Posted Tuesday 1 May 2007
The Lenten study groups in Castle Douglas this year took for their theme the development of the Nicene Creed - a story as fascinating as it is complex, writes the Rev Canon David Bayne, St Ninian’s, Castle Douglas.
As we wrestled with the nuanced conflicts of arians, semi-arians, homoousians, homoiousians, economic trinitarians and the myriad other early Christian groups attempting to interpret the mysteries of our faith in the three-fold God, we were kept sane by a Baptist member who would gently point out that his denomination sits lightly to credal formularies and contents itself with the declaration: ‘Jesus is Lord’.
Those three words became for us a kind of touchstone as we tackled the succession of theological propositions that eventually coalesced into the Creed. If brain-fade, or a threat to belief, or a renewal of the ancient disputes within our groups seemed imminent, the murmured mantra, ‘Jesus is Lord’, sufficed to put everything back into perspective.
Reflecting on that experience in the light of Easter, it seems to me to point up a serious failing in the way we go about interpreting the faith to ourselves. We expect people to subscribe to all manner of theological statements (creeds, canons - dare I mention covenants?) that describe or define what we believe when the issue is not about what but about whom. The Apostles, from John at the empty tomb, through Thomas in the upper room, to Paul on the road to Damascus, were brought to faith not by credal formularies but by the risen Christ. And that’s as it should be for us too.
Our faith is not about a kind of antiquarian interest in documents - however precious - but about a personal and corporate relationship with the living God: ‘Jesus is Lord’.
This is scarcely cutting-edge theology. But, in an age when we are once again devising tests of orthodoxy to ensure that only the ‘right’ people are allowed to be Christians, it is essential to keep reminding ourselves that what truly matters is not submission to such tests, but the spirit of Christ in us. A century ago the poet and hymn-writer John Oxenham put it better than ever I could:
Not what, but whom, I do believe,
That, in my darkest hour of need,
Hath comfort that no mortal creed
To mortal man may give;
Not what, but whom!For Christ is more than all the creeds,
And His full life of gentle deeds
Shall all the creeds outlive.
Not what I do believe, but whom!Who walks beside me in the gloom?
Who shares the burden wearisome?
Who all the dim way doth illume,
And bids me look beyond the tomb
The larger life to live?Not what I do believe, but whom!
Not what, But WHOM!
Category: Thought for the Month
