Words with Roots
From now until Easter we are working our way through the Apostle’s Creed. Each week we’ll be exploring a different phrase or idea that the Creed has captured as essential to our Christian faith. In reality, each word could be studied so that we could better relate to it and apply it to our lives. We simply don’t have time to do that on Sundays alone. For the next several blogs, I’ll attempt to address some of those words that we won’t get to spend as much time on during Sunday services. I hope that through this series (blogs and sermons) you’ll see the richness and beauty in the simplicity and clarity of the Apostles Creed. It is important for me to acknowledge that inspiration for this study has come from Dr. Benjamin Myers and his little book simply titled “The Apostles Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism.” I have found his work refreshingly simple and yet insightful.
Echoing the thoughts of Fraulein Maria (Sound of Music), “let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” The Creed starts with the basic pronoun “I.” It’s a simple word that conveys ownership. The Creed is asking each of us to enter in and take ownership of the ideas and affirmations that follow. Simple enough, right? Except that in our culture today we live according to fairly rugged individualism. We fight for the freedom to express ourselves and declare our own truths. To say anything like a Creed feels old, disconnected, dispassionate, even imposed and most of us reject them as outdated. We fight for the right to believe what we think to be true, and what resonates with us in our core. Sadly, what we often associate with our core is nothing more than our feelings. Thus, if I feel it then it must be authentic and true. But, nothing could be further from the truth!
The prophet Jeremiah declares that “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. (Jer. 17:9)” Just a few verses earlier he declares that, “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought. (Jer 17:7–8)” When we flow with the tide of culture and feel the need to adapt our beliefs and convictions only to what we think or feel, we’re in danger. However, when we surrender that rugged individualism to trust in God, we need not worry. This idea can help us recapture the power of the words in the Apostles Creed. The best way to understand the pronoun “I” in the Creed is not in its individuality, but in its affirmation of the connection we have to a larger community of people who have declared it to be true.
When we declare “I” believe, we are saying that we commit to and embrace a history of people who have held to these truths. We belong to the body of Christ throughout the ages. Our “I” is not an individualistic recognition alone, but an invitation to a universal connection. As it would have been practiced in the early church, the declaration would have been made as individuals were being dunked underwater in baptism. Thus, you can picture something very communal as the waters of baptism sloshed over their head. It was affirmed individually but in a corporate setting and concretely connected to historical revelation.
The words of the Creed are full of life and declare God’s love. Far from being stale, old and “creedal” in their nature, they really are a succinct and life-giving connection to the story of scripture. Though culturally we are prone to assert that we have come to some new understanding of our faith and thereby want to say things in our own way, by connecting to the Creed and affirming all it holds true, we are tapping into something far more counter-cultural, historic and even eternal. By using a personal pronoun, we may be affirming something new to us, but not new to the life of the church. We can be assured that we enter into the Creedal affirmations together with all those throughout history who have affirmed these truths.
Community is deepened and transformed when we tap into truth. Truth is not based on what I think or feel, but on what has been proven, historically documented and affirmed over centuries. We say “I” together in a community. We affirm history. As Benjamin Myers says, “It is then that I am saying something of deep and lasting importance. It is then that my words have roots.”
I love the idea of words that have roots. It’s a powerful image. Myers would contrast that with words that fall from our mouths and float away as dead leaves do in the fall. The power of the Creed is in its roots. There is strength in being rooted. I pray that as we dig deeper into the various affirmations of the Creed, we will all recognize the roots that bind us and the strength that these words have for our community to hold us together.
Pastor Scott