Here I Stand ~ Your Statement of Faith

 

In April of 1521, Martin Luther was called to Worms, Germany, to answer for posting his 95 Theses on the door in Wittenberg.  This was one way to begin a public conversation in Luther’s day; please don’t nail anything to the church doors today ~ they are made of glass.  One of the main reasons he was summoned before the religious authorities was to defend, or more accurately denounce, his objection to the selling of indulgences.  This was money you paid the church to free a loved one’s soul from purgatory ~ this was where your soul went after death ~ a waiting room between heaven and hell.  Before we chuckle, I caution us to consider that some of the practices we cling to in the church might not look good to future generations either.  We don’t know what will stand the test of time.  We don’t control how future generations evaluate our lives; we only pray for grace and understanding. At that trial, Luther would not take back what he wrote.  Instead, he said, “Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.  Amen.”  This moment sparked and lit the fire of the Reformation.  There were other faithful people who wanted to reform the church prior to 1521.  Luther was not the first, nor would he be the last.  We are a reformed and reforming church.  The work of God in the church is never finished. Over the last few weeks, we have played with and pondered prayerfully Creeds/Statements of Faith.  I pray you have discovered new insights and have new ideas about who God is/what God is up to in the world.  Who Jesus is and the ways Jesus still impacts/inspires our lives.  Who the Spirit is (what Proverbs refers to as Sophia/Holy Wisdom), as She dances, weaves, and works to open us to the holiness of every day.  This week, in honor of Reformation, I invite you to think about your own creed/statement of faith/ideas about who God, Christ, the Spirit, humanity, the church, and our work in the world today.  I know this is a big invitation.  Maybe you’d rather talk about Halloween on Saturday.  I could talk about how we all wear masks to fit in and how we all live with unholy ghosts of the past that haunt our lives.  Wait.

Did you realize that previous sentence was a creed/statement of faith about humanity and community?  Saying we all wear masks unveils a thought I have about humanity.  Writing about unholy ghosts that haunt our lives from memories that still have power in the present is an idea about the world as I experience it.  Theology is not some separate, special task of people with degrees on the wall.  We are all theologians.  We say things about God, hold tightly to beliefs about others, and direct our energy/attention toward certain things.  Our lives are a living statement of faith, if we listen.  Remember, your theology is impacted by your autobiography; your past religious experience shapes your present beliefs.

 

Today, I invite you to find a piece of paper or open the notes app on your phone.  Jot down, fill in the blanks, to the following invitations:

God is…

Jesus is…

Spirit is…

Humans are…

I am…

The church is…

Salvation means…

Missing the mark/Brokenness/Sin is…

A few things about this exercise.  It is never one and done.  Our theology is being influenced and impacted by our experiences and encounters each day.  We may make sense of God one way today that tomorrow seems antiquated and out-of-date.  Secondly, notice if there is any thread woven through your statements.  For example, I could say God is unconditional love, Jesus is God’s love in flesh/breath/bone, and the Spirit enlivens each of us to live God’s love.  The theme is love.  I could talk about how humans choose fame/fortunate/followers online rather than love ~ because we trust more in the gospels of the world.  Play with your sentences, not just today, but in the week and days to come.  You are a theologian; you hold and are held by beliefs.  You have a recipe of faith you feast from and serve to others each day ~ let’s listen to that this week.

Prayer

 

Creator of all that was, is, and will be.  You continue to recycle the energy of life in the music of today.  You continue to call us to live from our reconciled spirits, rather than from wanting to be recognized and rewarded.  Help us, God, for too often this goes against the powerful gospel of the world.  Clean out our ears to hear anew Your conducting/composing ways.  Guide us to seek listening for understanding/insight rather than just thinking, “I’ll just do it myself, thanks anyway, God.”  Challenge us to notice that we are being shaped by what we give our attention and energy.  Savior, heal what is broken, especially when, as humans, we keep repeating history in heartbreaking ways.  We cannot erase the hurt of what was, so repair our woundedness of what is today.  We cannot eradicate all that divides us, because there is division within us.  Continue to open us to what You are up to in this world that we might delight in Your way and join our voices with others in the choir of all creation.  May each of us recognize that we spend time on the mat of the beloved in the story from last Sunday (Mark 2:1-12).  Help us honor that we all get by with more than just a little help from our friends.  And may this prayer provoke a new way of living as we let these words ground and guide us.  Create in us, through us, and help us cooperate with You. Amen.  

Statement of Faith ~ Week 4

 

We believe that our smallness can never diminish God’s vastness; that our frailties can never overcome God’s will for wholeness; that our sin can never crush God’s power for new life even in the face of death.  We believe, and in this belief, we need one another, as a choir needs every voice and every part for the harmony to be complete. An Affirmation of Christian Unity

 

When was the last time you felt your full humanness in the presence of God’s inexhaustibility?  I bristle a bit at the word “smallness” in the above creed.  Part of this is because of my own ego.  I don’t want to be small.  We have negative connotations of small, which is too bad.  Because there is holiness in all that is seen and unseen.  God is there in the bug crawling along the carpet.  God is in the atom we cannot see, and we know that the atom is in us and has been here since the beginning of time.  God is there in the mystery of the stars above and the depths of seas we have yet to explore.  Suddenly, I do feel a bit small.  I will never travel to space; I get motion sick in a car that goes too fast, let alone a rocket!  I will never dive to the deepest part of the ocean; I don’t even like swimming in my pool.  Maybe it is holy for me to name and notice that I am not the center of the universe.  Perhaps it is holy to remember my own fragility.  The creeds proclaim and propose that vulnerability is essential for community.  Recall moments of community from this past week, whether that was with one other person or a whole group.  How did that group help, and how did that group hurt?  Maybe you felt you couldn’t speak up or say what was on your mind, or maybe you shared too much (I often fall into the latter category).  Just as a choir seeks to bring/blend voices for sound, so too, our lives seek prayerfully to do the same.  In our world, it can feel like not only are we on different pages of the music, but we aren’t even in the same venue when we sing!  We can feel like we are singing from different pieces of music altogether.  We can feel like others are blaring and blasting sounds that send shivers down our spine.  To come back to center, to return to the One who is composing and conducting ~ God at the heart of all the music of our lives.  Ponder ways that you can relish and rejoice in smallness and share your voice as part of the unfolding larger choir of God.  What does that mean in your life?  How will you participate in singing out, not to overpower, but to cooperate and conspire?  May this invitation move within us today and in the days to come.  Amen.

Statement of Faith ~ Trinity as Holy Dance

 

We believe in God the Saviour revealed in the world as Jesus the Christ, who died and is risen, the one Lord of the church.  We believe in God the Reconciler, the Holy Spirit, who is always with us, bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. An Affirmation of Christian Unity

 

Yesterday, we noted that creeds begin by speaking about God.  The next part of most creeds speaks of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  The above speaks of Jesus and the Spirit being infused and inspired by God.  God is not only the Creator that we explored yesterday, but also the Savior and Reconciler.  God accomplishes God’s work in committee or in connection with Jesus and the Spirit.  God is relational in God’s activity.  I don’t claim to understand the Trinity.  I sense this as the holy dance of the Divine revealed in more ways than I will ever know.  I delight in the truth that God is not confined nor contained.  God is more than our words/thoughts/ideas.  As Karl Barth said, God is “The Holy Other”.  God in Jesus comes into the world, walks on the soil of the earth, and shares God’s love.  Because Jesus confronted the Empire of the World, the powers that be killed him.  The truth is that Good Friday isn’t just about the past, but the present.  We continue to hurt, harm, wound, and kill each other and the earth through violence as well as abuse in all its awful forms.  We keep choosing to use our creativity to come up with new ways to divide each other.  The “isms” of the world multiply in heartbreaking, soul-aching ways.  Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, agism, ableism, political dehumanization, economic oppression, and religious exclusionism, to name a few.  In fact, the way we treat others is how we treat the earth/God’s Creation.  I know that I can’t fix all of that alone.  That doesn’t mean I just veg out and binge-watch dog videos online.  I seek to engage where I can and how I can, knowing that God continues God’s salvific work today.  What is saving your life today?  Put another way, what is helping to align your head, heart, soul, body, and God’s fingerprints of love on your life?  I can be saved by a piece of music, a hug, a good lunch, a heartfelt discussion, or quietly standing outside as the sun sets.  Salvation is never one and done, but continual in our lives.  The church is called to be a safe space where we can be honest that we don’t have it all figured out.  The church becomes the place where we practice God’s love.  Yet, the church is made up of humans who can be and do very human things ~ see the list of isms above to recall this truth.  Those isms exist not just outside the walls of our homes/church but inside the confines of our very hearts.  We all carry around biases and brokenness.  Reconciliation isn’t only to God, but additionally to each other/Earth and continually day-by-day.  When was the last time you felt reconciled to someone?  Maybe a ruptured relationship with a friend found some duct tape of healing when you talked.  Or maybe you let loose your anger at God that things aren’t going so well and felt the cathartic healing of honesty.   Our lives preach a sermon that goes all over the place, taking unexpected exit ramps and getting way off course.  Our lives are a sermon: where and when are we practicing reconciliation because we are being renewed/saved/held by God?  May that question stir within you and sing from your life this day.  Amen.

Statement of Faith ~ Week 4

 

We believe in God the Creator, who is always creative and invites us to affirm and explore who we are, with all our differences, and who is the source of our faith. An Affirmation of Christian Unity

 

You may have noticed after the past three weeks that most creeds begin with a statement about God.  Sometimes the creed describes God’s activity.  You can look back at the UCC Statement of Faith.  In that creed, God creates, sets, seeks, saves, and judges.  All those are active verbs in the present tense.  The words from An Affirmation of Christian Unity give God a title: Creator.  We could also say Artist, Innovator, Inventor, or Sculptor.   Pause with me: how would you describe or define God’s activity, and what titles do you give to God?  Are the two in harmony, or is there a disconnect/dissonance?  There can be a gap between our descriptions of God and our lived experience of God.  Sometimes we talk about God as love but then act as if we must earn God’s affection and affirmation.  The words above affirm that the Creator is creating.  What new art piece is God working on within you or around you?  I can tell you, as a writer, a piece is never truly finished.  Rather, the time and day comes to publish and post this morning meditation after edits and revisions.  I know there are grammatical errors and things I want to rephrase, rework, and rethink.  But I offer these words, trusting and praying that God will work with/through and despite my mistakes and grammatical errors in your mind/heart/soul in response.  I am fascinated that, according to the above words, part of God’s creative work is to affirm and encourage us to explore who we are.  What did you discover about yourself last week?  What have you learned anew or again about yourself in the last year?  I invite you to stop reading and ponder those questions.  Finally, the creed affirms that we are all distinctive and different.  This is the beauty of diversity, and we know it can also, heartbreakingly, lead to divisions.  God can hold all that is unique in us in unity with each other, even/especially when we cannot.  I pray these words of the creed, and my words above, might awaken your thinking and living in these days as you explore your inexhaustible and exceptional life today.  Amen.  

Statements of Faith ~ Week 4

 

This week we will explore one more Creed.  Wait, you think, how many creeds are out there?!? And you thought your only choices were the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed!  As humans, we are wired to put words around the mystery of God we encounter and experience in our lives.  Remember that theology, including creeds, is autobiographical.  All we say about God says something about us.  Slowly read these words below with me:

 

An Affirmation of Christian Unity

We believe in God the Creator,
who is always creative and invites us to affirm and explore who we are,
with all our differences; and who is the source of our faith.
We believe in God the Saviour revealed in the world as Jesus the Christ, who died and is risen, the one Lord of the church.
We believe in God the Reconciler, the Holy Spirit, who is always with us bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.
We believe that our smallness can never diminish God’s vastness; that our frailties can never overcome God’s will for wholeness; that our sin can never crush God’s power for new life even in the face of death.
We believe, and in this belief, we need one another, as a choir needs every voice and every part for the harmony to be complete.

We believe - that in the Holy Spirit, in Jesus Christ and in the love of God -we are one!
We believe - and may our lives reflect our belief.

 

Which words above caused you to nod your head vigorously in agreement?  Which thoughts/sentences above did you shake your head emphatically, no, in disagreement?  And the deeper question: why do you think this was your reaction/response?  It is good to ask, when reading a creed, which words we connect with and where we want to take a red ink pen and rewrite the idea.  But it is also good to ask why this is our response.  It is good to remember that where we emphasize one word, the original author or authors might have had a completely different intention in writing.  For example, in the Apostles’ Creed, the line “born of the Virgin Mary”, we tend to debate and discuss the word “Virgin”.  But the intent of the authors was to emphasize the word “born”.  Among early Christians, some contended that Jesus wasn’t really born.  I guess he just magically appeared out of thin air?  Poof!  The early Christians debated and were divided between the group that emphasized Jesus’ humanity and the group clamoring/claiming divinity.  In some ways, this forced binary choice still exists.  Holding Jesus as both human and God is difficult, like trying to pick up a single grain of sugar.  When we read the creeds, the words are filtered through our experiences, encounters, histories, biases, and beliefs.  Usually, we tend to agree only when the idea is aligned with our experiences.  Sit with this creed over a cup of tea/coffee/favorite beverage of your choice.  Listen to the words - not to poke holes or point out its errors ~ because none of us appreciate others offering color commentary on our lives.  Listen like you are meeting a new friend with curiosity and openness.  Amen. 

Prayer

 

God, You form and fashion us and all creation with a Word.  Open our ears to hear.  Open our hearts to Your warmth.  Open our lives to Your still-singing voice. You continue to re-author, edit, and write anew/afresh on our hearts.  Open us to the mystery of Your ways, not that we can ever fully understand and articulate who You are and what You are up to.  Grant us renewed energy to be fascinated by discovering You each day.  Help us hold our opinions, beliefs, and theologies lightly, for what we say today might be stretched in a new way tomorrow.  God, You are endlessly knowable.  Thank you for human words that help us explore and examine our theologies and our own lives.  Thank you for different creeds that we can let loose our curiosity in seeing where we agree and why we might find certain ideas like sandpaper to our souls.  Keep us questioning and on a quest to discover the ways You are here, right now, in our lives, communities, and world.  Thank you, God, for the delight of our relationship with You.  Amen.