This is the weekly bulletin insert from Sermons That Work.
The Nicene Creed, Week 4
To commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the Rt. Rev. Matthew Gunter, bishop of Wisconsin, has written a series of reflections on the Nicene Creed and its relevance for contemporary Episcopalians. Over the coming weeks, we’ll share his teachings, written mostly in a question-and-answer format.
Isn’t one’s faith about one’s relationship with the living God and with God’s children? Can’t we say, “Love God and love your neighbor,” and leave it at that?
That is indeed Jesus’ summary of the law, and that is no small thing. However, in his context (the time’s tradition and teachings), Jesus had received a great deal about the nature and purposes of God as a son of Israel. While there was no written creed as such, Jesus was part of a people who held certain ideas, i.e., doctrines, about God and humanity. As a faithful Jew, he would have recited the Sh’ma found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”
The Nicene Creed gives the word ‘God’ meaning
There is no sufficient knowledge of God without some sort of creed. ‘God’ is a meaningless word until it is given meaning. To say, “Just love God with your whole heart, mind, and soul” only begs the questions, “Who, or what, is this ‘God’ I am to love, and what does it mean to love this ‘God’?” As for loving neighbors, who counts as my neighbor? Do strangers count? What about enemies? And why should I love them? And in what way, to what extent, and at what cost? Why is it so hard to do? Does it matter ultimately? Is there any divine reckoning for our failure and refusal to love? What does it mean to be human? And what kind of world do we live in?
Any answers to these questions are not obvious. That they seem obvious to many of us is because our imaginations have already been formed in a society shaped by the vision of Christianity reflected in the Nicene Creed, even if we have mostly forgotten the source of that shaping. And any answer to these questions takes us into the realm of belief and doctrine. The Creed is the basic Christian foundation for answering them. One might prefer other answers or make up one’s own, but one cannot talk about “god,” “love,” “creation,” or “human beings” without some sort of belief system, i.e., a creed.
Inadequate simplistic pietism
It is inadequate to appeal to a simplistic pietism, whether in its more conservative or more liberal versions, that says, “Don’t bother me with doctrine, just give me Jesus.” We have no direct access to Jesus other than through the Gospels, which are heavily influenced by the interpretation (doctrine) of who Jesus is and why He matters. The Creed is the Christian guide to understanding the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in light of Jesus. It affirms that, while God will always remain beyond our understanding, when we look at Jesus, we see God. And that God has so loved humanity as to enter into our physical reality with our rebellion, our sin, our brokenness, our unlove, and untruth to deliver us.
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Church of the Redeemer
Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.
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