“I BELIEVE!”
This week focuses on the declaration of belief found in the Creed. Usually it’s the Nicene Creed, but sometimes (as when there’s a Baptism or a burial) we say instead the Apostles’ Creed.
It would be too easy here to get into the history or the theology of the two historic Creeds, neither of which will help you to use them as vehicles of worship!
What I’d like to reclaim here is the sense of the Creed as a battle cry.
Yes. You heard, er… read me rightly.
A battle cry.
It’s time to stop trying to get all the language and nuances of the Creeds just right. It’s time to stop worrying about being “right” here at all. What matters here is that we are committed. What matters is that we rush with a full-throated roar toward the very gates of hell, confident that they cannot stand against our profession of faith.
“I BELIEVE!”
If the preacher has done the job (and heaven knows I haven’t on plenty of occasions) that is needed, then the Body of Christ, the Army of God will be chomping at the bit to enter the fray against the forces that seek to enslave God’s children. Like armies of old, who didn’t fire from hidden positions, but rushed together with fierce abandon, we cry out, both to encourage ourselves and one another, and to shake the very air the enemy breathes. These words, “I BELIEVE!” make the walls of the enemy’s strongholds crumble, send his minions fleeing into Gennesaret to drown themselves.
“I BELIEVE!”
It may be a cry of joy, as the preacher’s words break the bonds of the hearer, whose immediate response is to rush forward to set others free.
It may be a shout of anger, as the sermon stirs the heart to know God’s wrath against the principalities and powers that would destroy His creation.
It may be a cry of desperation, a declaration of hope, belief in things yet unseen, as the hearer’s hunger for the Kingdom of God is awakened, and she rushes forward to claim what she can only trust is there.
All of them make the enemy tremble. All of them cause him to flee.
Not intellectual declarations of right doctrine, but cries of battle. One day, when we get our worship right, we’ll shout the Creeds, rather than say them.
In Him,
Jeff
