Rev. George Miller
August 3, 2025
The Apostles’
Creed
On May 25, the St. Louis Post Dispatch ran
an article about attendance rising in the city’s Greek Orthodox churches.
They are attracting younger people who are
drawn to the beauty, mystery, and wonder found in traditional worship. This pattern is seen in Muslim, Catholic, and Jewish places.
Those born on/around 1995 are going to spaces
with timeless practices, craving a sense of authenticity, ancient sacredness,
and belonging.
In an uncertain world that is so plugged
in, instant, and inauthentic, there are those who want something that feels
unrushed and real:
Liturgy with emotional depth, and a sense
of timeless continuity, such as singing songs their grandparents sang.
Think of last week. Our Youth returned from Back Bay with worship
featuring liturgy of
-the United Church of Canada Statement of
Faith
-Conference of Catholic Bishops
-“Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus” from Family of God.
Today’s reading stems from a conversation with
Sarah Margenau one Monday, after Bible Study.
She inquisitively asked why St. Lucas no longer says The Apostles’
Creed and Statement of Faith.
As someone of Congregational roots, I
didn’t know these existed until attending Eden.
My heart listened to all Sarah said about
the wonder and majesty of these words; what it meant to learn, know, say.
The Apostles’ Creed has been part of
Sarah’s tradition and St. Lucas. When,
why did it stop? That’s a question for
another time. Today we look at this
piece of church history.
Picture it- Rome, 325- faith in Christ is
flourishing all over the place. But it’s
not unified.
People believing, teaching different
things about Jesus, arguing over who he is, what his relationship to God is.
Into this chaos, the emperor Constantine sets
a goal - lets unify the nation under one faith with a Creed that unites
Christians, but also keeps them in line, so they are faithful citizens to Rome.
This becomes known as the Nicene
Creed. Over the next 300 years this
morphs into the Apostles’ Creed, less “imperial” but more intimate.
It's a unifying statement to connect all Christians,
create a seamless sense of identity and belonging, while setting boundaries
around what being a Christian means.
Saying the Apostles’ Creed doesn’t just
connect you to the person in the pew next to you, but to your ancestors who
said these words centuries ago.
Today we’ll focus on three statements from
the Creed.
1)Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. 2) He suffered under Pontius Pilate. 3) He descended into hell.
What may these 3 statements mean to our
modern ears?
1st- Jesus was born of the
Virgin Mary. Scholarship has called this
statement into question, though its roots have profound meaning.
Looking back to 325 to 650, we think of the
limited role women had in society and in organized religion.
But here, a woman is named; one who was
poor, a traveler, who was denied room in the inn.
It is as if across time, the sacred Holy
Spirit is smiling and whispering to us- “Guess what- even in the oldest,
most honored of traditions, a woman’s story is central.”
Though the Apostles’ Creed was credited to
men, influenced by an emperor seeking control, a poor immigrant woman gets the
spotlight and says “I’m here.”
To say Jesus was born is paradigm-
shifting. Crafted when some saw the body
as evil/bad, this Creed says Jesus didn’t fall from the sky- he was born, like
us.
Jesus was embodied; he had a Mama; a bellybutton. He was born into a family with history,
culture, traditions. He cried, thirsted,
enjoyed the aroma of sweet-smelling perfume.
2nd- Jesus suffered under
Pontius Pilate. How this crept into the
Nicene and Apostles’ Creed is a testimony to the subversive nature of God.
It is a political statement, ripe with
significance, bringing our attention to Jesus’s death as an execution, taking
place under the hands of politicians.
To say he suffered under Pilate is to
expose the injustice, to name the indignity that Jesus endured by the
government’s doing.
It's the Holy Spirit sweeping in to say
“That baby boy with the bellybutton who was born to Mary- those in power tried
their best to silence the work of God- but they could not.”
3rd- the statement that Jesus
descended into hell. This, for some, is a
troublesome part of the Creed.
No scripture explicitly states this. The United Methodist church deletes this
line. Not everyone believes hell exists.
Yet- there is weight to what this line
states. To say Jesus descended into hell
means there is no place where Jesus is not; that all the lonely, scary places
we have been, or currently are in- Jesus is there.
The sadness we carry, Jesus sits with
us. Our private hells- Jesus descends
with us. Those long starry nights, the
difficult choices we must make, those who hurt us, the people we’ve had to say
goodbye to. Jesus is there.
In closing, folks have said this Creed for
over 1,300 years. It’s been updated,
translated, remembered, forgotten, questioned, loved.
There are those who’d be ecstatic if we
reinstated the Apostles’ Creed, feeling like a lost piece of tradition
returned.
There are others who would say “Not my
words, not my beliefs, not my background.”
Some would wrap themselves in the Creed
like a warm blanket; others would see it as something to wrestle with.
The Apostles’ Creed is a piece of our church
history. It has created wonder and awe, a
sense of sacred belonging, and timeless continuity.
We thank inquisitive Sarah who inspired
today’s message.
As love continues to grow here at St.
Lucas UCC, may we find ways to collectively discern the future ahead, knowing
that our roots from the past are part of our flourishing in the future.
Amen.
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