August 15, 2021
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So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.
– Romans 10:17
Every week in worship, we follow a tradition that has been passed down to us through the ages, and that tradition is the reciting of a creed of faith. We typically say it is the affirmation of our faith, and our custom is to recite the Apostle’s Creed. There are other creeds and affirmation such as the Nicaean Creed, which are in our hymnal, but I wonder if we know why we have these affirmations?
From the time in which the church was established through resurrection of Jesus, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, humanity has struggled with how to live their faith; questioned what are faith’s requirements? And asked how can I be assured of my salvation? As the message of the gospel spread from the Jews to the Gentiles, and from there into many different nations and cultures, the way people practiced their faith adapted and changed as well. It’s why so many of the letters of Paul and even the ones from Peter and John focus on the basics of how one should interact with another through grace and reconciliation. Everywhere they went different peoples disagreed with how to worship God. Churches developed different traditions and different expressions of their faith.
Under the leadership of the Roman Emperor Constantine in 325 AD, who was the first to advocate for Christianity a council was called bringing together Christian leaders of that time from all over the known world. The purpose was to create a consensus of the basics of Christendom, from here we get the Nicaean Creed, which at the time represented the very foundations of what one should believe to truly be Christian. As we might imagine there was great debate, and even though a creed was formed, some still disagreed. The church continued to spread and grow, and more cultures were converted to Christianity which created more expressions of faith. By 1054 these divisions became so great especially between the growing western culture in Rome and moving towards Britain, and the eastern cultures that remained in the Holy Lands and expanded to Africa and Asia that the church had a great schism. Even though it is argued that the schism was more greatly caused by political disagreement than faith disagreements, it still makes the first great division in the church based on culture. Other divisions would follow, and as we look even at our American Christianity we see the plethora of denominations that all profess to following Christ, and belief in God through the death and resurrection of Christ.
Pauls’ letter to the Romans in some ways speaks to our cultural divisions. Even though he was a once a Jewish pharisee, someone who believed in keeping every letter of the law, his faith in Christ transformed his understanding. Paul recognized that Christianity was meant for the salvation of people of every culture, it was a salvation for all people, and all of creation. As he confesses faith comes from hearing the words of Christ, the recognition is that we all hear Christ’s words and as we open ourselves to believe through faith. God works in us to create a change in heart. God hears our cries and brings us to salvation. We do change because of the love of God, but the greatest part of that change is to learn to love like Christ, and understand that we are now a part of great multitude of believes from all nations, ages, races. We won’t all express our faith in the same way, but we are called together through one love.
If anything can mend the things that often divide us, it is learning to love those whom God loves, and showing compassion that all might hear the words of Christ and believe through faith.
Grace & Peace,
Sam