The Nicene Creed - Week 1 w/Pastor Jenn Swift

Good morning, everyone. We are starting a new

series. I'm super stoked to get to preach the

first message of it because it really digs into

church history. I really love history, as you

know. So, yeah, I will just jump right into it

because, well, not because. I always have to

feel like I'm transitioning us into it. If you've

been here a minute, you know me. I don't have

to worry about that. So, okay, 32 years ago,

it sounds like I'm starting with my life story.

Before I was born, everyone, I want to tell you

about, okay, 32 years ago, almost a week to the

day, Rich Mullins put out an album called A Liturgy,

A Legacy, and A Ragamuffin Band. I was a senior

in high school. I had been a Christian for just

a little over three years, and I was in the very

early stages of exploring my faith and how to

practice it. This album was important to me for

a lot of reasons, one of which was that for those

of us who were growing up Christian in a certain

generation where Rich's music was new, it affected

us in a way that's hard to describe. Who remembers

this album? Yeah, thank you. We have two people

back there. I think there's probably, at least

for people I know of our generation, it was a

seminal album for us, for sure. It was music

that was the most genuine and honest of kinds,

and it was without guile. It described a faith

that was often messy and complicated, joyful

and heartbreaking, and not always easy to find,

but worth asking questions about and worth evaluating,

worth getting to the core of. And very much about

a God whose love was relentless towards its creation.

For me, the songs remind me of New York, where

I grew up. They remind me of some really good

time in high school and youth group, new beginnings

and looking ahead to college. The album also

helped give me some tools for my faith that were

new to me. The album formally introduced me to

some historic practices of the church that I

would come to love. The church has these historic

practices like communion and baptism. We're very

familiar with those things. They are in the scriptures.

We see them laid out. But as the church grew

and spread out, additional practices were added.

We follow the church calendar here throughout

the year. It is the reason these things change

color. They tell us where in the year that we

are. They lead us through specific times which

have prescribed structure. We say collective

prayers together that are constructed from within

our local community that we've now set as a body

for 11 years, one of which we said today as our

prayer of work. And Rich's album collected a

number of these pieces from... The history of

the church body. There are songs about communion

on this album and the passing of the peace, and

there is a song called Creed, in which he simply

sings the words of the Apostles' Creed, a predecessor

of what would later become known as the Nicene

Creed. This is what our sermon series is about,

the Nicene Creed. You know it as the words we

say on the fifth Sundays that begin with... I

believe in one God, the Father Almighty, the

maker of heaven and earth. And we sang a variation

of that today in the song, I Believe. At the

time, back in high school, I had probably said

the Nicene Creed maybe just a handful of times.

But I had likely not thought about what it was

or where it came from. And that's the thing about

a number of these traditions. They are things

that we've either always known or have always

done, but we have little context for. They are

tradition. And by that definition, it gets redone

every year at certain times. It is very easy

to lose where these things came from. So that's

what we're going to get into. So a creed is simply

a statement of belief, the word being lifted

directly off the page of the original Latin,

which was the language of the empire in which

this was developed. Credo in unum Deo. Translated,

I believe in one God. This is the opening line,

and from here on out, a statement of belief is

a creed. Credo statements allow us to reenter

the framework to which we adhere. When things

become unclear in our walk with the Lord, this

helps us re -see the structure that holds it

up. The creed is not the thing of belief. We

don't believe in the creed, but it helps us see

and remember the thing in which our belief is

founded on. And this is why I love... what the

church historic has provided over time, and how

I know others have felt the same. They have given

us the gifts in the form of liturgy. These are

scaffolding framework and structures that we

can look to to understand what is the build of

this thing. I have talked about the church year

using the metaphor of a map. The church year

helps you know where you're going, or if you

get lost, it gives you a marker to get back to.

Things like creeds do something similar. They

give you points for pause and reflection. They

provide reminders of how you got to where you

are today or points to return to when you are

feeling lost. A creed can be a great tool and

a reminder of what your faith is meant to look

like. Creeds get you to the core. They help you

get unstuck from the weeds. They get you to the

irreducible minimums. And so the early church

spent a lot of time working through what these

irreducible minimums were. So a quick word on

the format of this and content of this message.

Because this message is largely a teaching message

and heavily historic, the creed itself is the

home text that we are jumping off from. In all

ways, it is a result of the careful evaluation

of scriptural texts. But because of this, I will

be presenting text along the way versus working

from a passage. We will be jumping around many

passages today, so I suggest if there are some

that you want to circle back to, have a paper

and pen handy so you can just jot down the references

and then you can go back and reread them later.

With that said, let's use this as the point at

which we're going to pray for today's message

and what God has for us. God, we welcome you

into this space in our hearts. You are here.

We acknowledge that you are present with us,

but we want to recognize an invitational spirit

within us to say to you, we want to hear from

you. We want to learn from you. We want to grow.

And so use these words and our look at the creeds

today as encouragement. Help. It tie us more

deeply to the church body historic and the church

body globally. Let us see the bigger picture

of your work in this world and who you have been

to us. Help us grow in who you are and in our

faith today. Let me pray this in your name. Amen.

So, guys, I think we know that the Church of

the New Testament was a scrappy bunch of people.

They were common. They were unpolished. They

were not society's best in a contest of clout.

Even Rich's album holds a word that would be

appropriate for these early followers. Ragamuffin.

The word in the album's title is referring to

Brendan Manning's book, The Ragamuffin Gospel.

If you want to know more about this, ask Greg,

ask Cindy. You will watch their whole face change

when they talk about this book. The book centers

on the truth that Jesus came for the bedraggled,

the beat up, and the burnt out, the outcasts

and imperfect people, the ragamuffins. The church

got its start before it really had time to think

about what it was. And as the church began to

take root further out from Jerusalem, Judea,

Samaria, and into the areas known as the ends

of the earth, the core aspects of the message

also started getting a little stretched. 1 Timothy

1 .3 says, As I urged you when I went to Macedonia,

stay there in Ephesus so that you may command

certain people not to teach false doctrines any

longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless

genealogy. Such things promote controversial

speculations rather than advancing God's work,

which is by faith. Galatians 1, 6. I am astonished

that you are so quickly deserting the one who

called you to live in the grace of Christ and

are turned to a different gospel, which is really

no gospel at all. Evidently, some people are

throwing you into confusion and are trying to

pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we

or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel

other than the one we preached to you. Let them

be under God's curse, as we have already said.

So now I say again, if anyone is preaching to

you a gospel other than what you accepted, let

them be under God's curse. Wow. So even in the

early church, already we are starting to see

a stray, a movement from the gospel was being

distorted even early on. The young church hadn't

been around for more than a few decades when

these words were being written, and things were

starting to go a little off the rails. So I want

to jump ahead a few hundred years. Can you imagine

what happened in that time? We're going to land

in the first quarter of the fourth century, and

it was a really pivotal time in the history of

the world. Constantine, you've probably heard

his name. Has just become the emperor of Rome.

The Roman emperor. Christians have been a minority

group, but things are about to change. The old

Roman empire is on its last legs. The new will

be ushered in. Constantine is a catalyst for

this. He moves the operations of the empire to

Byzantium in modern -day Turkey, the city that

became modern -day Istanbul. Not? There we go.

thank you and in a bold move he decriminalizes

christianity and ends the era of persecution

for them so in the two centuries between when

the church had started and where we find ourselves

now You had those, the church grew significantly

during that time. So you had those that leaned

towards more esoteric and philosophical ideas

of Christianity and that there's like secret

knowledge that only certain people can know.

Or you also had those who wanted distinct clarity

on every single point. So they got really, really

stuck in doctrine and dogma. Certain thinkers

developed unique strains of thought and gained

followers and churches or regional groups of

churches each. had their own rules of faith that

would be adopted at baptism. The waters of orthodoxy

had gotten murkier and murkier. Various teachings

gained strength, and there was no real good collective

plumb line. There were collections of scriptures,

but even those were still being verified and

discussed and collected and canonized. So by

the time Constantine was ready to say, hey, you

know, the Christians are cool, We're fine with

them. It had to get cleaned up a bit because

once the faith was no longer underground, sharp

theological disputes emerged, particularly about

things like the nature of Christ. Is he divine?

Is he one with the Father? So Arianism was a

prevalent doctrine that rejects the traditional

notion of the Trinity. It is... you might think

that I'm going on a side quest. When I tell you

that Arianism was so... I just had the word.

It was sort of... What's that? It was really

prolific, and it was a big problem in the church.

So it was a prevalent doctrine that rejects the

traditional notion of the Trinity, teaching that

Jesus was created by God and is therefore distinct

from and subordinate to God. The council's outcome,

so this council that got together to decide some

things, I'm about to talk about it, deemed that

this was a heretical idea. That was the outcome

of it. But this view threatened the unity of

the church. The unity of the church was not Constantine's

concern, but because it was such a big deal,

it was also... potentially problematic for the

empire. And that was of Constantine's concern.

How are these things connected? Reasonable question

from a 21st century church. Religion is to us

a personal thing and something you practice on

your own. Not here. Because in the history of

the empire, religion was civic. It was all of

us. It was the case with Rome Historic, and it

was meant to be the case when Constantine eventually

said, this is our whole personality now. So wanting

both theological and political stability would

make sense. And so things had to get unified

in the church. He called the first ecumenical

council together to resolve it. It was a political

initiative. Let's get you folks together to talk

this out because it was such... an unstable source

in the empire. So in the summer months of 325

Common Era, the first contemporary era, the first

gathering is said to have occurred. It happened

in Turkey, in Nicaea, with about 200, so 220

to 300 bishops, mainly from the Eastern Roman

Empire. So think Turkey, Palestine, Syria, Northern

Africa, Armenia, Georgia, Persia. Honestly, places

we today do not think of the Christian church,

but they were critical. They were our church

fathers. And then there was a small representation

from the West. So there's so much we could talk

about here, like there's so much, and I would

love to talk about that with you if you want

to talk more after this. But we need to jump

another 55 years to the future, to 381 CE, rather.

So Constantine's dead. Heresies are still around

in the empire. Arianism, among others, still

have tendrils and spaces far and wide. Civil

war was literally on the table for the empire

because of this. New Emperor Judas Theodosius,

the first, is in charge at this point. So Christendom

has come a long way. New issues have arisen,

new heresies to combat, in addition to the old

ones. Especially now, what does the nature of

the Trinity, or excuse me, the Trinity and the

Holy Spirit look like? So Theodosius requests

a defense of the faith from all the major sects

providing, that they provide sort of... We need

to get back to this because we are falling apart.

We need you to really, really nail down what

you believe. So the first council did come up

with something. It was in use for about 60 years.

And then it needed to be expounded upon. It wasn't

carrying the weight that it needed to for the

church. It needed to become more robust. Words

needed to become clearer. So what I'm saying

is over this amount of time, the thing that we

say on the fifth Sunday. was labored over. It

was a potentially empire -crushing thing for

this not to get solved. That's kind of a surprise,

I would think, for those of us who, you know,

we just say this casually on our fifth Sunday,

right? This is a big, big deal. So, a word on

this. Christians had to develop the biblical

and philosophical traditions that they inherited.

And what I mean by this, so like the principles

of one God and Father Almighty maker of heaven

and earth, they were present, they existed, they

were comfortable, but their meanings were not

fully appreciated until the questions of the

origin were made clear. We have to talk about

where does this all get? founded in? What is

the root of all this? Do we just believe it because

this is what we've just always done? Or do we

understand where the foundations of this all

lie? And so I think we can all appreciate not

blindly accepting something because it's the

way it's always been done, right? That's essentially

what they were trying to get away from. The apostolic

church got rolling before they could really ask

questions about what they were doing. We see

in somewhat real time in the scriptures the things

that they were figuring out in the moment. How

to care for widows, how to handle communion,

how to treat the poor, how to respond to society.

They had to figure out a lot as they went along.

They were learning how to listen to the Spirit

of God and hold true to the words of Jesus as

things came up. And so with just about everything

we do, we figure out practice in the moment.

What do we do about fill in the blank? Often

the plan and policy get rarely really parsed

out only after you have had time to look at how

you've been doing things. So these councils reviewed

scripture. Incidentally, the Bible in the form

most Catholics would know it in was also generally

agreed upon. around 382 in Rome, in the Western

Church. So these councils reviewed scripture,

considered the practices and the traditions of

the churches that had already taken into consideration

some of these big topics. They debated the position.

Arianism that I talked about, Arius himself was

present at the first council to defend himself,

later got exiled. They prayed and asked the Spirit

for wisdom, and I believe that they took the

assignment quite seriously. And they did this

all so that they could come up with, we believe.

Given what I just told you, the significance

of this one opening line, credo, we believe,

I believe, is profound. When I tell you it was

a big deal to say as much together, it was a

big deal. to get to that point. So we believe.

Sure, belief, it just makes sense to start with

it, right? But it's bigger than that. Yes, it's

a good place to start when talking about a statement

of faith, but know that it was a hard -fought

landing point. The start carried the weight of

the whole church up to that point. In our world

today, when we think about what it means to believe,

We make that word belief and faith nearly synonymous

with each other. We think of something that is

blindly accepted without evidence. Not entirely,

but we do understand the word almost as even

things that have evidential backing. Often in

our world today, faith and science are opposed

to each other or often pitted against each other

because one is assumed to be based in evidence

and the other is not. That is our current perspective

in a lot of ways. But the term belief means almost

exactly the opposite today from what they meant

in the early church. The church fathers, Irenaeus

being one of them, was writing in the second

century. He outlines some of the essential elements

that make clear that faith is not a subjective

opinion, but is based on actual evidence and

objective reality. Belief is based on what is

known. So for the early church, belief and knowledge

work together. We have faith when we learn something

from another. We have knowledge when we see something

for ourselves. Honestly, almost everything we

think we know, we, in fact, believe on the testimony

and authority of others. We believe most things

our friends relate to us about their lives and

experience. That we often have not witnessed

these things firsthand, but we believe them to

be true based on what somebody is telling us.

We believe the history, geography, and science

we've been taught, even though we were not present

at the events, have not visited the places, or

cannot verify the science. Due to time, inclination,

or ability, it is actually impossible to investigate

every question for ourselves, isn't it? It is

completely reasonable, then, to experience belief

in most areas of our life based on what we have

been told from the testimonies of others. We

cannot operate our daily lives without it. So

how can we have belief in God based on this thinking?

How can faith exist universally? This was the

importance of the apostles' work. This was why

in the development of the Bible canon, the accounts

of Acts and the letters of Paul, Peter, James,

and Jude were so important and why they worked

together to recognize their veracity. The church

history traced back to ground zero. The traditions

that had the deepest roots, the practices that

lined up with Jesus. And so it is with the testimony

of those who had experienced and known Jesus

that others were commanded to go and tell others

so that they would also then believe. Mark 16,

15 through 16 said to them, go into all the world

and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,

but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

It was based on, belief was going to be based

on somebody else's testimony. John 20, 29, Jesus

said to him, Have you believed because you have

seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen

and yet have believed. It was about the testimony.

We believe was not a guess in the dark. It was

deeply rooted in what the church had experienced

from the point of Jesus. It was presenting what

it had already found to be true as to what to

build the structure of one's faith on. Belief

was based on the evidence of the apostles and

their experience and their testimony and their

witness. But as we said, the church was dealing

with all sorts of ideas here in this point in

which the creed was called upon to be put together.

So the church was dealing with all sorts of ideas

about who it was. that they were following and

how they were following. For the early church

and the catalyst issues of the councils, the

key questions were about the nature of Jesus

and the Holy Spirit. God the Father had been

worked out long before the council met in the

face of challenges from Gnosticism paganism in

the second and third centuries, early Christians

started to work out systematically what it meant

that there is only one God who is Father Almighty.

Because they had to. Consider the context of

the early church. Greeks, pantheistic. Romans,

pantheistic. Even Egyptians had a long history

there from their dynasties. Pantheistic. It is

not unheard of to have a monotheistic religion

in the ancient world, but monotheism was definitely

in the minority. While there is ample testimony

in Scripture that God is called Father and Almighty,

there is no occurrence of these terms actually

together. So we have, we believe in one God,

Father Almighty. There is no occurrence of these

terms together. But God is called Father 17 times

in the Old Testament and more than 250 times

in the New. And in the Greek translations of

the Old Testament, it occurs more than 150 times.

The precedent is there. Again, all of this, all

of the things from the creeds are rooted in the

scriptures. So early Christian tradition speaks

about God as Father in a few distinct ways. And

because nothing could be taken for granted, it

all needed to be reviewed and evaluated. I think

often our idea of God as father becomes very

zeroed in on one aspect of father. God as dad.

We hear father and go directly to God, the top

dad figure. And though that has some founding,

as we just talked about. Father is mentioned

a lot in the scriptures. We tend to overlook

the broadness of the idea that the early church

was forced to consider. Jesus certainly led the

way on this, thinking even instructing us to

pray our Father and setting the tone for us by

calling Yahweh Abba, with Galatians later guiding

us to do the same. Galatians 4, 6, because you

are his children, God sent the spirit of his

Son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out,

Abba, Father. But also, God as Father Almighty

Dad is the bearded dude sitting on the throne

punishing us when we misbehave. This is the prevalent

thinking when we talk about God the Father. We

have combated this thinking in our modern worship

because we know how prevalent it is by singing

songs like you're a good, good father. Because

we need to remind ourselves. Because we have

adhered most commonly to the trope of the dad

who is told all the day's wrongs. You just wait

until your father gets home. It is where we have

landed in terms of understanding God the Father

Almighty. However, the early church did not see

God the Father the same way and in such a narrow

way. Yes. Yahweh is the father that Jesus referred

to, and we have created images of God existing

this way as a parent. Think of all the artwork

from the Renaissance era. But I want to shift

that thinking from parent, father as parent,

to father as source, the starting point, the

beginning, which has different connotations to

it. Has different impressions. 1 Corinthians

8, 6. Yet for us there is but one God, the Father,

from whom all things came and for whom we live.

And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through

whom all things came and through whom we live.

Deuteronomy 32, 6. In this way you repay the

Lord, you foolish and unwise people. Is he not

your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed

you? Psalm 139, 13 through 15. For you created

my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's

womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and

wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I

know that full well. And Isaiah 64, 8. Yet you,

Lord, are our Father. We are the clay and you

are the potter. We are the work of your hand.

Father as not just parent, but Father as source.

Father as creator. When we broaden our understanding

of father to include father as source, some other

things fall into place more easily. Because if

we see God the father as parent only, it changes

what almighty means. It gives us that sense of

the judgmental dad, the big guy. But if we understand

God the Father as source, almighty is refrained

and carries us through to the almighty source

that is now the maker of heaven and earth, all

that is visible and invisible. It carries us

forward. Colossians 1 .16 For in him all things

were created, things in heaven and on earth,

visible and invisible. Unlike other ancient creation

stories where the world is a result of violence

or a fall, Genesis 1 tells the story of a good

God who creates a good world through his creative

reason. Through speech, God brings order out

of chaos and light out of darkness. Written probably

during the Babylonian exile, Genesis 1 is a kind

of declaration of war on the Babylonian gods.

Heaven and earth is much like a phrase that encompasses

all, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the

end, from the east to the west. Some of the other

prevalent controversies centered around thoughts

of different realms of existence. So the Gnostics

and others often said that there were different

makers for different realms. There was a father

of the heavenly realm, but also a malevolent

demiurge of the earthly realm. Or our souls came

from a source of light, whereas our bodies came

from a source of darkness. These were prevalent

ideas and philosophies that sort of ran around

and absorbed Christianity and intermingled with

it. Alternatively, in a polytheistic culture,

invisible spirits, where God's rivals, equals,

or subordinates could be equal to God rather

than his creatures. The Creed states emphatically

that God is the maker of heaven and earth, which

includes all things visible and invisible. God

was not one of many. God is Father Almighty,

sovereign, source over all. And by being so capable

of being the singular source of all things, It

was a radical and bold move for Christianity

to say that God is not the highest thing in the

world, but rather the radically transcender creator

of it. He is not subject to time or space, but

is the creator of time and space existing outside

of it. Creation is not ultimate so that God finds

a place within it. God is not a being that is

situated within creation. Rather, God is the

source of all creation and all the beings found

within it, which is why God, the source almighty,

is capable of being the source from which all

things, heaven and earth, invisible and visible,

are created. In fact, this was driven home harder

in the revisiting of the creed in 381 from the

original in 325. In 325, they walked away having

completed this statement, We believe in one God,

the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible

and invisible. They revisited this in 381, adding,

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, the

maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible

and invisible. Because they were combating very

real ideologies that were existing that they

needed to come to very distinct understanding

of. So things we take for granted. had to be

worked through and worked through and wrestled

and discussed and had to have time to sit and

be revisited. The framework was not entirely

built when Jesus called Peter to be the first

pastoral leader, which feels wild to us, right?

That feels a little reckless, just picking a

human to build a church on. I mean, it wasn't.

Let me be very clear. But when you think of all

that came after it, And how little the disciples

started with? They started with a calling and

the Spirit of God. And Jesus said, that is enough

to get you going. And you have my teachings.

There you go. And truthfully, the early church

also thought Jesus was returning in a month.

It was imminent. It was coming very soon. And

so they just sort of lived in a survival mode.

But as the church went on, And they had to figure

things out, and they had to work in a world in

which an empire was changing, and leaders were

changing, and things were moving, and Christianity

was moving into spaces where cultures were different.

They had to figure more things out. And so that's

what they did. It was forged over time. The church

developed before it knew what it was. Time necessitated

organization. Teachings came out of cultural

settings and practice. The words of Jesus and

the leading of the spirit. Theology is a luxury

of time. The creed is not magic. There's nothing

specifically holy imbued in it. However, much

like there are things in our world that help

us remember our path. the direction we're facing,

the code that keeps us clear -eyed. If anyone's

ever had a vowel renewal ceremony or reflected

once again on the commitments made, a creed is

a tool for us. With all of this said, we can

appreciate that when we here speak the creed

together and we begin with, we believe, we can

hold on to that moment with a bit more understanding

and even awe for how we got here. It is not a

given that we can say we believe together in

one heart and one faith. The book of Hebrews

is entirely about the faith that was passed down

to us. 2, 1 through 4 says, We must pay the most

careful attention, therefore, to what we have

heard, so that we do not drift away. For since

the message spoken through the angels was binding

and every violation and disobedience received

its just punishment, how shall we escape if we

ignore so great a salvation? The salvation which

was first announced by the Lord was confirmed

to us by those who heard it. God also testified

to it by signs and wonders and various miracles

and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according

to his will. We believe in what was held to be

true by those whom Jesus chose to build the church

on. and they mindfully recorded what they knew

and experienced. We also believe because of the

faith of those who have come before, who tested

the truth of Jesus, the work of the Spirit in

the church historic, with the weight of their

whole lives. We have valued the lives of the

church parents who came before us. We believe

the testimony and the witness of the church historic,

universal, and global. And I am moved to think

that because of the belief that I have and live,

and my testimony and my witness, and our belief

and our testimony and our witness, others will

also be able to join in belief. The we believe.

And throughout time, the we believe has gotten

louder and bigger and stronger. When we say the

creeds, we join with the early church. It is

a powerful thing to share these words with those

that came centuries before, who forged a way

of faith for us to... have a framework in which

we understand that we aren't floating adrift,

that we feel connected to, that draws us back

to the home of Jesus when he was on this earth.

And so over the next few weeks, as we continue

to look at how the creed was broken down and

what it says, Each week, let that go deeper into

you. Let that settle more deeply into you. Use

each week as an opportunity to meditate on the

words of that week. We believe in one God, Father

Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that

is visible and invisible. This week, sit with

those words and consider what it was that got

us here. And then how does that gird up your

testimony and your faith to continue to build

the church forward so that more can say we believe?

Let's pray. God, we are grateful for the family

of yours throughout history. It is extraordinary

that we are here today. And we are so grateful

for those that you have built up in faith and

belief. Throughout time, we are grateful for

every testimony. We are grateful for the witness

of the church. We're grateful for the witness

of your spirit. We're grateful to be here today,

to have a belief, something to believe in. And

so as we continue to meditate on these things,

God, may that strengthen us. May it strengthen

our faith this week. And may our lives be something

that strengthen other people's faith because

of the experience we've had. But in all things,

we look to you. We're grateful for your life

in us. And we love you. Amen.