Small Catechism: The Apostle’s Creed                                                                  W 2^nd Lent Midweek

The Rock Solid Foundation

In the name of him whom together we confess to be Lord and Savior, dear friends in Christ: Last Wednesday evening, when we began our annual Lenten pilgrimage, I explained how this particular season of the church year has a long tradition of being used as a time of intense training – or as we say in the church, “catechesis” – for those who were preparing to become full communicant members of the body of Christ.  And I mentioned how, in the spirit of that tradition, I thought it might be good for us to use this time we have together in our evening Lenten devotions to review and revive our own studies through Luther’s Small Catechism that for most of us culminated in our Confirmations in the Christian faith. Whether that was for you two years or two quarters of a century ago, I’m certain that you will find it to be time well spent.

Last week we looked at the Ten Commandments, which together are the first of the Six Chief Parts of the Catechism.  They set the limits of what we call the moral law – that is, they delineate good from evil and right from wrong.  Or, another way to look at it, in simplest terms, they define what it means to love. And the point I wanted to stress as we looked at those most holy and righteous commandments of God was that the Lord gave them to us primarily with the intent that we break them.  He never imagined, not even for a moment, that fallen people like us could ever actually keep the commandments in the sense of being obedient to them.  We can’t. It is in our very perverse nature to be disobedient and rebellious to the Lord and his commands. Unfortunately, one of the big problems we have in our corrupted and darkened state is a sort of universal delusion of our own goodness.  We imagine that our faults are fairly few and far between – that we are essentially good creatures who “make mistakes” on occasion.  The Ten Commandments were given to show us otherwise.  St. Paul wrote, “The law brings the knowledge of sin”.  He meant that looking into the Commandments as if they were a mirror should show us how soiled and stained we are compared to the perfection that God demands.  God gave us the commandments so that we could see how badly and thoroughly we have broken them so that seeing what we have done, we might be made broken and contrite of heart.

And this, we saw, was illustrated graphically in the Old Testament story of when the commandments were given.  Even while Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the stone tables of the Law from the hands of God, the people on the plain below were violating every one of them. Then, when Moses came into the camp and saw all that was going on, he threw down the stone tablets and shattered them into tiny fragments – just as the people had with their actions.  But there’s a deeper message here – and it has to do with foundations.  Remember that Jesus, when expounding upon the commandments in the Sermon on the Mount, said that a wise man builds his house on a rock, and a foolish man builds upon the sand.  This is the image we have here:  because we have broken the commandments, they are a foundation that is broken and weak – they cannot support us if we wish to stand before the Lord.  If we try, we can only fall – and so it is with all religions and religious systems that teach obedience to commandments as the path to life. They all must fail.  They are houses that cannot stand.  No, we need another foundation:  a solid rock on which to build.  And that solid rock is the Creed – that is, the confession of faith of the Christian Church, which is put forth most succinctly for us in the words of the Apostle’s Creed.

And it’s important that we understand this.  A lot of people say that the solid rock foundation of the Church is Jesus or the Bible.  But that’s not what Jesus said; and for my own part, I think we’re better off listening to him.  It happened when Jesus was asking his disciples what people were saying about him. “Who do they say I am?” he inquired. They had all kinds of answers – and all of them were wrong.  Then he asked the disciples, “What about you?  Who do you say that I am?”  Peter, responding for the disciples, said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  Jesus said, “That’s right, Peter; and on this rock I’m going to build my Church.” What rock was he talking about? He was referring to Peter’s correct confession of who Jesus is.  So understand that the Christian Church is first and foremost that body of people who stand together on the rock; that is, they confess the divinely revealed truth about Jesus.  The Church is made up of believers in that truth; and their confession of faith, or Creed, is the content of what it is they believe.

Furthermore, it’s necessary that the Creed on which we stand fleshes out the necessary specifics of the faith.  We need this to keep ourselves from what’s been called “the faith of the hod carrier”, which comes from medieval tale.  The story goes that there was a certain bishop who wanted to know how well the people in his city understood what they were supposed to be learning at their churches. So he decided to mingle a bit with the common folk and conduct a little survey.  It happened that the first guy he ran into was a hod carrier, which is a brick mason’s assistant:  the guy who carries the bricks and mortar to him.  After exchanging pleasantries, the bishop asked, “Can you tell me, sir, what it is you believe?”  The man answered, “Oh, your grace, you can be sure that I believe everything the church teaches.”  “I’m very glad to hear it”, said the bishop, “And what exactly is it that the church teaches?”  “Why, it teaches what it’s always taught, of course!” the man replied.  “Yes, yes; but what is it that the church has always taught?” the bishop demanded with some growing frustration.  “You’re the bishop!  Don’t you know?” the man asked.  “Yes, of course I know!”  “Then why are you asking me?”  “What I’m trying to ascertain is whether you know what you believe!” “But I’ve already told you.  I believe everything the church teaches.”  And so the conversation went, until at last the bishop gave up, never having heard anything that sounded even remotely like a confession of the faith.  Incidentally, the story goes on to say that some time later the bishop became ill and was nearing death.  In his last hours he was struck by terrors of conscience, worrying about his sins and wondering if he had been completely accurate about what he believed and taught. Fellow priests and bishops tried to put away his many fears; but to no avail.  He only grew more panicked and terrified that he might have something wrong about the faith.  Finally, his last moment approaching, he cried out, “O God, be merciful to me!  I believe what the hod carrier believes.”

And here we see the problem with saying, “My only Creed is Jesus”, or “the Bible” or “John 3:16”: they’re simply ways to avoid answering the question and actually taking a stand on anything.  Such statements, if completely truthful, reveal more about what someone doesn’t believe or refuses to commit to than they do show any indication of a positive faith in Christ and his Gospel.  How much more straightforward, thorough, and articulate simply to confess the words the Apostle’s Creed – which is the Church’s oldest expression and summary of the whole faith.  It was originally a Baptismal formula:  something that new converts confessed immediately prior to being baptized into the name and family of the Triune God – and we use it today the same way.  We know too that it had wide usage pretty much in the same form that we have it now already in the mid second century AD – which means that it very well may have been in use while some of the apostles of Jesus were still alive.

But what’s most important for us to see is that the Creed is pure Gospel.  Unlike the Ten Commandments that show us our faults and failures, the Creed makes no demands of us.  It contains no requirements or threats.  It is instead a concise summary and celebration of all that the Lord has done and continues to do for us.  It’s all about his work – his perfect work on our behalf.  And this is why it is such a solid and trustworthy rock on which to build our lives both in time and in eternity.  It doesn’t depend on us in any way.  It’s all about the Triune God and his wondrous work for us.

For clarity’s sake, it’s broken out into three distinct articles, each featuring, as it were, the person of the Godhead most prominent in the work being described. To the Father is attributed creation; to the Son, redemption; and to the Holy Spirit, the work of sanctification. That’s not to say that the other persons of the Godhead aren’t active in each work in question, for Scripture clearly states that all three participate in every divine action.  It’s just that each person is more associated in the Scripture with certain roles. 

And when I teach this part of the Catechism, I’ve found it helpful to describe the works of God by using the analogy of the making of a motion picture.  If you think of it that way, then God the Father would be the writer, producer, and director of the project.  He is the one in charge, who put together the plan and the script, and who got the whole thing going.  Furthermore, he keeps it going.  This is a project without an end.  So, not only did he call all things into existence by the power of his Word; but every day he upholds and sustains all things by that same Word.  And he is actively guiding and directing all events and occurrences to work his perfect will for us who love and trust in him.

The star of this great work of God the Father is his Son, Jesus Christ.  He is the one we are intended to see and interact with, for it is he who reveals God to us.  Whereas the Father, for the most part, gives his directives from off stage, the divine Son enters the film and becomes part of the medium through which the story is told and takes place.  To save us from our sin, he became one of us – taking on a real human body by his conception and birth.  In this body he was crucified, died, and was buried to be the atoning sacrifice for sin; and in it he was raised and exalted to the right hand of the Father to rule over us whom he saved and who now serve him with thankful hearts in “everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness”.  We’ve been told to look forward to the sequel when he will come in glory to judge the earth and take us to our heavenly home.

And keeping with the motion picture analogy, if the Father is writer, producer, and director, and the Son is the star, then the Holy Spirit is the entire support crew. He does the camera and sound, the light and color, and everything else needed to bring the production to us in such a way that it can be seen and understood.  Without the Spirit’s work, we who are dead in sin, darkened in mind, and opposed to true spirituality could never comprehend or believe the truth about our creation and redemption.

And this is the point Christians today have the hardest time understanding.  It’s easy to see how creation is entirely the work of God, for none of us could possibly have made ourselves.  It’s also fairly easy to see how our redemption is entirely God’s work too.  None of us died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead.  But when it comes to the divine work of sanctification, a lot of people think that their own names should appear somewhere in the credits.  They think they have a part to play in coming to faith or in “choosing Jesus”.  This is why the catechism so emphatic in its explanation: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith”. It gives all glory to God and leaves no room for human effort, which is a blow to human pride that so desperately wants to take credit for something – that is, it still wants to be able to stand on the law somehow.  But in giving all credit to God and his work, it provides supreme confidence for the wounded soul that knows that in this flesh dwells no good thing, and therefore that the only sure place to stand for faith and sanctification is upon the unbreakable foundation of what God does in and for us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And this too is an ongoing work of God.  In the same way that the Father upholds the whole creation by his Word every day, the Spirit upholds our faith and trust in Christ Jesus by the Word of God through the ministry of the Church.  This holy Christian Church, which is also called the communion of saints, is where faith is sustained and sins are forgiven on a daily basis by the proclaimed Word of Christ and the Sacraments.  Through these means the Spirit continues to call, gather, and enlighten people to bring and keep them in Christ Jesus and his salvation.

Now, returning again to the analogy one last time, if we were to give this motion picture I’ve been talking about a name, we might call it The Story of God’s Love:  the epic account of all that our Triune God does and continues to do for us by grace because of his infinite love for us in Christ Jesus the Son.  It is accurately called the greatest and truest story ever told. It is also the only story that will endure for eternity.  And here’s the part that matters most to us:  it is by confessing the Creed that we know that we are an integral part of the story.  That’s why the Creed is the solid rock on which we stand and will stand forever as we confess it together with sincere faith that “This is most certainly true.” Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!