Confessing The Faith – The Blessing of the Creed

When I was in elementary school, we would begin each day with the morning announcements.  Over the PA system we would hear the following instructions broadcast into all classrooms: “Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.”  Every student would stand, face the American Flag posted prominently in each classroom, place their right hand over their heart, and recite the Pledge of Allegiance, word for word, together. 

For those of us who grew up in the era when this was still the norm, the Pledge of Allegiance still rolls off our tongues effortlessly. 

“I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” 

In such a short amount of space, volumes were said, and norms were created that both formed students in a commitment to their country and taught them basic truths about what we, as a society, believed about our country.  We pledged our commitment to our country and to our countrymen.  We affirmed that our nation is subject to and under the judgment of a higher power.  And we pledged that this bond was indissoluble for the purpose of providing liberty and justice to each of the citizens that are subject to the Republic that we shared. 

This practice began to fall out of use even when I was in school and has since been abandoned due to a series of legal challenges that cropped up through the years.  While I understand the objections to compulsory recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, I think we as a nation lost something fundamental with its abandonment.  I look today at a nation more polarized and in disagreement about even the most basic ideals that our Republic was founded upon.  I have great concern about the prospects of our ability to remain united as a nation.  

There was something to those words that made up the Pledge of Allegiance.  But fundamentally there was something much greater about us all standing side by side speaking the same words together. 

In scripture we see a similar concept. 

The New Testament word used to describe this concept is the Greek word όμολογεω.  It is a compound word made up of the pre-fix homo, meaning the same, and the verb log-e-oh, meaning to speak.  Together the word literally means to speak the same words.  We translate this concept in English using the verb to confess.

Looking at the word, the act of confessing is always within a community.  To speak the same words implies that we believe the same thing about a particular set of facts or ideas.  It is this confession that defines the community.  The act of confession therefore is an action of inclusion into the community.  By virtue of speaking and believing the same words, you announce your inclusion into the community defined by those words. 

In the Christian community, we are united by our beliefs about the nature of God, the creation, the work of Jesus Christ in redeeming His creation, and the work of the Holy Spirit in calling this community to faith and in sanctification.  It is this faith that we confess in the Apostle’s Creed. 

“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. 

“And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was 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 will come to judge the living and the dead.

“I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the dead, and the life everlasting.  Amen.” 

We are those who believe that God created and sustains all things and does so out of his grace.  We are those believe that man sinned, subjecting all men and creation to the power of sin, death, and the devil.  And yet, God the Father, by his grace, sent to us His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, fully God, that He might assume humanity into Himself, and redeem us from the power of sin by the atonement provided by His death on the cross.  He rose from the dead declaring victory to us and ascended into Heaven where he intercedes for us continually at the right hand of the Father.  We look forward to the consummation of all history when he will return to judge the living and the dead.  We are those who believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and calls us to faith, works through his Church to bring us forgiveness of sins, and sanctifies us through word and sacrament.  And we are those hold to the hope of the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting through Christ our Lord. 

Our confession of faith defines who we are, even as it serves to instruct us. 

And yet, by definition, the act of confessing is also exclusive by nature.  Those who do not hold to these beliefs are, by definition, excluded from the community formed by the words which we confess together.  Even as these words form one community around them, it sets that community apart as distinct from the wider world. 

We see this within scripture.  When commissioning the disciples to proclaim the gospel to Israel, Christ instructs them as follows:

“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.  But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” 

Jesus himself makes a clear distinction between those who confess Him as the Christ, and those who do not. 

The apostle Paul confirms that it is by this confession, that we are saved.

“That is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” 

And yet, the words we speak together as confessions of faith, go far beyond merely recitation of creeds.  They are creeds and confessions because of the belief which are invested in them.  Creeds and confessions are not just spoken, they are lived. 

When we gather together in prayer as families and communities and give thanks to God for creating and sustaining us, or to heal the sick, or to comfort the grieving or suffering, we are confessing our faith in our actions. 

When we work in our vocations to provide for our families, when we offer our time and charity to those who cannot provide for themselves, we confess with our actions that God has created us as part of his creation to exercise his dominion over it. 

When at the end of the day we examine ourselves in light of the ten commandments and realize that we have fallen short of the requirements of God’s law, we confess that we are fallen creatures in need of redemption.  And when we confess our sins and seek God’s forgiveness we confess that Christ came to atone for sins. 

When we bring our children to the Church to be baptized, and to participate in divine worship, and we do not neglect the proclamation of God’s Word, and receive the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion, we confess that the Holy Spirit brings and sustains us in the faith. 

Even at the end of our lives, when we are publicly buried with our pastor proclaiming the hope that we have in the resurrection of the body, we confess our faith in our actions. 

Let us give thanks for the Creeds that give us the same words with which we preach, teach, confess, and live our faith.  Let us give thanks for the community of faith defined by them, united in faith.  Let us give thanks for the Triune God whom we confess, who works out our salvation through the persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Advent – Grace Comes In A Man

This year Americans demanded justice.  Movements were founded calling for every type of justice imaginable.  Social justice, economic justice, legal justice, etc.  Hardly a headline could be seen this year that didn’t make a demand for some sort of qualified concept of justice.  Justice, Justice, Justice.  We demand justice.

The concept of justice is simple.  People receive that which they deserve based upon their conduct.  We want no legal, economic, or social barriers that restrict people from being able to receive the fruit of their works and deeds.  For example, if I engage in an employment contract with my employer and provide the labor I have agreed to give, justice demands that they compensate me for my labor in accordance with the wages agreed upon in our contact.  My faithful conduct is rewarded, and justice is maintained. 

However, there is a flip side to the concept of justice.  Retributive justice means that unrighteous conduct is punished.  For example, if I am speeding and putting other motorists at risk by my driving habits, it is righteous for a police officer to pull me over.  Justice is served.

However, I think most of us have experienced that moment when sitting in our car by the side of the road, we hope and pray that justice will not be served.  We hope that instead of getting a ticket and a hefty fine we will get off with a warning. 

Justice is a great thing when one is righteous and just.  The blessings of living rightly under the law are marvelous.  Yet justice is not so great when one is unrighteous and unjust before the law.  In that case the curse of the law is a terrible and frightening thing. 

The apostle Paul describes this paradox well in his epistle to the Romans.  In it, he says:  “For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.”  

Our immediate reaction is to attempt to justify ourselves as righteous under the Law.  We attempt to highlight our good points, while masking our sins.  Yet, just like the faithful police officer with the mirrored shades isn’t buying our excuses for why we were pulled over, Paul isn’t having it either.  He makes plain to us that under the scorching mirror of the law, we too are sinful and deserve God’s righteous retributive justice. 

“Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.”

Busted.

Could it be that despite our loud cries for justice, we have a much deeper need for something else?  What we really seek is mercy, or put another way, we seek grace. 

Grace is a loaded word, so allow me to define it.  Grace is the unearned and unmerited favor and blessing of God.  Grace is the bestowal of mercy on the undeserving.  It is the declaration that we are set aside as holy by the Father, where we have not proven ourselves as holy by our conduct. 

Instead of marching for justice, perhaps it is grace that we should be seeking. 

In Advent, we are reminded that we don’t have to seek after grace.  In Advent we are reminded that Grace came to seek us out.  We are reminded that Grace came to us in the person of Jesus Christ. 

The apostle John drives this point home so elegantly in the prologue of his gospel. 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.  He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” 

John tells us that the pre-incarnate Christ, who has always existed, and was always with the Father, was also the means by which all things were created.  It was through the living Word of Christ, through God’s grace, that the universe, the stars, the moon, the sun, and the planets were spoken into existence.  It was through the living Word of Christ, through God’s grace that all the animals of the field, the birds of the air, and the fishes in the sea were given life.  It was through the living breath of Christ that man was fashioned out of clay and breath was breathed into his nostrils to give him life. 

It was the living Word of Christ by which God declared the man and woman he had created as “good” and made in His image.  It was the communion with Christ that nourished them in the garden of Eden, and gave them purpose to exercise dominion over the earth. 

And then, it seems that darkness entered into the creation.  Adam and Eve rebelled against God breaking communion with Him, and soiling all of creation with the stain of sin. 

God had implicitly written the requirements of his just law on all men’s hearts, and explicitly revealed his law for how we should live and order our lives through Moses.  However, sin would seemingly continue to shroud man in the darkness resulting from sin and the just curse of the law due to us for our unrighteousness. 

Yet, the darkness could not overcome the source of the light. 

For according to John, the true light, which gives light to everyone was coming into the world.  The living Word who by speech created the light, the universe, and all that is in it, was coming into His own creation. 

The living Word who created all things would be conceived by the Holy Spirit through the virgin Mary, and he would take on the very flesh that he had come to redeem.  This living Word, the Son of God, would be born as a helpless infant, and would grow to manhood.  He would be made like His brothers in every respect. 

He came to His own creation not to bring the justice that the Law demands, and we deserve, but that He might restore us to the grace that we had with Him at the founding of the world. 

Jesus Christ would go on to take our place at the cross on Calvary.  He would undergo the righteous justice that we deserve, that those who believe in Him might receive the unearned and unmerited forgiveness of sins and be restored to a position of grace and favor before the Father.  The victory over the power of sin and death would be declared to us through the Resurrection.  Through the resurrection we would have the certain assurance that the darkness has not overcome. 

And now, the Church, the body of Christ would spread the light of the gospel to all nations, that they might receive the grace given to them through when the Living Word came to us in the flesh.  This Living Word still comes to us in the flesh every time we partake of his flesh and blood in the Lord’s Supper.  Through his Church Christ continues to come to us in the flesh always. 

This Advent, may you take joy, comfort, and hope in knowing that Grace came to us in the man Jesus Christ.  Let us not clamor for justice, let us instead live in the grace given to us through communion with Christ.