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| We don’t need a building to be church or to worship Jesus: A united churches open air service in rural Northamptonshire. |
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge
one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the
dead, and the life of the world to come.
Words are important. It’s hard to convey our exact meaning
at the best of times; using ambiguous words multiplies the risk of
misunderstanding. The compilers and translators of the creed chose their words carefully.
Each of these final statements uses a specific verb to amplify and apply the
point they make.
We believe…
Believing in the church – a flawed, divided and sometimes
corrupt institution – is a tall order! Especially when elsewhere in the creed,
as in the New Testament, “believe” means “put one’s trust in”. There certainly
is a sense in which the creeds, based on scripture, are trustworthy and the
major but varying formularies of the churches provide a practical framework for
church membership, even though they tend to emphasise the distinctive emphases
of that particular denomination.
But here, “believe” doesn’t refer to a specific institution.
There is one church, not many: the holy (that is, set apart by God for a
purpose) catholic (that is, universal) and apostolic (that is, adhering to the
teaching of the apostles revealed in the New Testament) church.
It consists of a worldwide community of believers who are
united by their common faith in Christ as Lord and Saviour, regardless of our
different cultures, worship styles and organisational structures. “You are all children
of God through faith in Christ Jesus…There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor
free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians
3:26-28). That is the church we belong to simply by virtue of faith in Christ.
And that is
something we can believe in, celebrate and commit to! We are not alone. We
really are God’s new community with the shared responsibility of bringing the
values of God’s Kingdom into the world by our words and deeds (look at 1 Peter
2:9). What we do in our small corner matters; it’s either a brick in the
kingdom God is building, or a sledgehammer that damages it. God does not despise
our small endeavours. United ministry and witness makes an even bigger impact
on our community, of course, which is why the support of and co-operation with
others in smaller groups, and through bodies like Churches Together, is so
important.
We acknowledge…
You can acknowledge someone in the street whose name you don’t
know but whose face is familiar – a near neighbour, perhaps. But here “acknowledge”
means much more than a nodding acquaintance. It is a recognition of the
validity and value of baptism as a sacrament, a sign of God’s promised grace. A
person who is baptised in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, no
matter where (church or lake), when (adult or infant) or by what method
(sprinkling or immersion), does not need to be re-baptised if they subsequently
join another church. There is one baptism (Ephesians 4:5), a sign of God’s
forgiveness and renewal, which we must individually, consciously and
continually appropriate by faith in Christ.
We look…
It goes without saying that we want to make the most of this
life, whatever our personal limitations and circumstances. But this life is
just the start of an eternal adventure. The Bible tells us virtually nothing
about what life after death is like, and we’re not encouraged to speculate. It
is beyond human understanding or imagining. The common pictures of clouds, of
angels with harps, of heaven as an unending “service” of worship, are less than
helpful. Heaven, or the new creation, is a renewal of all that is good in this
life and made so much more better than we can possibly imagine. We are
encouraged to look forward with hope and trust in an infinite God who makes all
things new and does all things well. We are not encouraged merely to hope for
the best.
Seeing our current circumstances in an eternal context,
recognising that God has long-term purposes for us and our family, community
and world which we can never fully appreciate, can help us to face the
challenges of today positively and even reduce the anxiety they may otherwise generate.
Think and talk
1. Look at how Paul,
writing towards the end of his life under house arrest in Rome sees this life
in the context of eternity: Philippians 1:20-27 and 3:7-16. Ask yourself if you
share this perspective, and how you might increase it.
2. God’s creation and
provision for human beings began as a garden (Genesis 2:4-17) and is renewed as
a city (Revelation 21). What does that tell you about the way God takes and
uses what we do? How might that encourage you (a) to take seriously the call to
build “the Kingdom of God” and (b) to think about the true nature of life after
death?
3. Paul says that the
body of Christ (the church) has many parts and each has an important function. Look
up and list the parts he identifies (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12:27-31;
Epohesians 4:11-14). What is your function in the universal church, and what
might be the function of your local church community?
4. The debate about
forms of baptism and the age at which it can be administered has been the cause
of church splits in the past.
This is the final post
in a series on the creed that was originally prepared for a church magazine and
has been expanded here. It may be reproduced locally for personal and group use
with due acknowledgement to the author and this website. Future posts will
revert to fulfilling more closely the aim of “Gentler Word” to consider current
issues and especially personal attitudes to people and situations.
© Derek Williams 2015
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