Every fourth Sunday we gather as a Christian community and celebrate the Lord’s Supper. It is a joyful event, as it should be, even though our purpose is to recall to mind Christ’s suffering on our behalf. The Passion of Christ (his final days on earth, culminating in his crucifixion) is one of those events that defy precise classification in terms of how we should respond to it emotionally. It was brutal, as all Roman crucifixions were intended to be, and unjust in Jesus’ case, and yet we rejoice in our recollection of it because the “punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). And so, we rejoice sorrowfully as we worship together in communion.
Each communion Sunday for the past year or so we have also recited the Creed of Nicaea together as a profession of faith and an act of worship. I usually remind us that it is one of the oldest of the creeds and has been a part of the communion liturgy for almost 1,700 years. Here then, is a bit of history about the creed itself.
The church endured multiple waves of persecution during the first three centuries of its existence, instigated first primarily by the Jewish leaders, but followed up by the Roman Empire, either in concerted and intentional acts of violence against the church, or by simple indifference to local magistrates who acted out on their own to suppress the growing faith. With the conversion of Emperor Constantine in A.D. 312, state sanctioned persecution ended, and the church was set free to confront what had become an even greater problem – heresy. In North Africa, a wayward bishop by the name of Arius had been promoting a concept that Jesus, although the highest of God’s creation, was nevertheless a created being, thus denying his divinity. “There was a time when the Son was not” was his teaching “zinger.” Although Constantine did not really understand the particulars of the debate, he did not want to see disunity in the church. “These questions are idle cobwebs of contention, spun by curious wits,” he said.
Constantine called a general council of the church, inviting 1,800 bishops from around the world, but due to the difficulty in travel in those days, less than 400 made the trip to the Turkish city of Nicaea. There, Arius gave his defense to many bishops who still bore the marks of persecution on their bodies, which were received in defense of the orthodox teaching that Jesus Christ was both God and Man. When Arius and his followers had finished, a well-known bishop, Alexandria, and his assistant, Athanasius, retaliated with a rebuttal of orthodox teaching that won over the council, which decided overwhelmingly for the divinity of Jesus. As a result, a creed was drawn up - essentially a statement of faith - which confirmed the beliefs that were both essential and unique to Christianity, those that had been taught by both Jesus and his apostles. The decision was announced on June 19, 325. You know what the statement of faith said because you recite it with your brothers and sisters at LifePoint each communion Sunday, along with countless millions of other believers across the globe.
Creeds are not the Bible, nor do they hold the same authority as the Scriptures. But many of the creeds play an important role in both teaching and confirming the most important aspects of our faith in concise, accurate, and biblical terms that are easily memorized. This is precisely why they have been used to such positive effect throughout the ages.
Like almost anything else, creeds can be abused. They can be elevated to canonical status, and they can also be trivialized. If we are not careful, we can find ourselves reciting them vainly and repetitiously in a way that does not honor God. But utilized carefully and respectfully, they can contribute greatly to both our understanding of the faith and our practice of it.
I hope you are finding our use of the Creed of Nicaea helpful each communion Sunday. I find it both refreshing and encouraging to recite our most basic beliefs together, in unison, as the local body of Christ. The church of Christ has found it to be so for almost two millennia.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jym