May 8, 2018
 
 
 
 
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Led by the Holy Spirit,
St. John's mission is to inspire people to grow into the heart and mind of Christ by engaging together in worshiping, serving, and spiritual formation.
 
 
 
 
 

Love, Belief, and the Nicene Creed
 
 
 
 

In this week’s column, I continue exploring the idea of church as a school for learning how to better love. Following Brian McLaren’s lead (from his book “The Great Spiritual Migration”), I ponder what new meanings can arise when we substitute the word “love” for “believe in” when saying the Nicene Creed.


We Episcopalians are a denomination faithfully wed to ancient tradition, and yet to be the Church which prepares humanity not just for this time but for the future, we would do well to loosen those binds now and again. Just as a faithful marriage can be infused with aliveness when couples pursue a totally new sport or pastime together, so likewise can the life of the Church be enlivened when we occasionally change things up a bit. In that spirit, and following the lead of Brian McLaren (in his book “The Great Spiritual Migration”) I invited us on April 29th to substitute the word “love” for the words “believe in” when we recited the Nicene Creed. After worship that day, Father Ted mentioned in passing that he’d read somewhere that the word “belief” actually is rooted in the word “love”. Curious, I went in search of more information. Here’s what I found [1]:


belief (n.)-----late 12c., bileave, "confidence reposed in a person or thing; faith in a religion," replacing Old English geleafa "belief, faith," from West Germanic *ga-laubon "to hold dear, esteem, trust" (source also of Old Saxon gilobo, Middle Dutch gelove, Old High German giloubo, German Glaube), from *galaub- "dear, esteemed," from intensive prefix *ga- + PIE root *leubh- "to care, desire, love."


There it is, if you travel back far enough in linguistics: the root “leubh”, to love. A curious aside is that one of the few words I recall from studying Russian in high school is love, which (phonetically) is pronounced much the same: lyublyu.
 
I can’t tell you how closely the authors of the Nicene Creed linked the concepts of belief and love, but I’m guessing the two were in fact strongly connected for them. That connection was loosened—if not untied altogether—during the Enlightenment: “In the early 17th century, French philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650) formulated a very rationalistic philosophy. His primary goal was to produce a logically certain argument for the existence of God. To do so, he employed what has come to be known as the method of doubt. Descartes believed we were to doubt any idea that wasn’t “clear and distinct.” The only idea he could hold in such a manner was that he himself existed. Hence the phrase, “I think, therefore I am.” [2]
 
For Descartes, God didn’t pass muster. In other words, God could not be proven as an idea that was clear and distinct. For Descartes, reason was “more important than revelation”. [3] I am thinking that when he first uttered that pronouncement, the ancient Christian mystics probably began spinning in their graves.  After Descartes, John Locke (1632-1704) declared that “knowledge by experience is superior to that which is accepted by belief and trust — “the floating of other men’s opinions in our brains,” as he called it.” [4] When it came to humanity’s relationship with God, heart-knowing or love thus fell out of fashion.
 
The simple replacement of “believe in” with “love” has the power to return us to an earlier, pre-Enlightenment time. It has the power to locate us standing side-by-side with the folks at Nicea, for whom martyrdom was a fresh memory, and we all know that one cannot be a martyr for anything less than love. I offer below the edited Creed, section by section, each one followed by the insights that arise for me. I invite you to see what insights arise for you.


We love one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.      


We love the One who made us; we are grateful for having been made. If we so love, then gratitude is our native stance.


We love one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father,


We join with the Father in loving the Son. Just as Christ is eternally begotten, so likewise is the Father’s love for him made new—in every moment, every day. As participants in this circle of love, might our own love for the Father and the Son be continually made new?


God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.


To love is to be light. Love and light are interchangeable. Light cannot be anything but light. God cannot be anything other than love—his true nature. It is love that binds the Father and the Son together as one.

Through him all things were made.

 

It was Love that made the world and all that is in it. If the Creator loves all that has been made, I am asked to love it all too. Even ticks, rattlesnakes, and viruses. *Sigh*

 

For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.

 

The Holy Spirit is powered by divine love. And it was out of love for humanity that God poured the divine self into human flesh and will. It was out of love for humanity and for God that Jesus suffered and died.

 

On the third day, he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.


Here we see that love is more powerful and more enduring than death.


He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.


Consider that in First Corinthians (13:8-10) Paul declared that “Love will never end.” If that is so, and if the Nicean authors are correct that Christ’s kingdom will have no end, then it is not a far reach to declare that Christ’s kingdom is love: it is a reign of love, governed by love, and marked by love. Such a kingdom is the Holy One’s dream for Creation.


We love the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.


The prophets spoke truth to people who usually didn’t care to hear it. The truth they spoke was generated by divine love and delivered with love. One might say then that truth and love are closely bound together.


We love one holy catholic and apostolic Church.


As imperfect an institution as church may be, we love the universality of our faith and its ancient roots in the teachings of the apostles.  


We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.


It is out of divine love that we are forgiven. It is out of divine love that we are resurrected. The life of the world to come runs on love. We look for these things and we are confident in what is promised to us because we trust the intrinsic goodness of the One who loves us and who loves all that has been made.

 

 

[1] https://www.etymonline.com/word/belief

[2] thru [5] https://probe.org/the-enlightenment-and-belief-in-god/


Curious to know more about the Council of Nicea? Try these for starters.

Also, check out the Church History section in the Parish Library!


https://www.livescience.com/2410-council-nicea-changed-world.html

https://crossexamined.org/what-really-happened-at-nicea/

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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