Imperative in the Indicative

Faith, Hope, and Love: Faith, The Apostles’ Creed (I believe in What?)

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
    the Maker of heaven and earth,…

I believe, when the creed says that, doesn’t only mean intellectual assent. We do not only believe the chair exists. Though, that is a part of it. No, we believe the chair can save. We sit on it.

Paul calls this “faith”. We are to have faith in God, trust, sit on Him, so to speak.

But what are we trusting, who?

We’re trusting “God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth”. He is not the God of the deist, who does not interfere. He is not the God of the pantheist, who is all things. He is not the God of the Universalist, where all roads lead to Rome, so to speak.

He’s the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. He is the God of Israel, He is the God of Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the God that is attested to have created all things.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

-Genesis 1: 1

And because He created all things with the power of the Word, he is Almighty. He holds all things together, and He does not break a sweat.

Of course if He were Almighty but mean, we’d have every right to be scared.

But He’s not mean, spiteful. He’s our Father.

He loves us, very much. He created us so that we might share in the love He has within Himself, Father, Son, and Spirit. 

And He best demonstrated this love by sending His Son to die for us, so that we could partake of God’s Godness, by the power of His Spirit.

That is our God. Creator, Power, and Loving. 

Faith, Hope, and Love: Faith, The Apostles’ Creed (What is it?)

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
    the Maker of heaven and earth,
    and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
    born of the virgin Mary,
    suffered under Pontius Pilate,
    was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell. 

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,
    and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
    from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
    the holy catholic church;
    the communion of saints;
    the forgiveness of sins;
    the resurrection of the body;
    and the life everlasting.

Amen.

- The Apostles’ Creed

But what does it mean? These words, what are they trying convey?

The Apostles’ Creed, so they say, wasn’t written by the Apostles, those twelve brave and foolish men that followed Jesus to his and after his death and resurrection. No, it wasn’t written by them. Alas, it was written in the 2nd to 3rd Century in the Western side of the Roman Empire, probably recited by people who got baptized when asked what they believed.

However, it does contain apostolic truth. In fact, one could argue that this creed, is the Creed of Creeds. The Metacreed. All denominations affirm this Creed. East and West, Catholic and Protestant, Fancy and Unfancy churches. If somebody asks you what Christians believe, and you recite this, you’re not shooting yourself in the foot. If anything, you’re being rather faithful to Scripture.

Indeed, when Paul talks about what the most important thing is, the matters of first importance, he recites what was most likely an early creed in the early church.

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 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred 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.

-1 Corinthians 15: 3-7

If you compare it the Apostles’ Creed, it talks about the Bible and God’s story of making stuff, though that’s hidden, what Jesus did, and the fact that he came back from the dead and then he appeared to lots of people, leading to the Church.

Now, of course, the question is, what does this all mean?

That’s the subject of the next post. 

Faith, Hope, and Love: An Introduction

Preface:

This is an exercise for me. I’ve been bouncing around the idea for writing a series of posts on this wonderful site to promote learning of the Faith among young adult Christian kids.

Because, me being a University student, those are my peers.

I also consider this an intellectual exercise: How can I best distill the essence of Christianity without distilling it to the point of not being Christian?

I also want to serve my friends that are a part of Cru@FIU, because it seems that there seems to be a lack of understanding as to what the Bible teaches and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

With that.

Introduction:

There is a passage in 1 Corinthians. It is the thirteenth chapter. It talks about how love is greatest of these, greater then faith and hope.

In the history of the Church, this phrase has become a triad, a three pronged strategy in teaching the doctrines of Christianity (Faith), the prayers given to our Lord (Hope), and the way that we should live in light of the Lord Jesus (Love) to those who are interested in learning what Christianity is about. 

This has been a model used for catechism, or, the teaching of the faith to catechumens, or, students of the catechist, the teacher, for thousands of years.

Long sentence eh?

It is after this triad of words, this phrase, that I will attempt to teach those who happen to come across this post the doctrines of Christianity, the prayer of Christianity, and the way of Love.

Which means that an outline is in order.

It will be a simple outline.

1) The Apostles’ Creed (Faith)

2) The Lord’s Prayer (Hope)

3) The Ten Commandments (Love)

This series of posts will deal go through the list, attempting to teach those who are interested in learning about what Christianity is. 

With that, my strange excursion begins.

P.S.

This is not an academic work. These are reflections and meditations, so don’t expect footnotes. You can go to books for that. For everything else, there’s the Internet.

To take a Breath Away (A Short Reflection)

If the gospel isn’t taking your breath away then something else is.

I have a friend who is always wanting to post inspiring things, things that will make me excited about God and the Gospel.

But to be honest, what does it mean that the Gospel take your breath away? That I’m zealous at all times? Must I be in an excited emotional state about the Gospel?

I guess. But hopefully God has enough grace to let me thrilled by something else, like Tumblr.

In other words, thank God loves us when we’re not enthralled by Jesus.

Psalm 8 (A Short Reflection on our Worth and our Place)

1 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;

4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?

5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.

6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,

7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,

8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Rather popular to have two views of us, humanity.

The first is to think rather highly of ourselves. Self-aggrandizement. We do this in our daily lives, and how we ask? Ask the person who gossips so that they might feel important for having secret knowledge. Or ask the person who serves so that they might feel as if reality could function without you. 

Perhaps we use people so that might benefit us? Yes, that person in your pew would make a wonderful guitar player for your ministry. 

I don’t know, or you befriend a person so that they might help you with a difficulty that you’re having. And then you abandon them as soon as they’ve helped you.

Because all the world’s a stage and you’re the star?

Selfish. Nobody wants to be friends with a person like that. And neither do you.

But read what the Psalmist writes. The Psalmist writes “what are human beings that you are mindful of them”?

And why should the Lord be mindful of us? Look at the works of the stars, the moon. Why, He holds the cosmos together lest the lights be blown out and leave us in the darkness.

And yet.

And yet we must be mindful that we do not fall into the second common view of self that we hold, that is, that of self-hatred. Disgust.

I’m sure you feel out of place because you’re not popular amongst your peers, friends. Or that you feel out of place because you’re too poor. Or you’re too rich.

The point is, you fail to satisfy some sort of law that you’ve imposed on yourself. So you fail, and you feel worthless.

Yet listen to what the Psalmist writes. That “we are crowned with glory and honor”.

And yet, paradoxically almost, we are given dominion over all the earth. The land, the sea, the fish, the oxen, the birds. Even the liger?

Yes, even the liger.

Of course you tell me, how is it true that we rule over all the earth? And that we are crowned with glory and honor? We have hurricanes, deaths due to deranged ducks and other deadly diseases, that we hate ourselves and we use others to make much of us, usually at the same time? 

It can be, and it is, in Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ, God the Son, sent by the Father and empowered by the Spirit became incarnate, human, and had dominion over creation and ultimately over death as he came back from the dead.

Indeed, he let the brokenness of the creation ravage him so that he might come back from the dead by the power of the Spirit and reconcile us and the whole creation to God the Father, so that Christ might be all in all.

But what does that mean?

It means that in Jesus Christ we can understand our place. That we are sinful, but not worthless, not beyond repair. That we are needing to be reconciled to God the Father and that Jesus was made far so that we be brought close.

So then, we are humbled.

However we also learn that we have worth, because we are made in God’s image, and that because for those of us in Jesus, we become partakers of the divine image, as St. Peter once wrote in his epistle. We become more like God, and in that, we become more human. We start to have dominion over ourselves and our sinful nature.

So then, we see our dignity. We are loved by virtue of being. And God demonstrates this love in sending His Son.

And because Jesus has ascended, even know, all things (though it does not appear that way) are even now under His feet. And He will return again and set all of the cosmos right again, and all of us who are in Jesus Christ will have dominion over all of the creation as He sits at the right hand of the Father.

And all of us in Christ will be singing “O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

A Narratival Context (My Life so Far) I, I, I, I,…

I have a girlfriend.

I have Asperger’s Syndrome.

I have Lord knows how long to graduate.

I suppose I should update my two readers as to what has been going on in my life. Sure. 

I stumbled towards a relationship. Stumbled because everything I learned about pursuing a woman blew up in my face. I learned to dance, play music, became funny, attempted to be cool, just so that a woman could pay attention to me.

Instead, this woman paid attention to me because I witnessed to her sister about Jesus, more then that, because I befriended her with no strings attached. She liked me because I was myself, in my failures.

I did nothing to deserve this, truly.

I want to love her. Not in that dopamine high sort of sense, but rather, I want to appreciate her because I don’t deserve her. It’s a bit overwhelming at times because this relationship is rather new to me, and I don’t know how such things work. 

I also found out that I have Asperger’s Syndrome. If you don’t know what that is, go to Wikipedia. Other then that, it means I’m socially awkward and obsessed with certain topics which makes me appear to be rather intelligent. Apparently the DSM-IV has a category for geek. But that’s besides the point. 

It, the point? The point is, something that I have been struggling with my entire life has been diagnosed and is being treated. Finally. All those times that I felt awkward, unable to read the social atmosphere of a place, it has a name! Now I can just tell people to be patient with me just like the Father is patient with humanity to repent, and stuff. But that’s another story.

I, thirdly, finally accepted that I’m going to graduate late. Two classes this semester. Whatever. I’m going to have fun and make music, listen to music, and pursue peace. 

I’ll end this post now, because now I need to write others. I have much to process ya know.

Aye!

Conspiracy and Inerrancy

The idea that the landing on the moon was a government set up never appealed to me.

And Lord knows how many people think 9/11 was a political ploy on the part of the Republican Party.

Now I’m no Republican. If anything I am a conservative Libertarian… I think abortion should be illegal, but, I don’t have a problem with legalizing meth and other drugs.

But that’s besides the point. That’s just me establishing rapport with you, oh leftist who will disagree with me.

So what is the point?

Conspirary theories remind me of Christian fundamentalism.

The language they use is similar to that of Christian fundamentalism. Their entire schema, for both parties, flawless.

Usually the languge is very black and white, and there are dire consequences for being wrong.

Me, I just can’t thinkt that way. There’s always going to be something wrong with what you believe.

And one thing is asking questions about certain events that occured, another is trying to recreated an entire way of interpreting reality based off inference and unproven presuppositions (like the fundamentalists do, based off my experience).

But if we never landed on the moon, and if Bush knocked down the Towers, I suppose I’ll eat a slice of Humble Pie.

But for now, I’ll remain a skeptic.