Worship Notes—The Creed and Our Confession of Faith

 

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Here is a relatively new part of the Sunday liturgy: our Confession of Faith, or the Creed.  “Creed” comes from “credo,” which means, “I believe.”  And when we say, “I/we believe…” it is a “confession of faith.”

 

The two most common creeds are the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds.  (You can also find the Athanasian Creed in the front of our green LBW hymnal, pp.54-55.)  A few creeds are sung, including #87 in our Morning Promise songbook.  There is flexibility in which, when, where and how often the Creeds should be used, but they should never become dusty.

 

I said the creeds were “relatively new” to Sunday liturgy.  That is partially true: they were not universally found as a regular part of Sunday liturgy until the 14-1500’s.  However, they immerged from the very old baptismal creed in the New Testament when Jesus told his disciples to baptize “in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”  Over the next several centuries that Trinitarian creed expanded as Christianity was defined apart from its heresies.

 

In Reaching Out without Dumbing Down, Marva Dawn speaks of the importance of keeping “God as the subject” of our worship.  In our liturgy, we have confessed our sins and heard forgiveness, we have heard God’s Word in scripture, and the sermon has sought to reflect on and apply that Word to us.  Now, we turn to focus on God: “We believe in God…” The Creed is not only a response, but it also recalls our baptism and begins to prepare us for his Table where we will hear those promises of forgiveness brought into the present.

 

Some feel that we need to throw out traditional materials because they do not appeal to new generations.  Marva Dawn points out that at critical moments people need basic traditions and beliefs to find anchor.  Some things need to be preserved for the sake of continuity of message and clarity of belief.  But Dawn and I agree that tradition for tradition’s sake is not enough.  We must also understand and teach the value of the Creed.

 

Where is God in the Creed?  One of my friends, a Presbyterian minister in New Jersey, once described a pivotal experience of God through the Apostles’ Creed.  She was in an old church with a big stained-glass window.  On it were painted the words of the Creed.  And as she read those words out loud, she got a sense of the millions of Christians and the variety of voices who had made that same confession of faith and handed it on to her.  She realized she wasn’t the only one speaking; she was joined by the whole Body of Christ.

 

Next “Worship Notes” – The Prayers of the People & the Passing of the Peace

 

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