Some of you might be thinking, “There’s a difference between how they thought of it back then and how we think of it today?” Well, actually, yes because the Christian belief system has shifted and changed over the last 2000 years. You are probably aware that not all Christians agree. In fact, if we agreed there would be one church. Can you guess how many different denominations of Christianity there are? Conservatively, around 9,000. So shockingly, Christians don’t exactly see eye-to-eye.

But before we dive into the first line of the Apostles’ Creed, I want to give you a little historical backdrop because the name The Apostles’ Creed implies that this was a creed created and spoken by Jesus’ apostles. Unfortunately, this is not exactly how it happened. The first reference to the Apostles’ Creed is found in the late 4th century, but the truth is the first version of the Apostles’ Creed shows up in the mid-9th century. More than 800 years after Jesus’ time on this earth.

In all likelihood, the Apostles’ Creed was created as a simplified version of the Nicene Creed, which was composed around 325 A.D. And this makes sense because the Nicene Creed is really long and kind of complicated. So the people who created it wanted something short, sweet and to the point. Indeed, because it is so accessible, for many Christians, the Apostles’ Creed has represented orthodox thinking (or the right way to believe) in Christianity for a long time.

But as I said earlier, not every Christian is on the same page and this is particularly true in the 21st century where science and technology are the primary drivers of the modern worldview. Many young people are walking away from the church because they have trouble reconciling what they are taught in science class with what they are being taught in church.

So each week, we’ll start by talking about the biblical roots of a statement from the creed. I’ll explain the traditional beliefs surrounding that statement and, then, I’m going to provide a modern interpretation of that belief for those who might be a little skeptical. Whether you resonate with the traditional interpretation or with the modern interpretation, my goal is to demonstrate that the Apostles’ Creed has the flexibility to speak to both audiences.

Almost every creed starts off with the statement of “I believe”. Indeed, the word creed comes from the Latin word Credo, which literally means I believe. In the Presbyterian Church we have a whole book filled with creeds. It’s called the Book of Confessions. In fact, the Presbyterian Church keeps adding more creedal statements to our Book of Confessions because our beliefs are constantly evolving.

If you’re ever having trouble sleeping, the Book of Confessions is one of the best sedatives you can get without a prescription. I did at one point know this book like the back of my hand because it’s the basis of one of our ordination exams. The truth is that if you read this book, it is unlikely that you will wholly agree with any creed found in our book of confessions. But the great thing about being Presbyterian is that you don’t have to. You are given the freedom to disagree.

And this is because the phrase “I believe” is a very personal statement. What you believe is specific to you and differs based on your experiences, knowledge and worldview. But let’s take a step back and ask a more fundamental question: What does it mean to believe in something? To believe is to have faith that something is real when there is no tangible proof that it is.

Although belief is associated with things like religion, the truth is that we use belief all the time. When you sat down in that pew, you had faith that the pew is going to hold you up and not break. Unless you’ve tested the pew by placing weights in your seat beforehand, you may not possess proof that the pew is sturdy enough to hold you. Therefore, you are demonstrating faith in the pew when you sit down. This is just one of many examples of how faith and belief is an active part of our daily lives.

However, when it comes to the larger questions of life like, “How did we get here?” or “Why does the universe exist?” this requires a much larger leap of faith. The Apostles’ Creed begins by offering an answer to both of those questions: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth. Therefore, your first leap of faith is assuming that there is a God. The second leap of faith is that this God is responsible for the creation of the universe.

Unlike the pew where you can sit down and know whether or not your faith was warranted, both of these leaps of faith cannot be proven. You cannot prove one way or another the assertion that God exists. Therefore, when you make this claim, you are doing so on the basis of feeling and experience. You feel that God is real and often your experiences reinforce that feeling. The only other indication that you might be right is the fact that 84% of the global human population believes in a God.

So where does this belief in the creed come from? Well, this one’s pretty easy. It’s from Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. But how exactly did the ancients who wrote this belief understand this statement because I guarantee you it’s different from how we see it today. So first and foremost, it’s important to understand that the ancients who wrote this text believed that the earth was at the center of the universe and that the sun, moon and stars rotated around the earth.

This, of course, is based on simple observation. If you didn’t know anything about science, that’s how it would appear. Moreover, when they looked at the sky at night, they literally believed that they were looking at heaven. They didn’t understand the stars in the sky were distant suns. They believed that the stars were gods and angels and that if you could get high enough in the sky, you could literally enter into heaven.

This is the assumption behind the story of the Tower of Babel. The ancients believed that if you could get high enough in the sky, you would find stairs that would lead you to a door that would allow you to walk into heaven. This is why they wanted to build the tower and why God confused their language. God was afraid that if they gained access to heaven, humans would take over.

Today we know that that is not the case. If you go high enough in the sky, you hit space. In fact, we understand that the universe is so much bigger than the earth. We are but one solar system in a galaxy of 300 billion stars, all with planets floating around them. But our galaxy of stars is just the tip of the iceberg. We are but one of 200 billion galaxies. In fact, all the various chemical elements that make life possible on earth come from star dust, which means life is possible elsewhere in the universe.

So our understanding of the heavens has expanded exponentially. Thus, rather than just being responsible for the creation of the heavens and the earth, today those who believe in God tend to believe God is responsible for the creation of the entire universe. But this raises an interesting question: What exactly is God? Given that none of us can prove or disprove that God exists, how you conceive of God is really up for grabs.

In truth, people think of God in a multiplicity of different ways. Some people think of God like Michelangelo’s painting in the Sistine Chapel, a white dude with beard up in the sky. Other people think of God as being more like Santa Claus, watching your every move and keeping track of when you’ve been naughty or nice. Still others think of God like a chess player who’s moving the pieces of our lives around to execute a larger plan for the universe. Some people think God is kind and loving, while others believe God to be harsh and vengeful.

Personally, I do not think of God as a being. I think of God as a force, a consciousness that pervades all things. You’ve heard me say on numerous occasions that I believe that God is everything. You, me, the pew, the air we breathe. This comes from Jesus’ teachings in the gospels, but perhaps the best modern rendition of God I’ve ever read comes from a poem written by Heather McHue.

This poem is about a trip she and her fellow poets took to Rome. At one point they are gathered together in a room and a man starts telling a story about a statue in the room:

The statue represents Giordano Bruno,
brought to be burned in the public square
because of his offense against
authority, which is to say
the Church. His crime was his belief
the universe does not revolve around
the human being: God is no
fixed point or central government, but rather is
poured in waves through all things. All things
move. “If God is not the soul itself, He is
the soul of the soul of the world.” Such was
his heresy.

Never in all of the theology have I read over the years have I found a better description of God. God is poured in waves through all things. God is the soul of the soul of the world. To me that is such a beautiful encapsulation of God. And because the Apostles’ Creed does not really define who God is, McHue’s description of God is eligible for consideration, which brings us to the last aspect of this first line in the Apostles’ Creed. There is only one descriptor of God and that is as Father. Now, if like me, you conceive of God as in and a part of all things, then God has no gender.

However, for the ancients, many cultures believed that God was an actual human man. For example, the God El, which is where the name of God in Genesis chapter 1 Elohim comes from, who is responsible for the creation of the heavens and the earth, is depicted as an actual man with a beard. This is a picture of a statue of what El looked like. We know that the Israelites worshipped this God because it’s in their name: Isra-El. Perhaps more important for traditional Christians is how the title of Father refers to the first member of the Trinity, a concept we will discuss more in later sermons.

Now I would assume most of you don’t think that this is what God looks like, yet we have this assertion in the creed that God is Father. Well, setting aside the gender issues, the way I approach this is by thinking of Jesus’ parables where he tends to represent God as a father. This is true for my favorite parable: The prodigal son. When the prodigal son leaves, his father is always waiting for his lost son to return home. Indeed, the father shows unconditional love to the wayward son, which is where I derive my belief that the Christian God is a God of unconditional love. Hence, when the creed claims that God is father, for me this is a reference to God’s unconditional love.

So what does all of this mean for us? Well, Ash Wednesday is classically a time to reflect on the finite nature of life. Indeed, I often use it as a day to reflect on how much mystery there is in the world. There is so much we don’t know and understand about this grand and amazing universe that God created. All we really know for sure is that we are here for a very short period of time and then we’re gone.

Our beliefs give us hope that the gift of life we’ve been given is for something greater than we fully comprehend. And as we continue our Lenten series, my hope is that the meaning and purpose bestowed upon us by God will bring you comfort and peace as we work our way to the cross and Easter Sunday! Amen.