Creed. Now that's a funny word. What is that word?
What does it mean and where did it come from? Well, the word creed means a confession or a statement of belief. Our word creed comes from the Latin verb credere, meaning to believe.
Credo in unum deum, I believe in one God. And indeed, we do believe in one God. We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. We believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, God from God, light from light, true God from true God.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. We believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And this is the basis of the Christian creed, whether we're talking about the Apostles'Creed or we're talking about the Nicene Creed.
It's a reference to the Trinity, our understanding of who God is. And it forms the basis for our entire worship and the worship of the Christian church throughout the ages. Now one of the things in the Wesleyan tradition that is an interesting point of debate, and for whatever reason has been a point of debate even more in recent years, is the value of the creeds in our worship or the value of the creeds in general. Some say that the creeds are out of date, they're overly formal, that the language of the creeds is no longer understood, or that there's some problem with the creeds because They don't focus on us and on our action or our mission, our calling in the world.
I think that all of these points of debate are actually easily understood when we come to grips with how the creeds developed, what their purpose is intended to serve, and what the value is that they have for us today. The creeds are what they are because they were the expression of Our doctrine about God in the early centuries of the church. The Apostles'Creed is the oldest of our creeds, and it developed as a baptismal formula, perhaps as early as the second century in Christian worship. As new Christians were being baptized on Easter, the baptismal candidate would be lowered into the water by the priest or the bishop.
And after the first time under the water, the pastor would bring the baptismal candidate up and say, Do you believe in God the Father? And the baptismal candidate would reply, I believe in God the Father Almighty. Into the water again and back up.
Do you believe in God the Son? I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. Once more into the water and back up.
Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? I believe in the Holy Spirit. So that at the very moment of baptism, at the very moment when a person was brought into the family of God, he or she, was enabled to express faith in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And indeed, that's what the creeds are.
They're not intended to be statements of our mission as Christians. They're not action-oriented items, but rather they are confessions. Confessions of who we know and who we believe God to be.
Let me say something about the importance of the creeds and why I think it is significant that Wesleyan folk not only know about the creeds but actually use the creeds in worship? I think that there are three primary reasons. The first is that confessing a creed is itself an act of worship. For a congregation to stand together and to say, I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe in the Holy Spirit. And to confess the things that the three articles of the creeds say about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are themselves acts of worship. They're bringing glory to God because they are telling God who we know Him to be. They're telling God that we have received His revelation, that we worship Him, that we adore Him, and that we trust in His promises to us.
Those are all forms of praise and adoration, and they do glorify God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The second thing that I think is very important about the creeds is that they are, and especially here I would say the Nicene Creed, it is the broadest statement of Christian unity both across space and across time. The Nicene Creed, which was initially set down at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and was edited and filled out at the Council of Constantinople in the year 381, was agreed to by all Christians across the world at the time. It is in that sense the most ecumenical of all creeds, past and present, and is the creed that is most often said by Christians around the world.
even to this day, so that when we confess the Creed as a congregation in a local church, we are standing in unity with Christians from the fourth century to the 21st. And in that sense, we are making a deeply ecumenical statement about what it means for the church to be one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic. And then the third reason that I think that it's important for us to not only know the creeds but to actually embrace the creeds and to use them in worship, is that the creeds make a witness to the world. When we stand together and, as the Christian community, confess our belief in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we are, well, we're on the hook, so to speak. We are making a public claim.
We're making a public witness. We are, in some sense, following the command of Jesus Christ, to go out into the world to make disciples of all nations and to teach everything that He has taught us. The creeds teach who God is. The creeds teach who God is to us in Jesus Christ, who came to us in the flesh, died and was raised again. The creeds teach us about the Holy Spirit sent from the Father through the Son, that the church might not be left alone but will be filled will be invigorated and indeed will be led forward towards the kingdom until Christ comes again.
And so for all three of these reasons, because they amount to an expression of pure praise and adoration, because they are a deeply ecumenical confession tying Christians together both across time and in space, and because the creeds make a public witness, they are to be valued, they're to be embraced. And they're not just to be memorized, but they are to be used as wonderful tools in worship, confessed together, so that we might bring glory and honor to God.