Statements of Faith

 

Slowly read the UCC’s Statement of Faith with me again:

 

We believe in God, the Eternal Spirit, who is made known to us in Jesus our brother, and to whose deeds we testify:

God calls the worlds into being, creates humankind in the divine image, and sets before us the ways of life and death.

God seeks in holy love to save all people from aimlessness and sin.

God judges all humanity and all nations by that will of righteousness declared through prophets and apostles.

In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Lord, God has come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the whole creation to its Creator.

God bestows upon us the Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and races.

God calls us into the church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be servants in the service of the whole human family, to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ’s baptism and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory.

God promises to all who trust in the gospel forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace, courage in the struggle for justice and peace, the presence of the Holy Spirit in trial and rejoicing, and eternal life in that kingdom which has no end.

Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto God.

Amen.

 

Calls…creates…sets…seeks…saves…judges.  Those are the six verbs used above to describe and define God’s activity ~ who God is and what God is up to in the world.  First, God calls.  I believe God sings out not just to humans, but to all creation, to praise.  Recall the sermon on Psalm 33 from Sunday.  Secondly, God creates us in God’s image.  Notice this is a present tense verb.  God didn’t create you, wipe the divine hands clean of the dust, and say, “All good here.”  God continues to craft you each day, and we are called to wake up to God’s movement in our lives.  Third, God sets and serves the invitation to choose life each day.  Remember from a few weeks ago, in the sermon I started with the Mary Oliver quote, “Every day when you wake up the world says to you, 'Here you are alive and awake and aware…care to make a comment?’”  God offers us ways that lead to life and ways that lead to pain, brokenness, and despair.  This theology comes from Deuteronomy 30:15: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.”  Every day we are given choices from our calling and continually being created in God’s image.  At the same time, in the original operating system of the human condition, we are given free will.  God doesn’t demand or decree that we do anything, because love is never forced.  Love is always invitational.  We can decide to follow and pave the path today with bricks of love or throw them at others with snarky comments online with keyboard courage as we hide behind anonymous screen names.  To be sure, some decisions have heavier consequences than others.  I don’t think my choice of breakfast cereals is going to change the world, but how I show up at a meeting at church will leave an impression.  Henri Nouwen once said that “Freedom is the core of the spiritual life.”  At the same time, people all around us choose death daily.  Whether through hate, spreading fear, abuse, anger (which is fear flexing muscles), belittling others, violence, and discrimination… all these are reflections of our very human ways.  So, the words above say that God seeks to save us from aimlessness and sin.  Fun Theological Nerd fact from the sermon two weeks ago: sin means missing the mark.  We need to reclaim the word “sin” from finger-wagging, pulpit pounding, hell/fire/brimstone.  God as some divine Santa Claus who makes us prove our worth, or sinners in the hand of an angry God dangling over flames licking our feet.  Good Lord, somewhere God is rubbing God’s temples, saying, “Why do I put up with this?” God’s vulnerable love was arriving as a baby born in a barn.  God’s sacrificial love was shown on the cross, rather than sword-swinging military power.  God’s resurrecting love on Easter still shows the wounds of Good Friday.  This is so counter-cultural, of course; our minds want to reconcile God’s upside-down mobility message with the consumeristic, winning, have-to-be- #1 mentality of our world.  I can hear you saying, “But what about that word, ‘judges’, Wes, that doesn’t sound very loving!”  Right, if we picture God as a human judge.  But what if God is a judge who wants what is best for us?  I recently heard a theologian describe a judge in a custody hearing for a child who said, “My job is to listen to everything and help put you in the best situation possible.”  Judging here is not about guilt or innocence, but about being God who is on our side, trying to help us see when we are aimless or are so angry we lash out at others.  God guides, refines, reconciles, renews, restores, and re-stories through the womb of mercy.  What verbs would you use to describe God?  Or flip through a hymnal to see how God is described in the hymns there; what words do we sing from our theological textbook of the hymnal?  Let this invitation stir and swirl around us as our calling, creating, setting, seeking, saving, and correcting God moves in our lives.