Proper
10 A 2014
Father Adam Trambley
July 13, 2014 St.John’s Sharon
Creeds, God the
Father, Liturgical Colors
This morning, we are going to start a series of sermons
going “back to basics”. Over the next
five weeks, we will look at pieces of our Baptismal Covenant, while also
answering some other questions about what we do and what we believe. Today, we will look at three things: the
creeds, the first response in the baptismal covenant that begins “I believe in
God, the Father,” and the colors of the liturgical year.
Some people have asked what we believe here at St.
John’s. They want to know what I’m agreeing
to if I keep showing up. The truest
answer may be that you are signing up to be used by God in incredible ways
beyond anything you could have previously asked or imagined. But the answer to the question being asked is
that we believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to contain all
things necessary for salvation; that there are two great sacraments of the
gospel, Holy Baptism and Holy Eucharist, which were given by Jesus Christ; and
we believe what is proclaimed in the ancient creeds of the church which we use
in our worship, the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. We’ll tackle scripture and sacraments another
time, but right now I want to talk about creeds.
Many churches have a statement of beliefs or a list of
doctrines that members are supposed to subscribe to. Often these include statements about the
atonement or how to interpret the Bible or other very specific topics. The Episcopal Church, coming out of the
Church of England, has a more practical bent designed to create a community of
faith worshipping together, instead of a church to be divided over doctrinal
disputes. While questions about a
variety of topics are addressed in the Catechism that begins on page 845 in the
Prayer Book, the primary deposit of our beliefs comes from the creeds recited in
worship. Beyond these basics, almost any
opinion about doctrine can be reasonably found within the Episcopal Church
somewhere.
The two creeds we use are the Apostle’s Creed and the NiceneCreed. The Apostles’ Creed was developed
very early, perhaps by the 200’s. At one
point, people believed that each apostle provided one line to the text, which
is a nice story but not all that likely.
The Apostles’ Creed can be found, among other places, on page 120 in the
Red Book of Common Prayer, and we use the Apostles’ Creed for baptisms and
during Morning and Evening Prayer.
The Nicene Creed was developed based on the decisions made
about the Trinity and the nature of Jesus Christ at the Councils of Nicea and
Chalcedon in the 300’s and 400’s. We
usually use the Nicene Creed in our Eucharistic service, and it can be found on
page 358 in the Book of Common Prayer.
The Nicene Creed is a bit more complicated theologically, but covers the
same ground.
Over the next few weeks, I am going to talk specifically
about the Apostles’ Creed as it is used in the Baptismal Covenant. At baptisms, the Apostles’ Creed is broken
into three sections, one about God the Father, one about God the Son, and one
about God the Holy Spirit. Then there
are five questions about Christian practice that we agree to, with God’s help. We will be using this Baptismal Covenant in
place of the Nicene Creed today as a way to renew our baptismal promises.
The first question asked by the celebrant in the Baptismal Covenant
is: “Do you believe in God the Father?”
The response, from the Apostles’ Creed, is “I believe in God, the Father
Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”
Let’s break it down.
The first thing we say is “I believe.” Belief is a faith statement. We aren’t claiming something we can
prove. But we are willing to make a
claim about God even if we can’t prove it.
We are also willing to live into that claim until we understand it more
completely.
The first thing we say we believe in is “God.” Believing in God states that we are in the
great monotheistic tradition that began with Judaism. We don’t believe in multiple gods, but in one
God.
We believe that the one God is “the Father.” By talking about God the Father, we indicate
a belief in the Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I won’t go into all the intricacies of
Trinitarian theology today, but suffice it to say that we hold God to be three
persons in one God and that the Trinity matters to us. Talking about God the Father also says that
we believe that the one whom Jesus called “Father” is the same God who is also
almighty and the creator of heaven and earth.
While this might seem obvious, a central tenet of our faith is that we
can trust everything that Jesus said about his heavenly Father is true about
God, including our ability to call God our Father, and to live as his
children.
God, the Father, is also “almighty.” God has ultimate sway over everything. He can do anything he wants. He is not limited. He is not equal to some opposing force like
the Devil or chaos, but is greater than anybody or anything else. The Father of Jesus who loves all of us as
children is also all-powerful. Believing
God to be all-powerful and the all-good Father raises the problem of evil. I don’t have time to address that question
today, but the Christian answer to that profound question is not one that
limits God’s freedom or God’s power.
Then we believe that God is “the creator of heaven and
earth.” All things were created by
God. Heaven and earth are meant to be
all inclusive of things physical and spiritual, things seen and unseen, things
that we can grasp on earth and things totally beyond us in the heavens. Saying that all things were created by God
has a couple of important implications.
First, it means that all creation is intentional. God decided to make everything he
created. Nothing was accidental. No person is an accident in God’s eyes, but everyone
has been wonderfully and marvelously made because of God’s love. The earth is not the body of some dead
monster defeated by a great hero, people didn’t sprout up where some deity bled
after a battle, and the animals weren’t brought into being when Mother Earth
and Father Sky got frisky some night.
Second, God creating heaven and earth means that creation is good. We know from Genesis that God called his
creation good and very good. So we don’t
reject our physical bodies or anything God made as evil in and of itself. Third, if God is the creator, then we are his
creatures. We are made for God, not the
other way around. Our purpose it to do
what our creator wants, and to give him glory.
If we remember that we are creatures of God our great creator, we are
much more likely to live the way we are meant to live.
From this first, and shortest, paragraph of the Apostles’
Creed, I want to turn to our liturgical colors and seasons, because I’ve been
asked and this seems a good place to talk about it. The colors we use for my vestments and for
the altar and pulpit change according to the seasons of the church year. While the liturgical seasons go back very
early, the colors for those seasons are a bit more recent, and in the middle
ages some places used slightly different colors. None of the liturgical colors are found in
the Prayer Book, but I’ll run down the liturgical seasons and the colors we
generally use.
The church year begins in Advent, which starts four Sundays
before Christmas. Usually it falls
around Thanksgiving weekend. There are
two colors that are used for Advent. Purple
is a penitential color, and has been traditionally used during this season when
we hear and respond to John the Baptist’s call to “repent.” More recently, many churches have chosen to
use blue for Advent as a way to differentiate it from Lent. The Advent blues tend to be rich, beautiful,
and wintery, which is probably part of why people like them.
Beginning Christmas eve, and for the twelve days of
Christmas, we use white or gold, which are interchangeable liturgically. White is the color for joy, resurrection,
triumph and glory, and is used for most of the great feasts of the church, as
well as for funeral masses, when we celebrate the resurrection.
After the Christmas season, we use green. Green is the color for the time in between
the great feasts and fasts of the church year.
It brings to mind growth, which is what all Christians should be doing.
During Lent, we use purple as a sign of penitence. Here at St. John’s we have a set of black
vestments with purple trim that we use because they are particularly
beautiful. We don’t use colored trim on
the altar or pulpit during lent, to provide a more somber atmosphere. Some churches use a crème color with black
and scarlet trim as an alternative to purple.
Red is the color of the Holy Spirit and of blood. We use it for Pentecost, and also for Palm
Sunday, Holy Week, and the feasts of martyrs.
After red for Pentecost and white for Trinity Sunday, we
return to green until Advent. The Altar
Frontal we use during this season, as well as for weddings, is a crème color
with a multi-colored design in it. We
use this “all seasons” hanging because it matches my summer chasuble better
than the regular green we have. This particular
chasuble was an ordination gift, and has embroidered on it the tree described
in Psalm 1 as a metaphor for the righteous: they are like trees planted by the
water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not whither, everything
they do shall prosper.
Does anyone have any particular questions on any of
the things we’ve looked at today?
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