The Creed, Part I: Credo in unum deum; and stay out of that grape juice!

Play Me!

This recording is from Bach's B Minor Mass.  Much of the work was composed in 1733, but not finished in its completed form as we know it until the 1740's. Bach, a devout Lutheran, presented part of the work to Augustus III, the King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, a Catholic, to petition for a court title.  Ah, the necessity of making a living despite one's faith or denominational leanings is an age old challenge...but I digress.  I picked this particular music because of the dance-like, celebratory music Bach used - a very different feeling than one normally gets when listening to congregations "recite" the creed during worship.  After all, worship is supposed to be a celebration, is it not???

Credo in unum Deum

I believe in one God

I’ve told you before that I grew up as a PK – a Preacher’s Kid.  And yes, we were the stereotypical preacher’s kids, my two brothers, my sister, and I.  We HATED church.  It didn’t help that church lasted 2 hours, with my dad’s sermons being good for at least 30-45 minutes.  At least he was a good preacher.  If we were really unlucky, there may have been an afternoon service with a guest church joining us, and sometimes Lord help us, an evening service on top of it.  Praise Jesus.  Lots of music.  Lots of praying.  Lots of boredom for us.  We did everything we could to punish my father for making us go – sullen faces, bad attitude, sulking in the back pew.  Of course, this did not faze him in the least.  It only made him more annoyed, which only meant we were in more trouble for our misdeeds in the end.  Like the times when we would sneak out the back door of the church basement and go to Turkey Hill, the local convenience store.  Or like the time I took my dad’s keys from his office and attempted to drive his car in the church parking lot, which was actually just a grassy area across the street from the church.  Or the time when we were so hungry/thirsty/bored we drank the grape juice in the church fridge, which of course was the communion “wine”.  I think we only drank it out of his travel communion kit once.  Sorry dad.  


These were normal things for Preacher’s Kids to do.  I think.  And yet, despite all that time during church when we were trying so hard not to pay attention, all the important things sunk in.  I saw the faith of the adults around us in difficult times when fathers were non-existent and children became addicted to drugs.  I saw the joy of faith through the high-energy worship services (which we also found annoying) and the celebration of prayers answered through the healing of bodies, minds and spirits.  I knew there was a God because I felt his presence every week despite my lack of enthusiasm.  I believed in that God because, well, the concept of atheism and agnosticism were completely foreign to us.  God and faith were a part of our everyday culture.  And I believed God was indeed all powerful, because life was not always easy, but there was always a way out.  All these things were proof enough to me.      


Did you know that in the original Greek a creed was called sumbolon – a fragment or piece of a broken object which verified a person's identity when placed with the remaining part?  What an interesting way to ponder the meaning of what a creed truly is.  I grew up in the AME Church (African Methodist Episcopal – very much modeled after the United Methodist tradition) and was very unfamiliar with the structure and theology of the churches I have spent most of my professional career in – the Episcopals and the Lutherans, for the most part.  We only had communion on the first Sunday of every month.  A dreaded experience for us kids because it made the service way longer, but I didn’t realize until just a few years ago that the liturgy we used is almost identical to the Rite I service out of the Book of Common Prayer.  Talk about coming full circle and putting all the pieces together.  Those very first fragments of tradition in the AME church formed the pillars of my faith.  And the first pillar of that faith is that I believe in one particular God. Not many gods that may be attributed to different things like the earth, the wind, or the sea. Not one of the many gods of worshiped by a multitude of cultures across the globe. But the God as understood in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. Even this simple statement seems to be up for debate today. Is Allah the same God? Are some of the other spiritual "entities" described by modern theologians and philosophers manifestations of the God of Israel? In the end, does it really matter? I think so, if we are to truly understand who this particular Being is, and what this God intended for his creation. Understanding why we were created - out of love - and in whose image we were created - in the image of God - is the gateway for us to determine how we are to live our lives. This doesn't mean we will all look and act the same like a race of robotic, rule followers. It means that the same spark of life, the same inspiration is at the root and heart of all our works. 


To me, a creed on its own does not reflect the complete identity of a faith or a faithful person.  What is the other half of the sumbolon,  you ask?  Not a blanket or thoughtless acceptance of the ideas within the creed, as some seem to think.  I believe it is the pursuit to discover what the ideas or truths, as you take them, within the creed are pointing towards.  In essence, discovering who God is.  And that is a lifelong pursuit as God reveals himself to us in different ways every day.   


I believe in God - this seems like the easiest part of the creed to swallow; the simplest statement of faith that we can all agree upon. And yet in modern theology, even this basic statement seems to be up for debate within the Christian faith.  Sometimes I do ponder the idea of an infinite Being, something that has neither a beginning or an end, and whether or not I can really wrap my mind around that idea. But I don't need to prove that - I can accept that there are things I will never understand. Sometimes I do wonder whether or not God manifested himself to other cultures through their religions. I suppose it is possible, but in all honesty I don't know enough about them to make that call. And if in the end our job is to show Christ to others then I don't need to dispute those ideas.  It does not change who Jesus is. I can't change people, and I certainly can't change people's hearts. That's God's work, not mine. I can only show them who I am, and hope they can see past the craziness that is me and see God. And, perhaps, they will want to know more.