The Nicene Creed, and then some...

The sermon today was motivated by the number of people who ask me why we continue to say the Nicene Creed every Sunday. Never mind that the Book of Common Prayer includes it as a non-optional part of Sunday worship...there are real issues here. The sermon was an attempt to address those questions, complaints and concerns.

What follows was read today with our youth reading the interpretive parts while the rest of the congregation read the traditional language.

We believe in one God,
The Father, the Almighty
Maker of heaven and earth
Of all that is, seen and unseen.

We trust in God, the beginning of all things,
maker of the stars that sing and the hills we walk,
molecules and mystery, a universe of meaning.

We believe in 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,
Through him all things were made.

We trust in Jesus Christ,
the only one who perfectly loved God.
He was the image of God made complete in human form.
So full of God was he, that to know him
is to know the heart and mind of God.
He was one of us but more.

For us and for our salvation
He came down from heaven;
By the power of the Holy Spirit
He became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
And was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
He suffered death and was buried.

At his birth, he brought heaven to earth.
He taught the truth of love.
His violent death broke human hearts and God’s.

On the third day he rose again
In accordance with the Scriptures;
He ascended into Heaven
And is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
And his kingdom will have no end.

At sunrise on Easter morning,
his light flooded the world and shines forever to bring peace.
The day will come when, just as he revealed God,
the whole world will be as he is.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
Who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.

We trust in the Holy Spirit,
the wind that whispers God’s love,
the spark of imagination and justice.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
And the life of the world to come.

We trust that God is present
when people gather in prayer and praise.
In baptism we give ourselves to the hope of the church
as the kingdom come.
We know that death is not the end and that someday
God’s dream of the future will awake in our present.