Some of you have noticed that in the last year we’ve moved from reciting the Apostles Creed monthly to every week, and I figured I would tell you why.
Our endeavor as a congregation isn’t simply to form individual Christians. We are out to form a distinct Christian community. A community that embraces and cherishes the truths of the faith. A community which is bound by those truths. A community that will live and die for those truths.
Jude says that the faith has been delivered to us. The faith isn’t of our own making. God has delivered the faith to us through centuries of faithful Christians and our responsibility is to steward and contend for that faith. This generation of Christians is responsible to deliver that same faith to the next generation—untampered with.
So, we are saying the creed each week so that we will memorize the faith we are to contend for. The goal in this memorization isn’t so we can rattle the creed off without thinking about it. Rather, as we memorize the creed we internalize it, we embrace it, we are shaped and formed by the truths it contains. We say the creed so that our own hearts can revel in the majesty and glory of our God.
We want our children to know and worship the God we serve. Therefore, we recite the creed to establish the truths of the Christian faith firmly in their minds. Parents, you are to practice the creed with them in your homes so that when we worship as a community the voices of children can join with as much strength as the adults.
And, finally, we aren’t called to mumble the creed. We aren’t shouting it either. But are these things true? Are these truths the bedrock of all reality? Then say them like they are. And, say them as if the entire world is listening.
We are ordering our lives under the truths of Scripture, and we are calling the nations to do the same.