This reading from Ezekiel is an interesting one to pair with the theme of the Apostles’ Creed. The passage contains a back-and-forth with the themes “it’s not for your sake, but for my holy name” and calling out our idolatry, but God also promises to cleanse us from it, and to bring us into a life of abundance, even though it is unmerited by our own sake.
I don’t think we need to go too far down the road of idolatry to know we are all guilty of it. Whether it is something outside of God that we turn to for life or if we ourselves begin to behave in a self-righteous manner and think that we are responsible for what God does or that we have a better plan than the Holy One. We all have something that we put before God at various times.
Throughout scripture and especially in this reading from Ezekiel, it is said that God acts because of who God is, not because of who we are or what we do. We are merely God’s people and the Apostles’ Creed is a gift that helps us understand our God.
This first article or part of the creed tells about God, the father, in creation.
I believe in God the father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
This revelation of God brings forth truth as God is the only source of life and all things in it. Not only did God create the cosmos but also knows the number of hairs on our heads. We have a loving Creator who knows us entirely.
God also provides us with all that need plus some.
God creates us because it is who God is.
The second article of the creed tells about God, the Son, revealed in Jesus who is our redeemer.
We confess who Jesus is, highlighting key aspects of his life like the incarnation of the divine and the human dwelling fully in one, his death and resurrection, and his role as the coming judge.
The creed notably leaves out details of Jesus’ life and ministry. We do not hear of the calls to be fishers of men, the many healings that took place, or the reinterpretation of God’s law through the sermon on the mount and other sayings of Jesus.
The focus in the Apostles’ Creed is that Jesus is the Son of God who came to redeem us from the powers of sin, death, and the devil.
We are no longer lost and condemned but have been freed through Christ.
This redemption means that while sin, death, and the devil will still be present in the world and affect our lives, we do not belong to them, we belong to God and this redemption claims us that the worst thing that happens, is not the last thing and as it says in Romans, I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God redeems us because it is who God is.
The third article of the creed tells about God, the Holy Spirit, who reveals that God makes us holy.
This part of the creed is the one that always gets me the most. It is the loaded article as it kind of seems to throw in everything else important that Christians believe that has not already been named – but really that is all the work of the Spirit. It reveals to me in the most raw and beautiful of ways we encounter God all the time, mostly without realizing it.
We confess that we believe in the Holy Spirit, who continues to mingle in our lives, nudging us, nagging us, enlivening us, empowering us to participate in the holy work that God is already doing.
We confession that we believe in one holy catholic church. This is little “c” catholic meaning one holy universal church, not referring to the Roman Catholic Church, although they are included in it.
This part may seem hard to believe since we don’t always get along with other Christians, and not even other Lutherans sometimes. But we believe that this is God’s church, not our church.
We believe in the communion of saints. This bond connects us not only as the community that gathers together, but with all the saints. The ones at other churches. The ones who have died and gone before us. It is a beautifully shared community in Christ that I cannot even imagine in its fullness.
We believe in the forgiveness of sins, that God truly care about us so much that Jesus died for us. This sacrificial love empowers us not only be forgiven, but to forgive one another.
We believe in the resurrection of the body and the live everlasting. This eternal gift of freedom and life is unending and unmerited.
Luther begins his explanation of this article of the creed by saying, “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord”
Faith is a gift of the Spirit, not a will of man.
God makes us holy, invites us again and again to participate in what God is up to in the world and encounter grace, truth, and love.
God makes us holy because it is who God is.
Who God is a mysterious and unmerited gift.
Live in the mysterious and unmerited gift of being created
Live in the mysterious and unmerited gift of being redeemed
Live in the mysterious and unmerited gift of being made holy
God does not do this because of you or me or anything any of us could do.
God does this because it is who God is.
I will conclude this homily as Luther ended his explanation of the first article of the Apostles’ Creed, “For all of this I owe it to God to thank and praise, serve and obey God. This is most certainly true.”
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