The Nicene Creed (1995)

I want you to do something with me at this time, just a little exercise, open up your hymnals to number 880. I want to show you something then I'm going to ask you to close the hymnals, so you won't be distracted. This is the Nicene Creed. You'll notice however over on the next page the Apostles Creed. Both the creeds follow the same format. They're in three parts. The first part deals with God the Father. The second with God the Son. The third with God the Holy Spirit. When you look at the second paragraph of the creed, it states what we believe about Jesus Christ.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

These words while not written originally in English, were composed for us in the year 325 at the Council of Nicea from which this creed takes it name. It was modified later at a creed at Constantinople. But essentially these words tell us what we believe about Jesus Christ. They tell us who he is.

There are some modern critics of the creeds. Who criticize the creeds for different reasons. One of the reasons is that the creeds tell us nothing about what Jesus teaches. The creed tells us nothing about the teaching that he shared with the disciples or with us, the way that we are supposed to live our lives. Now while that is an important aspect of the faith, what Jesus taught and we have the Bible which we hold up as those wonderful words of life, I want to say to you today that the reason that that is not included in the creed, that we recite week after week is this: the teachings of Jesus are words of life but they are not life itself. The teachings of Jesus speak of salvation, but they are not salvation. The creed reminds us that if we want to see what life is, the creeds remind us that if we want to know what salvation is we look not to teachings like many other religions, we look to a person. We look to Jesus Christ our Lord. He is life. He is salvation.

I think that is what the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews was reminding people. He is giving them these instructions for life and then in the midst of it he says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." That's what we believe. This is what defines us as Christians.

Jesus was a rabbi. He had who followed him even from town to town to listen to his words, to listen to his teachings. Week after week we share in the readings from the gospels and we hear these words of Christ. These words that breathe life into who we are. But we must recognize that the word of life is Christ and who he is. The Bible speaks of Jesus Christ and reminds us that what we have with him that saves us is a relationship. A relationship of the Lord. A Savior. God. He's not just a fine example. He's not a paradigm of humanity. He's much more than that. He is God.

Perhaps the first thing that we need to recognize when we talk about Jesus Christ is that we are speaking of God as God is spoken of here in the second paragraph of the creed.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,

The early Christian fathers were very careful to distinguish on the one hand that as Christians, as Christians we do not believe in more than one God. We don't believe that there are three Gods. But on the other hand we do not believe that Jesus is somehow less than God. That he is semi-divine. That he's half divine and half human. No the affirmation about Jesus is that he is fully divine. That's important for us and we're going to come back to that in a few minutes.

The second thing that we are told in this is that through him all things were made and for us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit, and the Virgin Mary. Somebody pointed out that in the creed that apart from God there are only two people mentioned, Mary and Pilate. Mary at the beginning of his earthly life and Pilate who comes in at the end of his earthly life. Mary reminds us of the Doctrine of the Incarnation. That this god whom we worship became like us. That he took upon himself our humanity. That he emptied himself, to use Saint Paul's words to the Philippians. He emptied himself, taking on the likeness of human beings. He became like us in flesh and yet he did not sin. This Jesus is God made flesh, incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. He came truly human, not half human, not half god. Just as he is fully divine so is he fully human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. There is the other person mentioned in the creed: Pilate. At the end of his life it is interesting that as I pointed out that here the creed goes from his birth to his death and doesn't say anything about what takes place in-between. We have that for us in the scripture. We know what's important, what is contained in the scripture, but we know that what saves us is Christ. He suffered death and was buried.

Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote "Jesus Christ Superstar", and a few weeks ago I went to see that with some other people in the church. I saw the movie a couple of years ago with the youth group at my last church and probably hadn't seen it before then since I saw it in the theater a long time ago. The music that he sets to the story is a music that is haunting to me. It's music that after I hear it, I find it in my head for long time. You can ask JoAnn that this morning I got up and I was humming one of the melodies from "Jesus Christ Superstar". But you know in the musical, Webber sees Jesus as the Son of God. He understands that in strictly human terms. One of the interesting things in the musical is that it ends, it ends with his crucifixion. You're left there hanging, or to be more accurate, you're left there with Jesus hanging on the cross. You're left there to decide: What about the rest of the story? What does it mean beyond this point? Is this what we worship? :A God who was born, a god who dies on the cross. Or is it more than this? The creed says on the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

The author of Hebrews talks about Jesus and the implications of following Jesus. Here is where those teachings become important. It's when we live out the life of being a Christian. When you hear the teachings of Jesus, listening to those teachings, don't make you a Christian. All that makes you a Christian is your acceptance of him as your Lord. In that relationship Jesus becomes the source of your life and your salvation. At that point we do seek to live the kind of life that he would have us to live. Listen to what it says in the epistle lesson. It says, "Be hospitable to strangers." Be hospitable to strangers, that is not our natural inclination. At least for most of us it is not our natural inclination. In the gospel lesson today Jesus told a parable to the guests at the banquet. After he finishes the parable he turns to the host, the man who had invited him, and says, "You know, I've got a word for you now. When you have a party, you should invite the crippled, the lame, the blind. You shouldn't invite your brothers, your neighbors, people who are able to repay you, for there you have your reward. But if you invite these others you will receive your reward at the Resurrection of the Righteous. Show hospitality to strangers. When people come into your midst we are told that we might be entertaining angels without being aware of it.

There comes from that story of Abraham and Sarah, who sat by the oaks of Naamer and the three men came to visit them,shared with them the promise of a son being born to them. Little did they know that when they received those strangers they were receiving God himself who came to them in the form of these people.

Practice hospitality, show kindness to strangers. Then he talks about those who are imprisoned and those who are being tortured. Now these types of texts today we tend to make them absolute and we talk about all people who are in prison and all people who are being tortured. We talk about brotherhood and sisterhood as though it is all inclusive of all humanity. But in these texts generally the people being spoken of are other Christians. People who are suffering for the sake of the gospel. Yes, we should be concerned about people who suffer for any reason. Yes, we should be concerned about any who are hungry. We should be concerned about Christians who suffer and who hunger. But most important of all we are to be concerned about those who suffer because of their faith. Those who because of their faith have taken a stand. Those who because of their witness to Christ are suffering persecution. These are the people we are to remember. These are people that we are especially to pray for. These are the people we are to reach out and help in the name of Christ. We have here the stranger, you see on the one hand and the Christian who suffers for the sake of the gospel on the other. We take and receive them both, embrace them in the love that Christ has given us. Then there are our personal lives. We're to be faithful. We're to practice fidelity, to keep the marriage bed undefiled. We're not to be fornicators or adulterers. We are to be content with what we have and not to be lovers of money. We are to honor our leaders and those who share with us a word of the gospel. For these are the types of sacrifices that God finds pleasing and acceptable. Not the sacrifices of bulls and rams on the altar, but the sacrifices of good works we do not for the hope of salvation but we do for the love of God.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is our life. He is our salvation. These things that we are called upon to do we can only do by his grace. So let us make it our constant prayer that we seek to be with Christ, to hear his teaching, yes, but not to confuse it with what life is. Because life is more than hearing words about Jesus. Life is more than even knowing his teachings. Life comes when we know Jesus. Do you know Christ? Is he your constant companion in your walk? Is Jesus with you at work? Is he with you when you travel? Is he with you every day? Invite him along. Make him your constant companion. Because it is only in that relationship that we find life. and find it abundantly.

God bless you.