The Nicene Creed Class #4

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

February 15, 2015

February 22: The Road: Morality,Tradition, and Hope

March 1: The Father: God in theMidst of Ashes

March 8: Second Sunday Breakfast

March 15: The Son: The Word ofGod

March 22: The Coast: Love’s Embrace

Dinner at 6:30, Presentation at 7 PM. Childcare offered each evening!

February 25: Lust and Gluttony– Rev. Jimmy Grace

March 4: Greed – Rev. Carissa Baldwin

March 11: Sloth and Wrath – Rev Eileen O’Brien

March 18: Envy – Rev. Melvin Gray

March 25: Pride – Rev. Glenice Como

February 15: God the Holy Spirit

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light ,true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made.

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. 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.

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

We believe in 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 worshipped and glorified.

He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. 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.

What is the Holy Spirit?

How do you imagine the Spirit to appear?

Have you experienced the Holy Spirit in your life? What was that experience like?

By beginning this third and final section of the Nicene Creed in the same way as the first two sections (the words

“we believe…”) the framers

of the Creed are saying that

the Holy Spirit is to be thought

of in the same manner of

importance as God and Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is called “Lord,” again demonstrating equality with God the Father and God the Son.

Only God who creates can give life:

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you”

- Romans 8:11

This statement has generated the most controversy than

any other part of

the Creed, and

was one of the

causes for the

split of the

Orthodox and

what became the

Roman Catholic

Church in 1054.

The Creed originally had “the one who is coming out of the father” which is used in the Orthodox Church, but not in the Roman Catholic or Protestant versions of the creed.

The Filio Que clause “and the Son” was added at the 3rd council of Toledo in 589 CE.

This revision was condemned by the Patriarch of Constantinople based on his understanding of John 15:26:

“When the Advocate (i.e. Holy Spirit) comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.”

The New Testament says NOTHING about the gender of the Holy Spirit, or about the Spirit being worshipped.

This sentence is a theological inference based on John 4: 23-24

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The final statement about the Holy Spirit in the Creed – God has revealed God’s self through the work of the Holy Spirit through people – the prophets.

Table Conversation:

1. Who are modern day prophets you believe the Spirit of God to be speaking through?

Does prophecy imply predicting the future, or is it more a commentary on the present?

Church - the continuation of the incarnation, the embodied presence of the resurrected Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

ONE – One church, many denominations.

HOLY – The church is Holy because it is called to be different in the world, to witness to the world the truth about God. It is set apart to be holy as Israel in the Hebrew Bible was also set apart.

CATHOLIC – In this sense, the word “catholic” means “universal”- a church that embraces differences within a whole, larger unity.

Apostolic – The church has a historical continuity with the lives of the apostles. The church in the 21st century is still measured to the standard of the apostle’s time.

Taken together, to describe the church as “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic” is an ideal that the church never has, and probably never will, realize.

The Creed links the forgiveness of sins directly to baptism, a connection that is firmly grounded in the New Testament:

“Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

Acts 2:38

We are looking forward to the full revelation of God’s power as creator and ruler of the world.

Amen simply means “may it be”.

When we say “Amen” after reciting the Creed, we are saying “may we actually agree with those words we have said, may they actually be true, and may our lives be ones that actually express these truths in a consistent and compelling way.”