seen of Jesus – with halos and golden garments and a victorious sceptre. And what about the sculptures, like the many artists who shaped their version of the ãPietaä from the marble of Italy. And then the Music! St. Matthewâs passion or HÅ ndelâs Messiah – not composed by a computer, but flowing out of hearts and minds of lovers, people who have been deeply touched by Jesus. And then the Spirituals from the cotton fields: ãSteal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus;ä ãNobody knows the trouble I have seen, nobody knows but Jesus.ä ãHeâs got the birds and the bees right in his hand, heâs got the little bitsy baby in his hand, heâs got the whole world in his hand.ä Who? Jesus! ãRide on, King Jesus! … Ride on, conquering King! … For he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.ä

The experience of Jesus produces music and language that tries to gather up the melody of a changed life. That is the reason why the language is strange. It was the best of that time to spell out that with the story of Jesus, God had conveyed to the believers an experience of delight.

“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, (God from God), Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.”

True, it is an explosion of language. Suddenly, after having talked of God in fairly traditional and theoretical terms – God as ãFatherä, as the ãAlmightyä, as the ãCreatorä -, the language seems to explode! And it is an ongoing explosion: ãGod from Godä is added to ãLight from Lightä! But there are truths that can only be understood by the heart and that creates its own language.

So much about the language. It is the language of love and praise and worship. But what does this language convey?

Shape of trinity

The Creed has a trinitarian structure. “We believe … in one God … in one Lord, Jesus Christ … in the Holy Spirit.” That is the skeleton.

Indeed, the shape of the creed is quite similar to the shape of some of us. I am not looking at any one in particular. Indeed, I only have to look in the mirror. The middle section is the largest, the biggest. Between the head and feet there is the body. A small head, skinny legs, but a big body in between. In the creed the middle section, the most weighty one, speaks about Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Why is this middle section the most weighty one?

It is so weighty because for Christians it is absolutely essential to think God and Jesus together. That belongs to the very essence of our faith. We are not just religious, but we are believers in Jesus Christ. We donât just believe in God, but we believe in the God, who has shared his life with Jesus and therefore with us. Why is it so important that Jesus is in the centre of our faith in God? Let me just give two reasons.

ã…begotten, not made, of one being with the Father …ä

Here is the first reason. In Jesus Christ, God did something for us, that we needed, but that we could not do for ourselves. When you are in a mess you need someone from outside to pull you out. When you are drowning it is of little help if someone jumps in to drown with you. You need someone who is clearly anchored to the shore to jump in and rescue you.

That is what the somewhat strange words mean. We are ãmadeä, Jesus Christ is ãbegottenä, because he is sufficiently different from us that he can rescue us from the mess and save us from drowning. The word for his origin needs to be different because he is so clearly on the side of God – ãof one being with the Fatherä – that he is not caught up in our predicament, that he can do and say something new into our situation.

Estrangement

Our unbending self-will, our desire to be in the centre of things, our pride and lust for power, is so great that it has estranged us from God. Indeed our estrangement is so deep that we even use the word ãGodä to further our selfish dreams and interests.

That is the point which Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud have rightly made! The word “God” has been used by the oppressor to justify difference in class, in race, and in sex. Up to the present day people use the word “God” to argue for the superiority of some people over others. Up to the present day churches use the word “God” to curb the ministry and deny ordination to half the human race. And on the other side, the same word “God” has been used by the oppressed to make their oppression tolerable – it became the opium that allowed them to escape the stark and painful realities of life in brief moments of charismatic worship. And have we not all used “God” to compensate for lacks and needs in our life and personality?

The Creed therefore gathers up the biblical intention and interprets the word ãGodä. It speaks of God as “Father” and as “the almighty”. On what basis? On the basis of Jesus in whose life, death and resurrection God interprets himself.

The creed emphasises that Jesus belongs on the side of God – ã… begotten, not made, of one being with the Fatherä – so that he can do and say something new to us. If Jesus were only a human being, however good and noble, he would also be caught up in the human dilemma of being estranged from God. But since with all his humanness Jesus also clearly belongs to God, therefore he is not only an example to us; but he can be our saviour!

This experience of the “new”, this bulwark against our misuse of the word “God”, stands behind the confession to Christ as the one Lord whom we are to hear, to trust and to obey. In Jesus Christ our estrangement has given way to reconciliation.

Jesus Christ is the parable of God. In hearing of him, by meditating on his life, his death and his resurrection, the word “God” is gaining contours. As if the fog begins to lift and now you see the mountain. So in Jesus Christ it begins to dawn upon us that God really is for us. Jesus Christ is the divine guarantee that we can call God “father” and “almighty”.

ã… one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of Godä

And now the second reason why the large middle section of the creed speaks about Jesus Christ The first reason is that Jesus Christ is not only our example, but our saviour. The second reason is that Jesus Christ is the guarantee that ãGodä is a good word. That is not always true. For many people, often the poor and oppressed, God is not a good word.

We need such guarantee. Because for many the word ãGodä is a bad word. The Apartheid regime believed in God. They even had some churches on side. Hitler made some veiled references to divine providence whose servant he was. The war in Vietnam was fought in the name of God and the revolution in Nicaragua was opposed in the name of God.

It was 1976. The Apartheid system in South Africa was well established. But in the midst of it some Christians, not the ãwhiteä churches, but some Christians, heard another voice. A voice from beyond. Desmond Tutu spoke in their name when he faced the then President Vorster and proclaimed that because he oppressed the people of God therefore he had already lost. 1976! In those days the establishment laughed and even those who were sympathetic did not believe it; but the prophecy of Tutu became true in 1994.

As you look into the political and social scene in our own country: tax reform, immigration policy, attitude to Aboriginal people, with what measure do you measure? What colour are the glasses with which you look? Is it your fear or interest or comfort, or do you view the scene coram deo, before God – the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ?

… for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)

It is not enough to speak of ãGodä, we must know who God is! For us Christians, God is so intimately tied up with Jesus that we canât speak about one without mentioning the other.

If you speak of faith in God apart from Jesus the question is always: what is God like? Is he like us? Is he an abstract principle that may help me to hold some sophisticated discussions about life and its origins and its purpose, but who can not comfort me in times of need; challenge me in times of sloth; and judge us in times of sin? Is he the living God, the forgiving God, the liberating God? Jesus guarantees for us that God is indeed ãFatherä and ãalmightyä.

On the other hand, can you have faith in Jesus as a human being, apart from being one with God? Affirming Jesus only as the man, the good man from Nazareth? Like many other good and exemplary men and women in history: Muhammed, Francis of Assissi, Mahatma Ghandi, Albert Schweitzer, Mother Theresa. Examples to be admired! Figures to shape our life after. But that is not enough! We need more! Examples become tiring because they call for achievement. We need more. We need a saviour. Someone who can sound the word of forgiveness and liberation into the deep recesses of our lives. Someone who cannot only declare that God is against racism and sexism and torture and oppression, but who can also provide the resources of grace and the motivation of strength to help us in our struggle against injustice.

A standard Objection:

faith in God, ãYesä; faith in Jesus Christ, ãNoä!

Why is it then, if God and Christ belong together, that many people, even Christians, are more ready to speak of ãGodä than of ãChristä? Old Mr. King, Martin Luther Kingâs father, was at some official meeting. He was asked to say grace. Just before they were bowing their heads, the chairman of the meeting leant over and whispered into Mr. Kings ears: there are some Jews and Muslims present, so you better donât pray ãin the name of Jesusä. But he could not do that. Not out of intolerance, not because of religious fanaticism or bigotry, but because Jesus was his identity, for Jesus and God, Jesus and himself belonged together.

We may therefore constantly remind ourselves that Jesus Christ is not just a good person like Mahatma Ghandi and Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela, but he is the saviour who is the ground and the content of our life. Jesus Christ is not a fairy story created by those who could not and would not live without him. He has lived in history as we do, and yet he has been a parable of God that allows us to have glimpses of the divine. We therefore joyously repeat with the church through the ages:

“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.ä

Thorvald Lorenzen: Canberra