Still Saying Ancient Creeds and Prayers

And now Sam will bring us the two New Testament readings.

Our New Testament readings for today are from one Corinthians chapter 15 and revelation chapter 12.

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preach to you which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved. If you hold firmly to the word I preach to you. Otherwise you have believed in vain. For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the 12. After that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all, he appeared to me also as to one abnormally born are now for revelation.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, now I have come to the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of this Messiah of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them before our God. Day and night has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you. He is filled. He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is sure.

This is the word of the Lord.

Sermon

Well. Good morning again. Thank you so much for the privilege of being with you. to be part of the Staying Weird series, finding the weirdest people around to come and talk about a weird and wonderful thing, which is Christian faith and and to listen to a sermon.

A 'Creed' for Listening

So I've prepared, just a brief, creed for listening to a sermon. And so I wonder whether we just might encourage each other as we begin with this, this morning, so you can respond in the, in the bold type.

All Scripture is God breathed.

Congregation replies:

And is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness.

We listen to sermons so that we might hear from God.

I am really, really, looking forward to the sermon today!

And even if it goes a bit too long, I won’t mind at all.

However, I do wonder, what’s the point of reciting things that have been written for us by someone else?

Where’s the authenticity in that?

Which is a really great question.

The 'Age of Authenticity'

I'm glad you asked. We live in what sociologists call the age of authenticity, and that's what it means to be truly human, to make sure that you, you do you and you live your life in a way that aligns with with your heart, you, you, you don't just submit to what other people tell you to do, what other people say that you ought to be. You need to be authentic. Be true to yourself.

Except, of course, when you come to the Anglican Church and what you do is what is in bold type on the screen. So what do you believe? Don't bother thinking. Just read these words off the screen. Would you like to confess your sins to Almighty God? No need to search your heart. Just repeat after me.

would you like to, know what to say when you wake up in the morning? Well, open your prayer book and read Morning Prayer. As an advanced Anglican, there are prayers for the morning. The evening for the middle of the day, for before you go to bed, there is a special prayer to say every week of the year we've got you covered. No need to think.

And is that perhaps the point of this? Adolf Hitler said, what luck for leaders that men do not think. But that's not the point, is it? Let me say very clearly that's not the point.

All right, we come. We come to church so that we might think deeply about our faith. We come so that we might bring ourselves to this, that we might grow in an authentic, real Christian faith so that who we are would be what we confess to one another and to the world.

And we do that joining with centuries of Christian people, theologians, philosophers, artists who have thought reflected deeply on what it means to be Christian, and many of them who also have said these prepared words of creeds and prayers.

So how does this go together? How do we understand the significance, the value, the point of coming to church and saying things that someone else has written for us?

Point 1 — Saying what we don’t know how to say

I for four points as I as we go through today. The first is this why do we say prepared creeds and confessions and prayers, so that we are enabled to say what we don't know how to say?

The Apostle's Creed that we said earlier that that was originally sort of from the earliest references around the fourth century, in wide use by the eighth century. These were a set of words that people would use when they are being baptised. So brand new Christians, what is the faith that you are confessing? And his. Here are the words to say it.

It was a way of teaching new believers. How do we speak about God and so many of the creeds? They came out of controversy in the early years of the church. As Christians try to work out, how do we talk about God? What is God like? Where does Jesus fit? Who is the Holy Spirit? How do we answer those questions?

Should we say that Jesus is created by the father? Or should we say that Jesus is sort of similar to the father? Is Jesus like a second God? That there's the father who's God? And then there's another God who's Jesus, and the Holy Spirit fits in somewhere. Like how? How should we answer? And they're deep questions, right?

And so that the church elders, they got together and they thrashed this out over centuries, they worked this out. One of the great creeds of the church is having its birthday this year. The Nicene Creed was written in 425. 1700. I'm not good at maths, right? I'm employed to do different things. 1700 years ago.

That's how long Christian believers have been answering the question, What is God's? What is God like? We say that God is the father, the Almighty creator of heaven and earth. God is the one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made of one, being with the father.

There is a weight of theology and understanding in those tight words. And if only there was a college that you could go to. You could learn about what it all means. Talk to me afterwards. This sermon is not an advertorial, but there is so much to, to, to reflect on, to grasp. And that's been captured in these words for us so that we can say what we don't know how to say.

And it's the same when we pray. The disciples came to Jesus and they said, Jesus, teach us to pray. And so he gave them words. In Luke's version, it's it's explicit. It says, when you pray, say this, here are the words to say when you pray.

And as Anglicans, there are prayers that we have been given. Prayers that enable us to say what we don't know how to say. One of my favorites is the is the Thanksgiving. The general Thanksgiving. Megan has very helpfully printed out a number of the sort of the set prayers of the Anglican tradition. I think they'll be out in the foyer somewhere afterwards, or here at the corners of the stage.

How do you say thank you to God? Well, the Anglican reformers, they knew that that English Christians weren't very good at being thankful. All right. So here are some words. Glorious, gracious God, we humbly thank you for life, for health, for safety, for freedom to work leisure, to rest, and for all that is beautiful in creation and in human life.

They give me categories that I can feel goes on. But above all, we praise you for our Savior, Jesus Christ, for his death and resurrection, and for the gift of your spirit and for the hope of sharing in your glory. And I wonder of those theological phrases which ones are familiar and which ones do you tend to forget?

Fill our hearts with all joy and peace in believing. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. What a gift that is. When I don't have the words, then these words written by others, written by our members of our family. They're a gift to us.

Formwork, Scales & Jazz

Now I've lost where I'm up to in my notes. So we're unable to say what we don't know how to say. These words sort of become like formwork for faith. You know, formwork when you're. When you're laying cement. Pouring cement. You create the form that you can then pour the cement into. So it's like the framework that enables faith to sort of find its place. Right.

But to shift metaphor, you could say maybe rather than just formwork, it's more like learning scales. And because we're actually doing something the, the, the creeds, the confessions, they're they actually are the expressions of faith. And but of course, nobody performs scales. You practice scales so that you can then perform faith.

And really, there's something about saying these prayers, saying the creed which actually is our faith. So when we stood before and said, this is what we believe, we affirm the faith of the church. We weren't just practicing. We were confessing. We were doing what Christians do. And so, in a sense, the creed. It's like it's like the melody line in a jazz standard, right?

My son is a jazz musician. And every time I go to see a jazz concert, it's like, I feel like there's an in-joke that I'm just not getting right. Have you ever been to that? So. And jazz musicians, they tell me that's exactly right. We know what we're doing. And the rest of you, you don't. And so I'm gradually learning.

And I'm learning that jazz standards, they have a melody line. And then once once the band plays that melody line, then they sort of take turns at improvising, riffing on that melody line. And that's sort of what makes jazz interesting. It's the combination of head and improvisation. If it's just melody line, then it's all a bit same, same. And if it's just improvisation, then it's all a bit chaotic and but it's the improvisation on the melody line that's that's jazz.

And what I've noticed when I go to see, John, I play, he goes to a, to an improv bar in, in Northcote. And it's really, it's fun. And they just get up and they'll, they'll call different people from the audience. It's like, Johnny, come play some drums with us, you know, Megan, come, come play some, some keys with us because that's what jazz people say, you know, and and then somebody says, what? What are we going to play?

And somebody says, oh, you know, Watermelon Man and G. Okay. And so they just make it up and mind boggles and off they go. I've noticed that sometimes the band just gets a little bit out of hand. And they've, they've sort of lost it because I mean these are people who don't know each other. They've just sort of turned up. They haven't practiced this.

And I see the bandleader tapping, tapping his head. And and I've learned that that means come back to the head, come back and play the melody line again. Again. We've all gone a little bit haywire. Let's come back to the head and just play that same thing that we know. Right?

It's sort of like in the life of the church. Every now and then you'll see the vicar tapping ahead. Let's come on. Let's let's come back to the come back to the Creed. This is what we believe. Here is the anchor. These are the words that we say. This is the thing that holds us together. These are the words that we say that we don't know how to say. That's point one.

Point 2 — We say what we can all say

Second point. We say what we can all say. I'm going to come back to those slides in a moment. Keep going. We get to the. There you go. We say what we can all say. Oh, no. No. That was the point. That was the end of the argument. Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah. Because I need to refer to the Bible reading the Bible reading Exodus 34.

This is great, isn't it? It's jazz. It's jazz. Yeah. Yes. Moses asks God, what's your name? Okay. Because Moses doesn't know. How will we know what God is like unless God tells us? Moses asked God, what is your name? And God says, the Lord, the the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

There is God's name. That is what God is like. There's the. There's the head, there's the melody line. There's the creed. Now listen to the words of the people of Israel. When the psalmist prays in Psalm 86, you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. They've learned how to address God in prayer.

When Joel calls God's people to repent, he says, return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love. And he relents from sending calamity, even when Jonah complains to God after the Ninevites repent, I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

In all these times. They're all improvisations. They're riffing on Exodus 34, on the Creed. That's that's the Christian life. We take these words that we've been given. And then we apply them in all the different aspects of our lives here in the creeds, in the confessions drawn from the words of Scripture. They give us a set of words that enables us to live this faith.

Now we're on to my second point, which is that we say in the creeds what we can all say. I wonder if you're familiar with this song from Matt Redman. It's a beautiful song called The Heart of Worship. Matt Redman is essentially singing a confession. He is coming back to the heart of worship, to living all of life for Jesus, rather than just thinking that worship is all about singing a song.

And this is a song that I find really difficult to sing. No, it's not because it's got a difficult melody or anything. It's hard to sing. It's easy to sing. It's a lovely song and it's just. It's just not my song. I'm really glad that Matt Redman has the opportunity to confess this change of understanding that he's moved from a position where he thought that where he had made worship all about a song, and now he's back to the point of recognizing no, actually, worship is all about Jesus. That's just not my story.

There's lots of other things I have to confess. All right. So I could write lots of other songs about how Graham needs to confess sin. Okay, don't get me wrong, but this is just not one of them. So I find it hard to sing. I'm glad Matt can sing it. Contrast that with the words of the confession. Prayers. We have done what we ought not to have done. We have left undone what we ought to have done.

Well, that's true of all of us. We have sinned against you in thought, word and deed, and in what we have failed to do. That's true of all of us. We have not loved you with our whole heart, and we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. That is true of all of us. These these are words that we can all say. We can say this together.

In the second reading from one Corinthians 15, Paul uses the language of handing on a tradition is it there? Yeah. I passed on to you what I first received. He's using the language of a relay race. You get the baton from somebody else and you hand the baton onto the next person.

That's the gospel. That's the message that he preaches. His point is, this isn't new. What I am bringing to you, Corinthians, this message of Jesus who died in accordance with the scriptures and then who was raised in accordance with the scriptures and then appeared. This isn't new. This is not Paul's gospel that he has just made up. This is the church's gospel. This is God's gospel.

And so when you come to Deep Creek and you say the words of the the Creed, this is not what Deep Creek believes, not just what Deep Creek believes or not what only deep, Deep Creek believes. This is what churches across Melbourne believe. But not just Anglicans believe this. Not just Australians, but people across the world. People of all denominations. This is what Christians believe. We say these things together.

Point 3 — We say what our community says

In the scriptures and through the creeds and confessions of the church. We're given to say what we can all say together, and therefore we say what our community says. Hey, can we, skip onto the next slide for me, please? Fabulous. We say what our community says. I think at the moment we might just have a musical interlude.

and I wonder whether anybody would like to join me in the next song. We're going to have to click through. Here's the song. Who would like to sing this with me? Please stand boldly. I'm not getting any takers. Now, partly that might be because we're all blues fans, and we're also thoroughly disappointed and disgusted and let down. This is the Carlton team song.

Blue baggers sing this with pride when we get the opportunity to. And. You know, like the football song. This is, this is a song which it binds a community together. I'm glad that not everybody chose to sing this song, because if you're not a blue bagger, you don't get to sing this song. All right. Because this is our song. It's not yours. And there are other songs that I will not sing.

I'm not the proud that I'm not the the pride of Brisbane town. I am certainly not with the mighty Fighting Hawks. So let's move on. The Creed is like our team song. That's what we get from revelation chapter 12. Revelation 12 A loud voice from heaven comes in and interprets our world. It announces salvation in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

It says, now have come the salvation and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Messiah, Jesus has conquered. The voice reminds us that though the devil has been defeated, he has been cast down. He is not yet destroyed. Verse ten, he has been hurled down, no longer able to accuse us before God in heaven, but able to wreak havoc on the earth.

He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short. And so how will God's people live? How do Christians function in this kind of world? Knowing the victory of Jesus. And yet so often looking around the world and it does not look like Jesus is ruling. Sometimes it looks like the exact opposite. How do we live in that, in that space?

Well, the answer comes in verse 11, there in bold, in the middle, and in two parts they triumph. First by the blood of the lamb. That's the answer by Jesus death on our behalf. Satan's hold over us is broken and we are free. But there's a second part. They triumph over him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.

It's true. The defeat of Satan is only established. It's only secured by the work of Jesus. But we take hold of that victory for ourselves by the word of our testimony. Whether this is sharing our faith with one another here in church, or as we proclaim our faith to the world around us, the word of our testimony takes hold of the victory of Christ.

Whether we make our testimony under the threat of death, or as an ongoing work of perseverance all the way until death. We hold on to the victory of Christ by the word of our testimony. Revelation 12 verse 11 says that there is a power in the act of testifying. It's not that the power to defeat Satan comes from the strength of your conviction.

In the same way that just singing where the team that never lets you down means that you're never going to be disappointed when you go to watch Carlton play football, right? I know that that's true. I can tell you about that more later, but I'll need to go into therapy. Just saying something doesn't make it make it true.

But we take hold of Jesus victory. We take our place in the fellowship of the church. And we triumph, therefore, over the devil's schemes. In reciting creeds and confessions, we say what our community says. We find our place in this community, this community of triumph. In the Lord Jesus.

The church historian Jaroslav Pelikan. It's got an excellent name, but he was asked once, why do you say the Creed? This was his answer. My faith life, like that of everyone else, fluctuates. There are ups and downs and hot spots and cold spots and boredom and ennui and all the rest can be their own way. If you've seen Inside Out too. You'll know what that means. A feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement.

Yeah, that describes Christian life for me often. UPS and downs. And so I'm not asked on a Sunday morning as of 920. What do you believe? And then you sit down with a three by five index card saying, now let's see, what do I believe today? No, that's not what they're asking me. They are asking me, are you a member of a community which now and for a millennium and a half has said, we believe in one God.

And that for me, is the great power in the Creed to share in this shared confession. This privilege of testimony. You know, when you think about it, there's an added privilege of being able to confess this creed on Sunday mornings in Australia because it's like there is this Mexican wave of praise and confession that is going around the globe in these next 24 hours.

We didn't kick it off, but there's not many people in the Pacific or in New Zealand. So where, you know, this is this is the when the Mexican wave really takes off, right. And we stand and we say the creed. And then across the day, across the planet, our brothers and sisters will say the same words, confess the same truth. We are part of this community. What a privilege that is.

We don't overcome Satan on our own. We don't have to do this on our own. We participate in this community of faith. And you know, the same is true when we pray. When we confess together, we are confessing that we are part of this community.

Confession & Community

You know, often when it comes to the confession, prayer in the service. This is how I hear it introduced. We're going to make this prayer of confession. And so we're going to have a time of silence for you to think about all the ways that you've failed Jesus over the last week. And then we'll pray the prayer together.

And then I've got 15 seconds to think, which either completely underestimates how much I'm able to disappoint and fail Jesus over the last seven days, right? Or overestimates my the speed at which I can process all of that sin? And then what happens if after that 15 seconds I can't think of anything? I actually, I'm good today. You guys go for it. But but, I'll I'll join you in a moment. That's not the point, is it?

There are some times that you will come to the confession prayer, and your mind will be filled with all the different ways that your life has not measured up to what it is that Jesus has invited us into. And you can be so overwhelmed with failure. But then here are words that just find a way through that mess.

And there'll be other days when you'll come thinking that you're sort of okay. And here are words that remind you. Thought, word, deed. What we have failed to do. Really? When we come to confession, the invitation is are you ready and willing to join this community?

This is a community that says this to God, that we confess that we have wandered from his way. We confess that we have failed to do what is right. We confess that God alone can save us. We have not loved one another with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. This is what defines this community. Are you ready and willing to be part of that?

To recognize that this is you? And that there is grace and salvation to be found in this community that holds on to the Lord Jesus. Increases in confessions. We say what we ought to say. We say what we can all say. We can say what our community says. And finally, finally take us to the next slide. We say what we want to be able to say with our last breath.

Point 4 — What we want to be able to say with our last breath

In my early ministry, one of the very hardest things that I ever had to do was also one of the most privileged things that I ever got to do, and that was to go to minister at the bedside of people who were dying. And I had to go one day to visit Joan in palliative care. She was a member of our congregation not far from the kingdom. I was terrified.

And I was I was given instructions. I said, go read the 23rd Psalm. And then take your prayer book and pray. Pray the confession. Pray the Lord's Prayer. Pray the general thanksgiving. pray the collect. And I read Psalm 23, and Joan was she. She was sort of unresponsive and labored breathing and thought, what the what am I doing here?

And then as I opened the prayer book and began the prayer of confession. Her lips began to move, and and she prayed with me. And through the fog and all these years of praying just came out. It it was it was like muscle memory, but also it was it was soul memory. And her body had now remembered how to bring these words to God.

And if I'm given the grace of knowing that I'm about to die. Then I want to build a habit of saying these creeds and confessions and liturgical prayers, so that I can declare my faith in the Lord Jesus when I'm dying, that I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting so I can confess my sins. As I wait to meet my Savior, I want to be able to thank God for life and health and safety.

I want to be able to greet the morning, praying for my family and thanking God for bringing us safely to this new day. Asking that he would keep us by his mighty power. And grant that today we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger, but that he would lead in govern us in all things that we might always do. What is righteous in his sight?

By reciting creeds and confessions, we are offered an invitation to build soul memory. And to say what we want to be able to say with our final breath.

Conclusion

So what's the point? What's the point of reciting things that have been written for us by someone else, or memorized words, remembered words, known words, familiar words. They can become rich practices of faith. Not just things that we do, but things we do that form us. We enlist our bodies as we. We stand or bow our heads. We use our voices. We declare, we pray, and we do it together.

Not just me, but us. Together. And not just us, but together with believers across the globe and throughout the centuries. And so we see that these creeds and confessions, they they become for us like the good news of Jesus itself. Right? They're not my own invention. They're not the result of my creativity, my insight, or my spiritual fervor. These aren't originally my words, but they become my words when I receive them as a gift.

And so, in the same way, the good news of Jesus, we didn't come up with this. We didn't create it ourselves. We don't need to construct this. We receive the good news. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and has risen that we might be saved. And that can be the gift to our hearts.

We don't have to say these things in order to be Christian, but we get to say these things because we are Christian. What an amazing grace that is. Amen.