The Creeds

            A few weeks ago, I was leading one of our communion services, and we were reciting the Nicene Creed. Bear in mind, these days, I’m reciting the creed 12 times on a Sunday, so I’ve been thinking about it. Anyhow, it struck me that after confirmation instruction we don’t really go back to the creeds very often, and I thought it might be interesting to take some time on them.

            Just to set the table, a creed is nothing more than a statement of belief. Some people will speak of their personal creeds. For example, Stephen Covey, in his bestselling book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, encourages people to write a personal mission statement, or what we might call a personal creed, answering the question, “What is really important to me?”

            In the case of the church, the creeds are summary statements of the key points of the faith. They come in all shapes and sizes. The Apostles’ Creed is the shortest and was typically used as the baptismal creed. The Nicene Creed, a little longer, delves more deeply into the divine nature of Jesus. The Athanasian Creed, longer still, gives voice to the doctrine of the Trinity and the two natures of Jesus. (In the Lutheran Church, we also have a number of multi-page statements of belief we call the Confessions, although the Confessions, while statements of faith, aren’t really summary statements.)

            The Athanasian Creed is named because it sounds like the teaching of Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, in the early 4^th century. The Nicene Creed is an expansion of the statement of faith promulgated by the Council of Nicea in AD 325. (Actually, the form we speak comes from the Council of Constantinople of 381.) The so-called Apostles’ Creed was supposedly composed by the apostles themselves, with each of the Twelve contributing a line. Of course, that’s just a legend. The Apostles’ Creed is the oldest of the creeds and it certainly summarizes the apostles’ teaching and it’s worth our consideration.

            That’s not a very devotional devotion, I know. It’s really just an introduction to what will come in the next days. For today, let’s just reflect that from ancient times the church has understood that what we believe matters and that our faith is indeed ancient. There’s value in understanding that we speak the faith the same way the church has for thousands of years.

            We will have a Facebook Live Bible study on Wednesday, April 29, at 7 pm. We will talk about the last portion of the Gospel of Matthew, which we were scheduled to talk about last week.