SUNDAY SERMON: Light from Light
By Rev. Stephen Baldwin
Whenever you join an organization, you usually have to affirm their core principles in some way. Perhaps through a motto or a creed. For example, my friends in Rotary say their motto at every meeting, “Service above self.” We as Americans say the Pledge of Allegiance at official events.
What would you say is the official Christian creed or motto? Well, it probably depends on who you ask, doesn’t it? Some might say the Apostle’s Creed, as it is the oldest surviving affirmation of faith. Others may cite a favorite scripture such as John 3:16 or Psalm 23. I doubt too many would say the Nicene Creed, but I’d like to make a case as to why it should be on our list.
This year marks the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed. Not much in this world lasts 1,700 years. A group of early Christian leaders met in the year 325, some 300 years after Jesus walked the earth, in the town of Nicea which is located in the modern nation of Turkey. More than 200 bishops attended the council, and their goal was to reach consensus on Christian beliefs. Here’s what they came up with:
I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
It’s a beautiful creed, especially when you consider its history. The church was still quite young in the 4th century, but growing rapidly. Constantine officially made Christianity legal in 313 when he credited the religion with helping him win a war.
As the church took hold, people being…well, people…they had different ideas about what color the drapes should be and whether you could sing hymns to a guitar or not. Haha, I’m kidding. They did have disagreements, but not about those things. At that time, they argued about how the church should work, who God was, and–most pointedly–who Jesus was. That’s why the Council of Nicea happened in the first place. There was a major disagreement about Jesus.
Historians call it the Arian Controversy, and it developed between two bishops in Egypt. Arius believed that Jesus was created after God and was not of the same substance. He argued Jesus was part of God but not all of God. Athanasius believed that God and Jesus were coeternal and consubstantial with each other. In short, they were one package, Father and Son, cut from the same cloth.
I know…not exactly a National Enquirer-level controversy by today’s standards, but it was big-time in its day. So much so that all the early church leaders gathered in Nicea to settle it.
In the end, they sided overwhelmingly with Athanasius and against Arius. Here’s the line from the creed that’s the key: “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.”
Those early Christians at Nicea in the year 325, and all of us for the last 1,700 years, have put our stake in the ground saying Jesus is begotten, not made, cut from the same cloth as God.
Why am I boring you with these historical details today? Because 1,700 years later, we still celebrate the birth of Jesus, a child was was fully God yet also somehow fully human. And nothing makes that clearer than Christmas.
The Son of God came to live among us, not because he needed to, but because we needed him to.
In remarks about the Nicene Creed last month, Pope Leo said, “Today, the whole of humanity, afflicted by violence and conflict, is crying out for reconciliation. In the Nicene Creed we profess our faith ‘in one God, the Father.’ Yet, it would not be possible to invoke God as Father if we refused to recognize as brothers and sisters all other men and women, who are created in the image of God.”
Later on tonight, and perhaps several times this week, you will find yourself singing “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Notice that the words of the Nicene Creed are the words to one verse when it says, “True God from True God, Light of Light eternal, born of a virgin, a mortal he becomes; very God, begotten not created; Oh, come let us adore Him, Oh, come let us adore Him, Oh, come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.”
As you celebrate Christmas this year, know that you stand in a line of Christians some 2,000 years long, people who live on different continents in different times with different cultures, yet together we proclaim the birth of Jesus, standing side by side as we adore him, Christ the Lord.
The world has known conflict and trouble since the very beginning. The child came to change that. To offer us a new way. O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.
Amen.
