Creeds
At church Sunday, the pastor, Phil, spoke on Psalm 23, according to the lectionary. Phil said a lot about Psalm 23 and its parallel to Mark 6 (Jesus feeding the 5,000) — all interesting stuff — but I really appreciated Phil’s honesty about the passage.
Sometimes Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want….”) pisses you off. Sometimes it’s trite. Sometimes it needs to be awesome.
Phil talked about considering Psalm 23 as a creed; you don’t recite creeds because you necessarily like them or believe them — but because you want to.
I wrote a creed once, the winter of sophomore year, because I was full of doubt and wanted something solid I could believe in — something orthodox, but also true to me. So I spent most of Christmas break revising the creed until it was something worth reciting.
I think I have most of it memorized, still.
We believe in God, Maker of all we can and cannot see.
We believe in the Trinity: the holy relationship of Father, of Son and Spirit.
We believe that one Third of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, became human to liberate us.We believe He was born of a virgin’s seed, lived on earth as a human, was tempted – like us, suffered – like us, but remained without fault.
He was tried and put to death as a threat to the Empire. And on the third day he resurrected, reacquainted with his followers, and ascended into heaven.
We believe in sola gratia – that only through God’s radical forgiveness we can be Liberated.
We believe in sola fide – that only through taking Jesus seriously can we receive His Grace.
We believe in sola Scriptura – that only through God’s Speaking can we know this Truth.We believe in the universal Church, acting as Christ to the world: professing peace, love, grace and justice. We believe in the Kingdom already established on earth, and not yet complete.
Amen.
I sat through the rest of Phil’s sermon, wondering if there are other passages I can live by, I can recite, like my creed or Psalm 23. What do I want to believe; what do I want to bring me comfort?
I thought then about Dr. Brown’s comment during Lent about memorizing a poem for each of the 40 days. Maybe a poem can be a creed.
I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately, but not enough reading. I need to read; it’s so important to my development as a writer and my maturing as a person. So. I’m going to read, and I’m going to find creeds in my literature, in Scripture.
And maybe I’ll memorize the creeds too. Maybe one a week, maybe one a month — I don’t know. I do know memorizing is good for you. And I’m convinced that reciting creeds you don’t believe but want to believe is good too.
The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.
July 24, 2012