Is the Creed Mandatory for Worship?
Luke 10:25-28 (July 7, 2010)
In Mark 1:21-26, one day Jesus went to the town of Capernaum. On the Sabbath, he went into the synagogue and began to teach. The The evil spirit knew who Jesus was. With his own lips, he confessed Jesus as the Holy One, sent by God. However, even though he knew and confessed that, he didn’t live in accordance with his knowledge and confession. In Matthew 8:28-32, Jesus arrived on the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gadarenes and two men who were possessed by evil spirits met him. They lived in a cemetery and were so violent that no one could go through that area. When they saw Jesus, they began screaming at him, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?” There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding in the distance. So the evil spirits begged, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.” “Go!” Jesus commanded them. So they came out of the men and entered the pigs, and the whole herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water. The two evil spirits knew who Jesus was. They knew their condemned destiny at the appointed time, but they didn’t repent nor come to Jesus. From these two stories we can learn that the knowledge we have doesn’t bring us to salvation and that the faith we possess doesn’t guarantee us our salvation, either. If we know, we have to live in accordance with the knowledge. If we have faith, we have to live in accordance with the faith. Therefore, James the Elder says in James 2:19, 20, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?” At every Sunday service, we read the Apostles’ Creed or similar ones. Of course, the Apostles’ Creed and other creeds are important. Indeed, the creeds are the best statement which we can learn about God and build up the right relationship with him. Moreover, the creeds were created by those church leaders who had seriously thought in order to keep the church from all sorts of heretic teachings. Therefore, we should value the creeds more and read to memorize them at best. If possible, we should read and memorize them until we can come to complete understanding of God and get ready to live in accordance with them. According to the Catholic Church tradition, the Apostles’ Creed was made by the Twelve Apostles in AD 55. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Peter began writing the first phrase, and all other eleven Apostles added after, one by one. However, in reality, it took quite long years for the Creed to be completed. A historical document gives us a hint that there was a creed, used at the baptismal ceremony in AD 200s. Perhaps it became the source of the Apostles’ Creed. After that, the phrase, “he descended into hell,” was added in AD 360; in addition, “the holy Catholic Church” in AD 650 and “the communion of saints” after AD 650. Considering these factors, we can agree that the Apostles’ Creed was not made by the Twelve Apostles nor used in worship service by the Early Christians. But those churches which don’t use the Apostles’ Creed in worship are frequently misunderstood by some Christians, esp. by conservative Christians. Therefore, most churches regard the Creed to be mandatory for worship. However, the Baptists who want to be faithful only to the teaching of the Bible don’t use it in their worship. They don’t want to give absolute authorization to any other than the Bible. It think, we have to learn this attitude from them. This is what I believe regarding to the Apostles’ Creed in worship. If our reading of the Creed is merely a ritual practice, we better remove it out of our worship service. We shouldn’t fall into the error of making a meaningless or false confession before In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus tells us about the teaching of the Final Judgment: But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.” Then these righteous ones will reply, “Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will say, “I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!” Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, “Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.” Then they will reply, “Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?” And he will answer, “I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.” And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life. (LNT) If we look at his teaching with a close look, we can find that there is no comment of Jesus about the reading of creeds in worship. In Luke 10:25-28, one day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” The man answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus answered, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live!” As the final word for today, I will say this. The essential purpose of the creed is practical. It means, if we don’t mean it or don’t follow it, we better remove it from our worship. We shouldn’t play the hypocrite before God in worship. We should confess anything that doesn’t contain our heart for him, and that we don’t promise to obey in our holy worship and in front of the Holy One. “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” (Exodus 20:7) I will repeat it once again: The importance of knowing, reading or memorizing the creed is not to keep it in accordance with the worship ritual but to live in accordance with it in life. So when we read the Apostles’ Creed in worship, let us do our best to understand about God and make a true confession of him. Therefore, whenever we read a creed in worship, we have to give our heart to each word and to each sentence in it. So this time let us read the Creed slowly and make it our true confession of God. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell, on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority, quite unlike the teachers of religious law. Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit screamed out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!” Jesus cut him short and ordered, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” At that, the evil spirit screamed, threw the man into a convulsion and then came out of him.
God. In Exodus 20:7, Jehovah God commanded his people, “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” As you know, this is the third out of the Ten Commandments.
Perhaps some of us may want to say to the Judge at the Last Judgment, “O Lord, I kept the faith. I believed everything that the creeds taught me, every single bit of it, word by word.” The question our Lord is concerned with is not “how well did you read it in worship?” but “how did you live in accordance with it?”
