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January 12, 2014 at Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Baptism
of Our Lord Sunday. Season of Epiphany. Matthew 3:13-17 Acts 10:34-43.
Question: What is a scapegoat?
Last week someone asked me why we say the Apostle’s Creed in worship if that’s
not what we literally believe? I can answer that.
I can answer that by looking at where and when the Apostle’s Creed came about.
In Latin the creed is called, Symbolum Apostolicum, or Symbol of the Apostles,
and it appears for the first time in a letter, probably written by Ambrose, from a
Council in Milan to Pope Siricius in about the year 390: That’s almost 400 years
after the death and resurrection of Christ.
What’s actually written is this:
"Let them give credit to the Creed of the Apostles, which the Roman Church has
always kept and preserved undefiled".
But what existed at that time was not what is now known as the Apostles' Creed
but a shorter statement of belief that, for instance, did not include the phrase
"maker of heaven and earth", a phrase that may have been inserted only in the
7th century, or 700 years after Christ. That is very important to know.
So how can we know what is really essential to our Christian faith?
I still remember a particular moment in my seminary experience, when instructor
Pat Persaud who was studying for his PhD in Theology was teaching a New
Testament class that I was in. The question came up,
“Where can we find the most important statement that expresses what is
absolutely necessary for understanding or stating the heart of the Christian
faith. NOT the Christian religion or doctrine – but the faith that is necessary to
call yourself a Christian disciple. What do you need to know?”
He answered that we should read 1. Corinthians 15 where St. Paul writes:
“I have delivered to you as of first importance what I have received: that Christ
died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he
was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he
appeared to Cephus, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to more than 500
brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen
asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, Last of all, he
appeared to me.”
St. Paul gets his information from our Second lesson today from Acts and the
sermon delivered by Cephus, or the disciple Peter, who in his sermon says
nothing about Christ’s death removing our sins by dying but rather,
“Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
The phrase “died for our sins” has evolved into the understanding that somehow
the ONLY way a sinful human being can be forgiven is by God killing his own son.
In theology this is called substitutionary atonement and comes from the Jewish
tradition of what in modern times is expressed in the term; “Scapegoat.”
In the Jewish religious tradition Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year—the
day on which we are closest to G-d and the essence of our own souls. It is the Day
of Atonement— As recorded in the Jewish religious observance book of
Leviticus, 16:30: “For on this day He will forgive you, to purify you, that you be
cleansed from all your sins before G-D.”
The phrase I asked you about, mainly scapegoat evolved out of the practice of the
religious community writing down all of their sins and attaching these writings to
an actual goat that was sent out into the wilderness as a sacrifice so that the
people might be forgiven.
Remember, the early Christians were all Jews so this practice was very familiar
not only to Jesus but to his disciples as well. That Christ died for our sins, I believe
means that his ministry, his teachings, his living presence among us right now in
as in what we call “real presence,” – is what believing in Christ crucified and
risen is all about!
Atonement theology is clearly a later addition just as the birth narratives are.
Neither St. Paul nor the oldest gospel, Mark even mention the birth of Jesus. And
as to doctrines or criteria for entering the Kingdom of Heaven it does not involved
any creedal statement, but rather to see the sacred or holy, the face of Jesus
himself in the faces of those who are considered in the words of Jesus “the least
of these my sisters and brothers,” mainly the poor, the homeless, the hungry, the
imprisoned and the sick.
“When you did it to them, you did it to me,” Jesus says!
Religion itself and even the foundational documents that support it were never
meant to be a straitjacket to confine you to a narrow in the case of the creeds 4th.
Century understanding of reality.
As Bishop John Shelby Spong so rightly says,
“All creeds are human attempts to capture in human words the experience of
the divine.”
“God is a living experience and talking about the experience will take different
forms in every generation.”
I have often wondered when wrestling with these ideas whatever happened to
trust? Whatever happened to trusting God at God’s Word – mainly that God’s
love is unconditional. That we are free in Christ to be whom God has created us
to be – and not confined to someone else’s understanding and experience of the
Holy?
Whatever happened, as Janet Blank of our congregation so wonderfully phrased
it a while back as to not knowing everything. She said, “I am comfortable with
mystery.”
You don’t have to understand how something works in order to believe it. Take
the most basic of human functions the miracle of birth – how does that work? At
what point when the cells begin to divide do we become human?
How is it that siblings born to the same parents are so utterly different in
personality? Where is and what is the soul? These and so many other questions
have no easy answers, and yet they are essential to the whole human experience.
We ask them not so much to get an answer but to appreciate the wonder and
complexity of life. All life, and so we learn to be in awe of this miracle that is so
much greater than ourselves.
For me the most exciting as well as significant fact is that St. Paul’s declaration of
what Christian faith essentially is, which this based on St. Peter’s sermon – and
remember, Peter actually knew Jesus and was a disciple – makes this very
important indeed!
It is potentially the one unifying statement that could bring all of Christianity with
its many divisions and factions back together as the one true church of Christ’s
disciples. That does not mean everyone would believe and worship in exactly the
same way, but rather it would eliminate the unnecessary nuances that cause
friction and even outright hostility now.
For instance I recently called a church to ask about Family Promise a ministry that
our church council is investigating to see if we would like to be a part of it.
Believe it or not, even in wealthy Ozaukee County there are homeless people. At
last hearing I think the number was 14 known families that are being helped right
now.
Churches work together to temporarily house and feed the family at night and
during the day they look for work or go to work while the children go to school.
Each church does this four times a year for one week at a time. We will be
sharing more information with you as we learn more ourselves.
When I called one of the churches that is part of this ministry I noticed it was
listed as an Independent Lutheran Church. I had never seen that before so I
asked the secretary what that means. She said that they used to be E.L.C.A. but
left after the last National Church Assembly voted to ordain same gender
candidates who are in committed relationships.
In other words they split off of the church family that they have been a member
of for in real terms over 500 years over 1 single issue that is at best open to
subjective judgment and interpretation and has absolutely nothing to do with the
existence of God, salvation or any other substantive question regarding life!
As I prepared this message today I was delighted to find what I believe is the best
expression of a creed expressing the fundamentals of the Christian faith. It is in
your bulletin and I would like us to use it today following the Hymn of the Day
not as a replacement of the Apostle’s Creed but rather to see how it fits your own
deeper understanding of the Christian faith in which you have been nurtured.
It comes from the United Church of Canada as their reworked statement of faith
would you please stand as we say this creed together, and see if it expresses your
faith understanding.
ALL:
We are not alone, we live in God’s world.
We believe in God:
Who has created and is creating,
Who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh,
To reconcile and make new,
Who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the church:
To celebrate God’s presence,
To love and serve others,
To seek justice and resist evil,
To proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
Our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God. Amen.