God

I would like to thank everyone for being here this Sunday. You had many choices in front of you for the day but you choose to worship with us at Concord UMC. I am honored and grateful for you making that decision. I cannot believe that we are moving into our second part of our Bedrock Series as we begin to discuss the Apostles’ Creed. The Lord’s Prayer series was great and if you missed a sermon or wish to hear one again you can find them on our Facebook page or a podcast version on our Faithlife.com page.

Just as the Lord’s Prayer in an important part of our Christian life, so is the Apostles’ Creed. The difference is one Jesus told us to prayer, the other is a collection of statements from the 12 Apostles. The Apostles’ Creed is a profession of our faith in the Triune God. If you look at how it is written, it starts by talking about God the Father, the God the Son, and finally God the Holy Spirit. We will talk about what the meanings behind these areas as we go through the sermon series.

I invite you to turn with me to Psalm chapter 8. Grab your personal Bible or one of the Pew Bibles or open your favorite Bible App on you digital device and read along with me. Now hear the words record by the Psalmist.

Psalm 8 CEB

For the music leader. According to the Gittith. A psalm of David. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth! You made your glory higher than heaven! From the mouths of nursing babies you have laid a strong foundation because of your foes, in order to stop vengeful enemies. When I look up at your skies, at what your fingers made— the moon and the stars that you set firmly in place— what are human beings that you think about them; what are human beings that you pay attention to them? You’ve made them only slightly less than divine, crowning them with glory and grandeur. You’ve let them rule over your handiwork, putting everything under their feet— all sheep and all cattle, the wild animals too, the birds in the sky, the fish of the ocean, everything that travels the pathways of the sea. Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!

Today we focus on the first part of the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” I love the fact that this ties into some of what we talked about with The Lord’s Prayer. It just goes to show how things truly tie together and are truly part of the Bedrock of our faith as Christians.

This first statement is a profession that we believe in God. That is a bold statement in a world where more and more people are struggling with the concept and their understanding of God. In fact, it seems that more and more leave Christianity as they question where God is in times like this. But, we know that God is present and active as he was in biblical times.

In fact, if we were to look at who God is, there are probably more questions than answers. The Bible tells us a lot but doesn’t answer questions like, “what was God’s name in school?” ”Did God wear a backpack to school?” While I would love to answer those questions for the wondering minds in our congregation, I cannot answer in a way that would truly help that conversation. But there are some interesting questions. I once heard a suggestion of keeping a notebook/journal of questions that you want to ask God.

God the Father

I think the best place to start when discussing this line and God is with the first proclamation of who God is in the Creed, Father. As we said during the Lord’s Prayer with Jesus saying “Our Father”, we are making a similar proclamation here. We are saying that God is parent of all of creation. This is a role that sets the parental role for all of humanity but also brings us all into family.

I love how St. Francis of Assisi put it in one of his poems. St. Francis called all of God’s creation to be siblings of his and ours. His poem is called Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon. In the Canticle many of God’s creation are called brothers and sisters, like the moon and sun. And God is parent of all. This ties us to all of creation and is important because it reminds us that we are all in this together.

God the Creator

If you believe in God, it is easy to see God as a parent to all of creation. But there is one area that some believers and a lot of non-believers struggle with and that is God as Creator of all that there is and ever was. As Christians we know that God created everything, we can find those stories in Genesis. We can also turn to John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” If the Word was with God in the beginning then God was present in the beginning.

But this is a struggling area as many believe that all life was formed after a cosmic event also known as the Big Bang Theory. It is hard for many to understand how a superior being could form all that exists in and outside of our universe. But here is a crazy thought that I have always had when it comes to creation, what if both creations were true and the Big Bang happened because God put the particles in motion.

Either way, God is tied to what he created just as a painter is tied the painting, a musician to the music, a furniture maker to the furniture, or a designer to a product, my paraphrase of Marcus Borg from his book Speaking Christian. But they are separate from each other as creator and created. Creation is tied to God since the beginning.

But, I like what Borg goes on to say, “Creation is about the universe’s dependence upon God not primarily about its origin in the past.” That is deep but it is also a reminder that when we talk about God the Creator that we are expressing our dependence on God. Without the creator then there would be no creation. We are ever dependent on God and calling God the Creator is a reminder of our dependence.

Heaven and Earth

As Hamilton said in The Lord’s Prayer study, with a little Todd wording, this God we depend on does not exist just at a distance but exists as the air we breathe. A phrase Borg uses is Divine presence and he defines it as God is not absent but everywhere present. God is never far from your side.

Sometimes, even with the knowledge that God sits on the throne in heaven yet is as close as the air we breathe is hard for us to conceive. This is because, as humans are minds are very limited and we are trying to understand an unlimited God. A God that touches every corner of the universe yet cares enough about us as individuals that he walks beside us throughout our whole life.

Second century theologian Irenaeus says, “God contains everything and is contained by nothing.” Think about that. Reminds me of the idea that God has the whole world in his hands, when it should actually be the whole of creation because God can contain everything but cannot be contained by anything. This includes his complete creation, that is larger than our minds could ever imagine.

But what does this have to do with us believers. I like the quote that the book Christian Believers uses from Martin Luther King, Jr. “Only God is able. It is faith in him that we must rediscover. With this faith we can transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of joy and bring new light into the dark caverns of pessimism.” When we say, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven in earth. We are making a bold statement.

We are making a statement about God the parent, God the creator, and how mighty he is. We need to stop trying to simplify God into our small understandings and allow God to be as God is, mighty and uncontainable. We must rediscover our faith in God so that we can be lights in a dark and dim world.

Many of you have asked or made the statement, “How do we get more people back in the church?” Or “We need more people in the church.” Having a faith like Martin Luther King Jr. speaks of is contagious and allows the Spirit to move and others will come and follow in order to find the same faith. So, are you ready to profess your faith with truth in depth in a God that contains everything but is contained by nothing?