It is a way in, a key. It is something that can be handed down to the new Christian as the first bread of the faith. It can be recited by the faithful everyday for decades as it moves from lips to heart and hands and feet.
It is the oldest confession of the faith. Its predecessor appears in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, and you can read a version of it on nearly every church website across any Christian denomination. The Baptists, Anglicans, Catholics and Pentecostals found their faith on it.
I am writing about the Apostle’s Creed.
Yet, despite its centrality, despite its ecumenism on the central matters of our faith, and despite its clarity and ease, it is slipping into a lacuna in our memories. It is relegated to the back of the bookshelf, and, rather like banking terms and conditions, hidden behind links their subsidiaries that require a trip on the information highway to the national headquarters in Toronto rather than being prominently displayed in the local franchise.
Treating it like china or silverware would be peculiar enough. It was never meant to be brought out on occasion only. But even that does not characterize how it is being put away, which, in reality, is more like a grade 10 high school year book during an awkward phase or financial records. It is somewhat shameful, not polite to share with visitors, but it is good to have around in case you get audited or you decide to look at it again one day. It is hard to reconcile this with the early martyrs of the faith who were killed for what this simple note contains.
But the best indicator of its new reserved identity is that many of you do not know what I mean when I say the Apostle’s Creed. Which is very sad to me. This is not a condemnation of reader as student but rather of church as teacher. And even that is couched in a tragic understanding of our culture where any idea or tradition that has a longer journey is cut off at the knees.
The creed is a summary of the central tenants of the Christian faith: “What the Sciptures say at length, the creed says briefly.” And I will close this post with, indeed, the creed, or “what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.”
The Apostle’s Creed
I believe God,
the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
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.