Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“Truly, truly, I
say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
On this Sunday of the Most Holy Trinity, we have confessed the longest of our three ecumenical Creeds. And if there were a longer one, I’d make you recite that too!
The word “ecumenical” means something pertaining to the unity of the world’s Christian Churches. Which means that if you claim to be a Christian you can and should be confessing the three ecumenical creeds: Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian.
Especially since this year marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, from which we receive our Creed in history. For 1700 years, these creeds have been confessed in Christ’s Church as a correct expression of God’s Word and for 1700 years, nothing has been found to be their equal.
So, we must ask: beyond Trinity Sunday, how often do you explore the trinitarian nature of God? To what extent has any of the Creeds informed and formed your faith?
This is asked in two ways. the first way is as a word from God, that is we feel chastised because we know the answer is negative. We feel chastised, then forgiven that we have more time to change our ways.
The second is mockery from the world. The world asks this question to force us to conclude that the Trintiy is not worth exploring not only in Church, but in our everyday lives. And if it is irrelevant to our everyday lives, then it is irrelevant to faith, thus, something to be rid of.
And that is just what one, worldwide group calling themselves “lutheran” have done this year. Though not the full Creed, they have concluded that the filioque, the “proceeds from the Father and the Son”, is only causing division between them and orthodox churches and so should be deep six-ed.
This is not the first time this rather large group of so-called lutherans have done something like this. In 1999, what’s called the Joint Declaration on the doctrine of Justification was approved between them and rome and with the same thinking. Justification really only divides us, so we should just get rid of it. And they did.
This is the way of the world, to whittle and whittle and whittle away until it gets to where, it thinks or decides, is the least common denominator, the origin, the thing that unites. But it doesn’t want unity, it wants control. We would all agree with Dr. Luther King Jr that skin color should not determine someone’s worth. The world also agrees, but only so that it can prove that no one is different, you are not special, and you should just trust the experts.
We would all agree that the universe is a vast place, too vast one might say, and that we are only a small part of it, in hopes of producing some humility. The world agrees, but it wants you insignificant and irrelevant with that thought, so it can dominate.
We chip and chip away at life until there’s nothing left, because we have replaced our creed. Instead of Who God is and what He comes to give us, we confess hospitality, unity, and reconciliation. All of which are godly goals, but when turned into confession or dogma, become satanic lies that lead to great shame and vice.
You know you are in this trap when you hear someone make the point, “that isn’t very Christ-like of you” or “my Jesus wouldn’t act like that”. Not in an attempt to right a wrong, but in an attempt to shave away pieces of Jesus to His lowest, common denominator. Even more than that, since a proper confession is forgotten or lost, the law supersedes even Jesus Himself.
Hospitality is absolute. Unity is absolute. Reconciliation is absolute and they are our modern false gods. Even Jesus must bend His knee to these principles or He is not the real Jesus.
Repent. Such is the importance of retaining our Creeds and such is the importance of you praying, studying, and meditating on them. When you begin to shave off doctrine, you begin to shave away from Jesus. But this has already been tried.
First, they tried to strip away His dignity by shunning His words saying, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” (Mt 13:55). Next, they tried to strip away his authority, “You are not greater than our father Abraham who died, are you? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself to be?” (Jn 8:53).
When words failed, action took its place. Since they could not strip Him of His dignity and authority, they aimed at His honor, calling Him a liar, and they aimed at His body shaving it of both clothes and skin, such that He would bleed out on the cross.
They stripped Jesus, but could not reduce Him any amount. It only managed to drive the Lord’s point home that this is Who God is. This is what He is doing. This is His will, to suffer, die, and rise again for sinful humanity.
That is what we call a revelation. The work and will of God in the flesh reveals Who God is, what He wants, and how He gets it done. As our Small Catechism goes, first we run through the Ten Commandments to discover Who God is. Next is the Creed, “which sets forth to us everything that we must expect and receive from God, and, to state it quite briefly, teaches us to know Him fully” (LC II:1).
Romans 10 states, “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (10:9). But how do you do that? With the amount of information that one verse gives, out of context, you might as well be hearing it this way, “If you shalbbah dah habbidahkey xghfteohajd that garblerdarbleguck, you will be FLDSMDFR”.
Just saying the words “Jesus is Lord” is not good enough. You must be taught Who Jesus is, what “is” means, and what a Lord is. It would be enough if you “could by your own powers keep the Ten Commandments as they are to be kept, then you would need nothing further, neither the Creed nor the Lord’s Prayer” (LC II:3).
However, “since the Ten Commandments have taught that we are to have not more than one God, the question might be asked, What kind of a person is God? What does He do? How can we praise, or portray and describe Him, that He may be known? Now, that is taught in this [creed] so that the Creed is nothing else than the answer and confession of Christians arranged with respect to the First Commandment. As if you were to ask a little child: ‘My dear, what sort of a God do you have? What do you know of Him? That child could say: This is my God: first, the Father, who has created heaven and earth; besides this only One I regard nothing else as God; for there is no one else who could create heaven and earth” (LC II:I:10-11).
“How can these things be”, demands Nicodemus. And the Teacher teaches. Jesus shows Nicodemus, that words are only half the battle. Nicodemus is not going to get any farther towards an answer in John chapter 3. He must move on. He needs John 18 and 19. He needs chapters 20, 21, and the Book of Acts.
He needs a Church that houses the Body and Blood of Christ which give strength and nourishment to his own mouth and pumps divine blood to his blood. For in the Creed, Nicodemus and the Church find the God Who gives. He gives creation, He gives redemption, and He gives sanctification.
Strip any of these points away and you have the devil. Replace any of the work God has done for you with your works of hospitality, unity, or any other good and holy work you fear, love, and trust more than God, and you have a demon.
Reduce Jesus and His work any amount from 100% and you have lost the faith. Thanks be to God, that Jesus reveals no matter how much sinful man attempts to strip off Him, He is always at 100%.
Take away His divinity and He remains man, while remaining God. Take away His humanity and He rises from the dead. Dissect Him down to His smallest atom and still there you will find the fullest of fullness. All the fullness of the Godhead, found in Christ in a crumb of bread and a drop of wine.
There is no reduction of God Almighty. The only reduction we do, in hopes of being ecumenical, is to our own faith. And though God reduces Himself to the flesh, it is only a stepping down. He loses no part of Himself in His incarnation or His Holy Communion.
Thus, we focus on the Rock of our Foundation each and every Sunday. We thank and Praise the Trinity every Sunday. We invoke His Name alone as we call down His Spirit to be among us. We dwell in His Word and His Work, now handed over to His Church, through the ages, to believe and confess with heart and mouth.
Hearts that have been transplanted and mouths that have been seared by the fiery coals of His Sacrament, given and shed for you. He lowers Himself to our level. This is no reduction, but a condescension. He allows His divinity to be handled by spirits and bodies that He has redeemed by His precious Blood.
You say “I believe”, because faith, which makes people members of the Church, is hidden to our eyes yet, however, the Holy Scriptures assure us that the Holy Spirit continues to gather and preserve His Church (LSCE q170).
Amen.
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