We were taking off from a suggestion in Diana Butler Bass's essay about the creed, that it can be recited as a kind of prayer (see blogpost in 02/2015 "Believing and Beloving"). The word "to believe" comes from German "lieben," or "love": "to belove." The word "creed" comes from credo, something different from the Latin word for "I have an opinion." "Credo" means something more like "I entrust myself to." So when we say the Creed as a checklist of intellectual propositions that we accept, we're short - changing it. Instead, we are declaring our trust in the beings of the Trinity, and pledging our lives to living the story that the creed tells.
We assigned each member of our group a passage from the Creed, written on a piece of paper, and gave everyone in the workshop time to find and copy on the page a text of scripture or from another source that illustrates or expands their passage. When it came time to worship, we read the creed in unison; then read it one passage at a time, placing the pages in the center of our circle at the end of each reading; then we recited the creed again.
The effect, we hope, is to make the creed what Bass imagines it to be, an icon of words. I explained that the creed would become like one of the stained glass windows at our meeting place, St. Philip's Cathedral [see photo]: we see the images of the window itself, but also can look through to the sky and world beyond. Here's what we read today as a group in worship:
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
A reading from Job ch. 38 - 39I believe in Jesus Christ, his Son our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
Then the Lord answered out of the whirlwind: Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?... Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place? Do you give the horse his might? Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soar?"
A reading from Luke
The angel Gabriel was sent from God... to a virgin, and the virgin's name was Mary.... And the Angel said, "Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus."
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead.
A reading from Luke 24.46
Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day.
On the third day he rose again.
A personal meditation by Kathryn
Walking toward Cavalry, Jesus fell and rose, fell and rose again, three times. We, too, fall again and again. Thanks be to God who shows us how to rise again and again. And still we rise.
He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
A reading from Mark 16.19
And then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
A reading from 2 Corinthians 5.10
For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
And, from 1 Corinthians 4.5
Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time. Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the matters of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints....
A reading from 1 Corinthians 1
I appeal to you brothers and sisters in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.
...the forgiveness of sins...
A reading from Psalm 32.1
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered.
An anonymous prayer found at Buchenwald
Think not of the pain inflicted by our captors, but the fruit borne by our condition, love, brotherhood, sacrifice, devotion; so that when our captors come to judgement, let the fruit borne be their forgiveness.
...the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Readings from the Book of Common Prayer, p. 493
I am the Resurrection and the life. Give us faith to see in death the gate of eternal life, until we are reunited with those who have come before. A personal comment by Fr. Holland: The resurrection occurs in life as well as in death.
A reading from Romans 8
Nothing can separate us from the love of God: no height or depth, no power or principality -- not even death itself.
A reading from John 3.16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that those who believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
We repeated the Creed in unison. David suggests that, whenever possible, the papers collected at center should be burned at the conclusion of the creed, as an offering of prayer, like incense.
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