There's a tent in the center of town...

This last Sunday we had our Fall Kickoff and it was a BLAST! We planned an outdoor worship service on the church's lawn (for which the weather was PERFECT, thank you Jesus). I preached, the choirs sang and we had a baptism and communion. Awesome.

Since we were outside, there's no recording for this one for pastorbecca'spodcast. Sorry, adoring fans (aka Mom). The text will hafta do for now....


"I Believe"
Pastor Becca Bruner
First Presbyterian Church of Normal
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Mark 9:14-29
s.d.g.

I want you to try a little experiment with me: start a sentence in your minds with the words “I believe…” and then finish it with something deeply heartfelt. It is hard NOT to feel moved. All humans share a need to declare our deeply held beliefs, our own personal “credos,” if you will.

Sometimes our credos are homespun, folksy and heart-warming: “I believe everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten.” Sometime our credos are silly. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that read, “Everyone has to believe in something. I believe I’ll have another beer.”

Sometimes we look for designer beliefs that, like designer labels, will show how cool we are. A recent issue of US Weekly quoted Jennifer Aniston’s saying, “I still believe in love.”

And then there are the great beliefs, beliefs that people have devoted their lives to studying, beliefs that they have argued about and exulted in and sacrificed over and died for. The Apostles’ Creed, which we will be preaching on for the next 10 weeks, contains some of those GREAT beliefs.

HISTORY OF THE CREED

The English word “creed” comes from the Latin verb “credo,” which means “I believe.” The earliest Christian creed on record was simply, “Jesus is Lord”. Anyone who made that declaration was considered to be a Christian. But over time, it became necessary to explain in greater detail what the statement “Jesus is Lord” fully meant. What did Christians believe about God the Father? And the Holy Spirit? And the Church? By about the 4th Century, a list of answers to those questions came into common use: what we know call “The Apostles’ Creed.” It’s kind of a misnomer, as it was not written by “the Apostles” per se, but nonetheless this creed has been recognized by all Christians, across all denominational lines, as the basic core of Christian belief. For centuries, the Apostles’ Creed was the primary text used to instruct new believers in the basics of the Christian faith as they prepared for their baptism.

PURPOSE OF THE CREED

So why study the creed now? What difference does knowing and understanding it make in our lives today? I can think of a couple good reasons.

The first is that the Apostles’ Creed provides a brief summary of the Christian faith. It’s “Christianity-concentrate.” And I think that all of us could use some buffing up on the basics. A few years back, a team of researchers conducted a study on the religious beliefs of teenagers. After conducting over 3,000 interviews, they discovered that the “religion” these teens professed could be labeled “Benign Whateverism.” You could believe whatever you want- as long as you were a nice person and you felt good about yourself. Many of these teens claimed to be Christians, but had no idea about the history or doctrines of their chosen “faith.” That’s what the creed is for- teaching us the basic foundations of orthodox Christianity. It’s not a substitution for personal faith, mind you. You don’t become a Christian by simply reciting a creed; you become a Christian by putting your faith in Jesus Christ. But it helps to know in your head what you believe in your heart. The Apostles’ Creed supplies us with some of that content.

The second reason to study the Apostles’ Creed is that it allows us to recognize and avoid inadequate or incomplete versions of Christianity. Throughout the centuries, there have been a myriad of voices claiming to tell the truth about who Jesus Christ really was. The Da Vinci Code has its view; as do the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and a variety of New Age religions. The Apostles’ Creed gives us a standard against which to test these teachings. It says, “For the last 2 centuries, Christians have believed these specific things to be true about Jesus.” You can choose to believe whatever you want; but the Apostles’ Creed says that if you want to call yourself a Christian, here is what that means.

I BELIEVE

You’ll notice, if you read through the Apostles’ Creed in your bulletins, one key phrase that gets repeated a few times over: “I BELIEVE.” I believe. What does that mean? What does it mean to say, “I believe in God the Father? I believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the church?”

Well first off, to say, “I believe” is to give your intellectual assent. It means believing that certain things are real and true. To say, “I believe in God” means “I believe there is God,” or “I am of the opinion that God exists.” This is an essential starting point. After all, before we can begin to say anything about what God is like, we need to assume that there is a God in the first place.

To say, “I believe” is to give your intellectual assent. Faith is a pursuit of truth. It is engaging in study and asking tough questions. And the Apostles’ Creed provides a foundation for the search.

I went to a Christian liberal arts college out in Seattle. And in my 2nd year there, I took a class with a Bible professor who was famous for his penchant for delighting in challenging his students’ preconceptions about the Bible. I remember leaving his classroom one more than one occasion, reeling with these new and difficult ideas about where the Bible came from, how we know it’s true, and what it actually says, if you take the time to read it. One day, it all got to be too much. All these new and, frankly quite troublesome facts were being thrown at me, and I wasn’t sure WHAT I believed anymore. When class was over, I went straight back to my dorm room, locked myself inside and started to pray. And the words that came to my mind at that moment were the words to this creed…

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only 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 rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there he shall come to judge the living and the dead.
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.

I offered those words to God as a prayer. And in that moment I knew that as long as I had this Creed to hold on to, as long as I knew these words were true, I could handle wrestling with these new ideas because I knew that in the Apostles’ Creed, I had a strong foundation to stand on.

That’s the starting point of faith: “I believe God is.” But that’s not all there is. The Creed says, “I believe IN…” That goes a step beyond simple assent. When I declare that, “I believe in Jesus Christ,” I am not just saying that there once was a man named Jesus. I am putting my trust in this Jesus. Christians don’t just believe- we believe in someone. Faith in God isn’t so much a recognition of Him than it is a relationship with Him. And as any husband, wife, friend or family member can tell you- to be in a successful relationship requires RISK and TRUST.

Let’s look again at our Scripture lesson from this morning. Here is this father who is desperate for help. He tells Jesus how his son is tormented by a spirit that has made him mute and throws him to the ground in convulsions. This father has done everything he can for his son, and nothing has worked. So he takes a risk. He says, “Jesus, if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

And Jesus picks up on this word, “if,” and we read this amazing statement: “All things can be done for the one who believes.” Jesus, in a way, is coming back with an “if” of his own. The man says help me if it’s possible. Jesus says everything is possible- if you believe, if you will put your trust in me.

At this point, if I had been the father, I’d have been temped to conjure up some certainty, or to fake it. “Oops- did I say if? I meant since- SINCE you can do anything!”

But that’s not what this father does. Instead, he offers himself in complete trust to Jesus. He knows that his faith isn’t perfect, and he doesn’t try to hide it. He believes, and he doubts. He trusts, and wants to trust more. He places the faith he does have in Jesus’ hands and waits for a response.

To say, “I believe” means risking and trusting God enough to enter into a relationship with Him. A surprisingly large number of people who think of themselves as Christians never get further than accepting the truth of Christianity. They believe that God is there- but they have never met him. They believe that God is able to forgive sins- but they have never allowed God to forgive their sins. They believe that God is reliable- but they have never relied on him.

Think of it this way: Suppose you developed a terrible infection. Your doctor prescribes an antibiotic that can cure it. But believing that penicillin can heal you isn’t enough. It is only by swallowing those pills that you can be cured. So it is with the gospel. Believing that it can transform you is one thing; allowing it to do just that is something else.

In the Apostles’ Creed, we say, “I believe.” I believe God is. We say, “I believe in…” I trust as much of myself as I can to this God. When I say, “I believe in God…” I am taking a step of trust, betting my life on the God who bet his life on me, demonstrating his commitment to us and love for us in the cross of Jesus Christ. In the words of Martin Luther, to say “I believe in God,” is a “free surrender, a joyous wager on the unseen, unknown, untested goodness of God.”

One of my personal heroes of faith is Henri Nouwen. For many years, Nouwen worked as a professor Christian theology at Harvard and Yale, until one day, he felt God call him to leave these esteemed institutions to serve in ministry at a home for physically and mentally disabled adults. Throughout those years, Nouwen wrote some very insightful and beautiful things about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. During a period of personal sabbatical, Nouwen wrote about, of all things, paying a visit to the circus!

He was taken in especially by the trapeze act, a team of brothers who called themselves “The Flying Rodleighs.” He watched them perform, and then he got to know them, learning more about their craft.

There were 5 members in the act- 3 “flyers” and 2 “catchers.” The flyer climbs the steps, mounts the platform, and grasps the trapeze. He leaps off the platform, swinging through the air. He uses his body for momentum, swinging with increasing speed and height. The catcher hangs from his knees on another trapeze, with his hands free to reach out. Trapeze artists usually use a safety net nowadays, but even falling into one of those is dangerous and sometimes fatal.

The moment of truth comes when the flyer lets go. He sails into the air with no support, no connection to the earth. He does a somersault or two. Picture him in the middle of a somersault and freeze the frame. There is absolutely nothing, at the moment, to keep the flyer from plunging to his death. What do you think he feels like? Do you think he feels fully alive- every cell in his body screaming out? Thing he’s feeling any fear right then?

In the next moment the catcher swings into our view. He has been timing his arcs perfectly. He arrives just as the flyer loses momentum and is beginning to descend. His hands clasp the arms of the flyer. The flyer cannot see him; to the flyer, everything is a blur. But then, in an instant, the flyer feels himself snatched out of the air. The catcher takes the flyer home. And the flyer is very, very glad.

Nouwen spent some time getting to know the flyers. He learned that flyers are small, weighing 150 pounds or less, because if you’re a catcher, you don’t want a flyer with a sweet tooth. He learned about the equipment they used. They had socks filled with magnesium dry powder for their hands, because Joe was one of the catchers. They told Henri, “Joe sweats a lot.” and if you’re the flyer, you don’t want a catcher with sweaty hands.

Here’s where the trusting comes in. Letting go is always an act of trust. One of the flyers told Nouwen, “As a flyer, I must have complete trust in my catcher. The public might think I’m the star of the trapeze, but the real star is Joe, my catcher. He has to be there for me with split-second precision and grab me out of the air as I come to him in the long jump.”

Nouwen asked him, “How does it work?”

He answered, “The secret is that the flyer does nothing. The catcher does everything. When I fly to Joe, I have simply to stretch out my arms and hands and wait.”

Henri asked him, “You do nothing?”

“A flyer must fly and a catcher must catch. The flyer must trust with outstretched arms that his catcher will be there waiting for him,”

To say, “I believe” involves intellectual assent, it’s true. Saying “I believe in God,” takes humility and honesty. But in the end, confessing your faith in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in the words of this creed means letting go, taking a leap, and trusting that there will be someone there to catch you.

There is no way to God that bypasses the call to let go…. The truth is that we are all born holding onto a trapeze- a little trapeze we call our “life”. We hold on to it tightly: our security, our “okay-ness”, our success, our importance, our worth, our stuff, our bodies, our heath, our influence.

Then Jesus comes along and says: “You can let go of all that. You can let go of your life because Someone is holding it. Believe him or not. One day- maybe tomorrow, maybe next year, maybe 50 years from now- you will let go of this little trapeze of your “life,” and so will I.

Jesus believed that there is a Catcher, and he does not have sweaty hands.

Many thanks to a variety of sources for help and information for this sermon.
Alister McGrath, I Believe, Intervarsity Press, 1997
J.I. Packer, Affirming the Apostles’ Creed, CrossWay Books, 2008
John Ortberg, Faith & Doubt, Zondervan, 2008