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Sunday August 10, 2008 "We Call Ourselves Disciples: The Good Confession" Matthew 16:13-19 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 8/11/2008 11:54 AM | “I believe in God the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.
On the third day he arose from the dead, he ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father almighty. Hence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen”
How many of you here know what that is? Many of us grew up reciting it every Sunday in church. It is the “Apostles Creed” and has for a long, long time been one of the most succinct statements of faith in all of Christianity.
How many of you here believe every word of it?
If we were to go through the creed line by line, some of us might have to pause a time or two and say, “Well, I’m not sure about that line.” It’s not a big deal, is it? After all, we are here to learn about these things, to discuss these things, to bring our differences to the table so that we might all further our understanding of God revealed to us through Jesus Christ.
But what if we told you that could not be a member of this church unless you stood up and pledged your belief in that Creed? Now it becomes a little more serious. Could we stand up and truthfully say before God and this congregation that I believe every line, unquestioningly? That becomes a little more problematic.
What if we told you that you are always welcome to worship with us, but unless you pledge your allegiance to this creed, you cannot celebrate communion with us, you cannot be baptized, you cannot receive the sacraments of the church?
If we took that hard line, how many of us would be here today?
But we don’t require that. We are a non-creedal denomination and as such seek to build our fellowship on the foundation of the most common denominator possible: our belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
The question of denominational creeds, and our non-creedal stance is at the heart and soul of our faith tradition and that this topic the logical place to start this 6 part sermon series called “We Call Ourselves Disciples: An Exploration of Our Heritage.” Being a non-creedal movement has, in large measure, shaped how we got to this point in time, and undoubtedly will impact where we are going in the future. And it all starts with the two men acknowledged as the founders of this denomination, and of this movement we refer to as “The Campbell-Stone Movement”: Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone.
First, we need a definition.
A Christian creed is a statement or a summary of Christian belief. We also call these summaries “confessions of faith,” especially then they have been used in baptism, or as requirements for membership in a church. We heard the most famous confession of faith read in the scripture this morning.
When Jesus and his disciples were gathered at Caesarea Philippi, amongst the various temples and altars of many and varied pagan Gods, each espousing their own specific sets of beliefs, Jesus turned to his disciples and asked, “Who do people say that I am?” Peter responded some said that he was John the Baptist or Elijah, or Jeremiah, returned to preach God’s word. “But who do you say that I am?” Jesus asked. Peter replied, “You are the messiah, the son of the living God.” In answering that question, Peter confessed his belief. He succinctly and eloquently presented his creed. “You are the messiah, the son of the living God.”
Jesus was pleased. On that day he declared Peter the foundation, the rock, upon which his church would be built and it is not a stretch to accept that this belief in Jesus’ messiahship is all that was required to be part of this church that Peter would lead. It is the only test of fellowship asked of those seeking membership in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) today: “Do you believe that Jesus is the messiah, son of the living God, Lord and Savior?”
Over the centuries, as Christianity grew, things changed. What started out with that amazingly simple but profoundly elegant confession turned more complicated, rule bound and even exclusionary. As we humans are prone to do, we started asking questions, delving for more complicated answers, sought to explain things more completely and more logically. In short, humanity took a simple, divine truth and decided that we needed MORE. More explanation, more critical thinking, more verbiage.
This expansion of the “Good Confession” was done with all the best intentions. If we could come to a more detailed understanding of who God is, who Jesus is, what it means that Jesus is the Messiah, what role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives, we would all be better off. We could attract more and more people to hear God’s good news, we could reach more and more lost souls seeking answers, we could make it clear to everyone the who, what, why and when of our faith.
The Apostles Creed that I recited at the beginning of the sermon is one such attempt at explanation. And it has survived because on the whole, it is a pretty good statement of orthodox doctrine of Christianity. But the Apostles Creed is one of the simpler, less complicated creeds going.
By way of contrast, let me introduce you to the “Westminster Confession.” The Westminster Confession is a creed that is born out of the writings of John Calvin and is used by Presbyterians and other Calvinists the world over as a test of fellowship and membership into congregations.
The Westminster Confession is not something we could recite during worship. The Westminster Confession takes 33 chapters and one hundred plus pages to essentially answer the question, “What do we believe?” The chapters deal with Calvinist doctrines of creation and providence and baptism and sacraments and marriage and divorce and the church and the communion of saints and the state of humanity after death and the role of church censure and church membership and on and on and on.
This document is a wonderful teaching document. It raises lots and lots of issues that the church and church people ought to be concerned with. It contains great topics for discussion, but we must understand that it is a human document. Over time, for some people, it has become as important as scripture. And that was one of the things that bothered both Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone.
Alexander Campbell was born the son of a Presbyterian minister and his wife in Scotland 1788. His Scottish heritage is one of the reasons that our denominational symbol, the Chalice with the Cross of St. Andrew, exists. St. Andrew was the Patron Saint of Scotland and we honor those roots with that symbol.
Campbell came to America at the age of 21, already an ordained Presbyterian minister, with a growing reputation as a writer and preacher. As a Presbyterian minister, he knew well the importance of the Westminster Confession and pledged his belief in it when he was ordained.
Barton Stone was born in Port Tobacco, Maryland in 1772 and his first vocation was that of teacher before he, too, became ordained as a Presbyterian minister. His familiarity with the Westminster Confession was evident from the beginning. Stone had some problems with some of the doctrine outlined in the confession and so struggled with how to be true to his call when faced with the requirement of pledging his belief in something he was not sure about.
When Stone stood for ordination in Lexington, Kentucky, he was asked, “Do you accept and pledge belief in the content of the Westminster Confession?” He replied, “As far as I see it as consistent with the Word of God.” His reply was accepted and he was ordained as a minister of the Transylvania Presbytery. But, still, his uneasiness continued to grow. Having witnessed revelatory and spirit-filled preaching from uneducated preachers, he disagreed with the insistence in the Westminster confession that only the seminary trained, ordained minister could preach.
He believed that the statement in the confession that there were only a limited number of “predestined elect” who would find their way to heaven stood four square against his understanding of Jesus’ ministry as a welcome call to all sinners, of all times. And like many, many people, he struggled with trying to understand the nature of the trinity described in the confession.
Alexander Campbell was experiencing similar feelings in West Virginia. It seemed that everywhere he turned, the confession was being used not as a tool of discipleship and instruction, but as a tool of division and exclusion. To Campbell, this was anathema. His was a belief in a church that was open to all, that reached out to sinners of all stripes and helped them find their way to God’s grace and love. His was a belief in a “New Testament” church – the church of Peter that welcomed all with love and open arms and built the fellowship on one guiding principle: the belief that Jesus was the messiah, son of the living God.
Yet Campbell found himself increasingly dealing with the confession as a barrier to his idea of church. In his view, the confession was used to limit membership, impede baptism and justify reserving communion for the “worthy” only.
In the early 1800’, both Campbell and Stone were struggling with how to deal with this issue but they did not know each other until they met in the late 1820’s, Eventually, both left their respective positions in the Presbyterian church to strike out on their own, Stone with his followers called “Christians” and Campbell with his followers called “Disciples of Christ.” They continued to write and speak about the problems of creeds, and among their arguments were these:
First, the creeds were written by humans, and so we must beware of their fallibility.
Second, when thoughtful, conscientious, seeking people struggled with their belief in the dictates of the confession, they were pushed away by the church, when in fact, thoughtful, conscientious, seeking people are exactly who we need to engage!
Third, when strong creeds were present, they served as barriers to keep people out and stood as walls to keep different denominations from ever being united as Christians first, and denominations second.
Fourth, what happens when someone says, “Well, I don’t really believe that, but I am going to swear that I do believe it so I can become a member of this congregation?” When that happens, the new member’s first official act is to be disingenuous and hypocritical. Is that what we want?
And finally, the point that causes the most concern for me: When we hold up a detailed creed that tells us exactly what we believe and don’t believe, what reason do we have to do further Bible study and reflection? A hard and fast creed might in fact discourage someone from deeper spiritual inquiry and study, because, well, it’s already been done. And if we do undertake deeper study and begin to have questions, how can we be happy with the answer, “This is what the creed says. It’s what we believe. End of discussion.” Where do we turn then? The answer is, we turn away from the church.
Stone and Campbell eventually did meet in the late 1820’s and in 1832 in Lexington, Kentucky both men gathered with followers to unify the two movements into one. While they agreed on most everything, the name became a sticking point. Finally, through many years and many disagreements, the name was settled: the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The notion of being the Christian Church points toward our goal of unity while the appellation of Disciples acknowledges that we still have a lot to learn before we achieve our goal.
So what? This may be a nice history lesson, but what does it have to do with us, today, and our faith journey?
Everything.
We in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) strive to stand as a beacon of safe harbor and sanctuary for all who seek God’s presence, whether they know it or not.
We stand as the symbol of what it means to be open and welcoming.
By following Peter’s Good Confession and rejecting the human confessions and creeds in existence we are saying “We don’t have all the answers, but we know where to start.” We make it clear that knowing where to start is a pretty good place to be, but that it will take all of us seeking, studying, praying and sharing to more fully understand all that God would have us be and do.
There is a special responsibility with not having a detailed, formulaic creed to follow. We may escape the trap of blindly following a pre-formed set of doctrines that were decided upon years ago, but we must commit ourselves then to study and prayer and discussion and occasionally, even an argument or two, in order to sort out just exactly what it is we believe.
When we call ourselves a non-creedal church, we are right in one sense. We have no written document that serves as a test of membership. We do not have a catechism that lays out the authoritative answer to every theological question imaginable. But make no mistake, we do have a creed.
The creed is defined by our actions. The creed is defined by how we relate to the world. The creed is defined by how we live out our faith. It may not be written down, but when strangers come among us, they will be reading our “living creed” as closely as they would read a written creed.
We can talk about it till the cows come home. But do we live it?
It is up to us to look deep inside ourselves and ask if we are living up to the possibilities that people like Stone and Campbell foresaw. We have to ask if our living creed is any better than the written creeds with which they struggled so mightily.
Does our living creed exclude or include all who need God’s presence?
Does our living creed promote Christian unity or Christian division?
Does our living creed expose us as hypocrites or as seekers of God’s truth and wisdom?
Does our living creed encourage or discourage deep and honest spiritual inquiry and scriptural study?
Does our living creed support honest and respectful discussion, even in the midst of disagreements, or does it promote factionalism and distrust?
Would our living creed please Jesus as much as Peter’s Good Confession did?
These questions are part of our legacy as members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); questions that we must continually grapple with as a non-creedal church. And the answers to all of these questions begin with one question, the question that Jesus asked of his disciples:
“Who do you say that I am?”
Let us pray: So many questions, so many points of view, so many opinions. Gracious God, help us strip away the clutter of human opinion so that we might revel in the simple clarity of your truth. Help us to be your church, open and honest, seeking and praising, worshipping and studying, witnessing and sharing, praying and singing, crying and laughing together, all to your glory and honor. Amen.
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