As we continue to engage with the Apostle’s Creed this summer, several participants have noted Ben Myers’ point that these words emerged as a framing of the baptismal experience of early converts to Christianity. Saying ‘I believe’ was not abstracted from the body being plunged naked into a river and then being covered in anointing oil. Your commitment to offer your body to follow in the way of Jesus was intimately connected to the story of God in its full Trinitarian mystery and glory captured in the words of the Creed.
As further example, in this past week’s discussion we noted that to say ‘I believe in the maker of heaven and earth’, was to ‘re-mind’ and ‘re-place’ you in the Creator’s love of the earth. The Creed is there to help us reimagine one’s relationship with the earth; to eschew a posture of disregard for, and exploitation of, the creation in the pursuit of an abstracted heaven (a gnostic position). Rather we proclaim our allegiance as careful stewards of our Maker’s beautiful earth. How relevant is that for today as we are desperate to change our way of inhabiting creation? In sum, the Creed is there to help us embody the faith in more beautiful and constructive ways. There is further delightful recreative learning to come as we read and reflect on the Creed this summer, so please join in! GS