At the center of the Creed

P. What does this mean?

     C: I believe that Jesus Christ - true God, son of the Father from eternity, and true man born of the Virgin Mary - is my Lord.

     ALL MALES: At great cost he has saved and redeemed me, a lost and condemned person.

    ALL FEMALES: He has freed me from sin, death, and the devil - not with silver and gold, but with his holy and precious blood and his innocent suffering and death.

     ALL MALES: All this he has done that I may be his own, live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness,

     ALL FEMALES: just as he is risen from the dead and lives and rules eternally.

     C: This is most certainly true.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Luther's words, and the words of the Creed, are quickly said, but must be slowly and deeply pondered.

The cross spells the death not only of Christ, but also the death of the sinner.

Jesus' death is not a substitute for our death, it is our death, the death we deserve to die, the death that would complete our separation from God.

Every one of our projects that we undertake to prove ourselves, to show how worthy and important we are ends in this death.

From Genesis 3 onward in scripture, we hear of the wrathful judgment of God on our attempts to make our own way, to declare that we ourselves are the center of creation, to make ourselves divine.

All of that must die in Christ's death, to open the possibility of new life for us in his resurrected life.

This is the love of God: not that God says “There, there, it will be OK.” but rather that God himself undertakes everything that would try to distance us from himself, even the power of horrifying death, and overcomes that separation for us.

As Paul says,

,God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

Hear all of this with joy, with wonder, with awe.

Ponder it in silence, with tenderness, with humility.

Live in it with faith in the Lord God who accomplishes all things for us,

and with hope and trust in the final revealing of this love of God to us in God's good time.

As Luther reminds us:

“At great cost...he has freed me...that I may be his own...This is most certainly true.” Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.