We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ The second paragraph of the Creed concerns Jesus Christ, second person of the Trinity. There is much here, the majority of the Creed was spent here, and the majority of the first several centuries of the Church was spent wrestling with a Doctrine of Christ. It is, after all, our Christology which most centrally and immediately separates us from other religions. Up to this point in the Creed, these things can be asserted and affirmed by many. The Abrahamic faiths share much of this in common.* Further, the national religion of American, that democratic ideal of a god shared by all that blesses (a) specific nation(s), can affirm these things. But Jesus Christ is really where we begin to draw lines.† Jesus Christ, historically and theologically, separates us from our spiritual ancestors, the Jewish people. Historically, the followers of Jesus were a Jewish sect. Jesus, after all, was a Jew. But the Jews generally could not/did not accept Jesus as the Messiah or the Son of God. Those Jews that did accept Christ as Son of God were continually distanced from the mainstream Jews, until after a generation or two, they were two separate faiths sharing one tradition. Theologically we share a revelatory tradition with the Jews until Jesus. God is revealed in the Hebrew Bible. Both agree. But for Christians God is revealed fully in Jesus Christ. Much could be said about the similarities and difference, some will be later on in the Creed, but the point here is that we are moving towards particularity. We call Jesus Lord. We affirm our belief in one Lord. I cannot help but hear political connotations in this use. We have affirm our belief in one God, heavenly Creator and maker of all things, both imminent and transcendent. Now affirm one Lord, one ruler, one King. The Jesus Christ, this one we will spend so much time talking about in the Creed, we first assert as our Lord. We know little yet about him. But, what you must understand first about this Jesus Christ, is that He is our Lord. This speaks, I think, to the way of Christ. There is much theological deliberating in the phrases ahead. But this first phrase places the Way of Jesus at the forefront of everything, and Jesus the Christ as the one who leads us in the Way. Jesus is Lord, Ruler, Master. In our political lives – our lives together – it is the teachings of Jesus and the life of Jesus that determines our actions, and it Jesus who leads us into these actions. Jesus is the Lord, the Master of life. We will soon find out more about what we believe about this Jesus. But the first thing you must know is that 1) He is the Lord for Christians and 2) He is God’s anointed (Christ in Greek means “Anointed.” Is the equivalent of Messiah in Hebrew). This second point has echoes of God’s anointed king, King David. So this Jesus has authority, not only in the way of salvation and spiritual life, which is what much of the Creed says about Him. But for Christians, He is authoritative in our everyday life, our mundane life, our political life. We claim Jesus as Lord over our lives. He rules, he leads, he teaches us how to live our lives together in this world.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 14:37:40 +0000
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