Confession and Faith

A friend from college (a believer, by the way) was playing on a church softball team.  His team had fallen way behind.  The breaks were all against them, that day.  Then he got up to bat and got the first solid hit of the day.  It sailed high and deep into the  far right field.

As he bounded towards first base, he shouted  “There is a God!”

Then, the right fielder ran like mad.  He dived under the ball and just caught it in his glove,  inches from the ground.  The batter was out.

As he walked dejectedly back to the bullpen he muttered dejectedly “No I guess there isn’t.”

If our faith were always constant, it would need no reinforcement.  Our faith, though is never constant; it ebbs and flows, changing with the circumstances of the moment.  Things go well, and we have no problem believing in His goodness. When things go badly, faith is much harder to bear.

In the early church they discovered a way to help us remember God even when we are sorely tempted to forget him. It is called the Confession.  When people would gather to worship they would affirm together what they believed.

The oldest known of these confessions is the Apostles’ Creed.  Parts of is are said to go back all the way to the disciples of the Apostles. 

“I believe in God the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth,

And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord.

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit  born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried.

He descended into hell. The third day he areose again from the dead, He ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of God, the Father almighty. From there he will return to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the Body, and the Life everlasting.”

The creeds had a doctrinal function of course. They assured the church that all who wre there believed in the same Gospel as they did, therefore helping to fend off heresy.  Even more, though, they had a practical faith function. They reminded people on a weekly basis that the same God who created the universe was their God, too. 

The Creed (or one like it) can be a help in prayer, as a reminder of who we serve.  Prayer is all about knowing to whom we are speaking--it is really no more complicated than that. If we know there is a God and that He is loving, and that He has redeemed us and is willing to answer our prayers,  then we already know that we have what we ask.  

Creeds in our prayers reminds us lf all that, and confessing them helps to assure us in our mind of His Divine nature and our place beneath Him.

This week, before you go into,  say the Apostles’ Creed over to yourself a couple of times.  Let it be a reminder to you of the God whom we serve. 

God, I thank You are there, and that You are all whom you say that You are.  I thank You for creating the universe. I thank you for being all powerful, all knowing, all loving, just, holy, and pure.  Remind me, Lord when my faith starts to waver, that You do not change, and have never changed, and that You are always watching out for me.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.