Per Ipsum

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,   Nicene-Constantinople Creed Whoa. Trailing clouds of glory. Christians have been waiting for that one for over 2000 years, and yet the first time He came, He was poor, humble and hidden. It should be no small relief to any of us that when the time comes for our life to be weighed, the one sitting there will be the God of mercy and his son who loved us so much he became one of us.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.   Nicene-Constantinople Creed This isn't a dogma I struggle with; I just accept it. The post-easter stories are fascinating.  They don't follow any linear pattern so we can create a timeline of His activities but a few things are very consistent among them. Key among them is that He came to them in bodily form not ghostly form. The Thomas story is the obvious case of that. Thomas had to touch and feel. (Our weekend assistant pastor says "Good for Him. We shouldn't always believe hearsay!") Luke repeats a similar story in which Jesus invites them to touch him. At Emmaus the recongized him when he ate with them. Luke and John have various stories of him eating with them. He came, He visited, He ate with them, He continued to teach and then he was lifted up. The Feast of the Ascension 2009 The meaning of Ch...

On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures;  Nicene-Constantinople Creed This is the thing, this is the reality the first generation, the eye-witness generation was at great pains to tell us.   This is the miraculous thing. Resurrection of the dead was not an unknown concept in the first century. We can see from the New Testament that it was a hot debate among Jews with the Pharisees (like Paul!) firmly holding that the dead would rise and the Sadducee's arguing against. Is it any wonder Paul was ready to believe in Resurrection when he heard the voice of Jesus on his way to Damascus ?  He would later write " he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead." Colossions 1:18 Luke claimed to have heard it from others but her wrote about events  " just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us..." (  Luke 1:2: ) Was the author of 2Peter the ...

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died, and was buried.    Nicene-Constantinople Creed Why did Jesus have to die? Because he was a human being. To be born is to die; we start dying the day we're born. Every woman who gives birth gives birth to a child who will come to natural death eventually--or, God forbid, premature death.  The big thing was the Incarnation. Everything else flows from that. Did God want His son to die? You hear that question, but I think it is absurd.  It sounds as if they sat around in heavan planning it out, "and then--crucifixion."  No, I don't think so. The decision was to be fully human. The will of the Father was "don't interfere." Don't interfere with their free will; don't interfere with nature; live it out to the very end. He took on our life and He took on our death. Why crucifixion? Was that of His own choosing? Look to mankind for that. Men invented that and myriad ...

F or us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.                                                                       Nicene-Constantinople Creed Of all the great tenets of Christianity, Incarnation is the most logical. God, being entirely Love by nature wants--needs--to draw men to Himself. We could not bridge the huge gulf dividing us from God, the gulf the Church calls Original Sin, or simply sin. Only God could bridge that gap.  We could not go to Him, He had to come to us. and so,  the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us...                                            ...

.. .the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.    Through him all things were made.                                                                                                   Nicene-Constantinople Creed  I n the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. John 1:1-3 The Trinity falls into the area of "things too wonderful for me" to understand. What I do get is that God is Love and there is a logic to the assumption that in Love there must be a lover, a ...

W e believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ...   Nicene-Constantinople Creed. Lord-- Κύριον or Kyrie in Greek-- Dóminum in Latin--we now use "Lord" almost exclusively to mean "God."   Social relationships shifted greatly between the first century and, for example, the twelfth, Our own concepts for kings and lords come entirely from the middle ages and from European aristocracy stretching into the 19th century.  American romance novels are full of "yes my Lord" and "His Lordship."  The idea seems oddly out of place in 21st century America. But what did Kyrie mean when the Old Testament was translated in 100BC? I gather that the earlier Hebrew was Adonai for Lord and synonymous with "God."  The Septuagent translaters used Kyrie. Paul would have read "Kyrie" as God. He uses Kyrie/Dominus for Jesus in the first century and there it is in the fourth century Nicene language: Kyrie/Dominus. So if Kyrie is synonymous with God, what is the c...

W e believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. Nicene-Constantinople Creed Here's the easy one, the beginning of what I believe: Wake up. Look around. Wow--who made this?  For this part the Baltimore Catechism hit it just right. Who is God? God is the supreme being who made all things. Who made me? God made me.    Then it gets complicated. Why did God make me? He made me to know, love, and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him in the next.  I was twelve when I asked the question, "Is there a God? Because if there isn't this religion thing doesn't make much sense." The experience that followed the question is hard to describe.  What it left me with was the sure knowledge that God is and that He is the hub around which my existence revolves. He is the centering reality that gives form to my life.  Everything else is secondary.

And perhaps I shall stay or even spend the winter with you, so that you may send me on my way wherever I may go . 1 Corinthians 16:6 Sometimes you have to begin again. Late winter, just before Lent is one of those times. My journey never stopped but this blog dropped by the wayside along the way. This seems like a good time to pick it up again. This time I hope to reflect on two topics: 1) what I believe and 2) marriage. What do I believe? I'm a Nicene Christian--and  Roman Catholic.  I still struggle with discerning God's will for my future, but less than before. It isn't really necessary to see the entire road map, only to continue the journey, "wherever I may go" and to trust that he is leading one step at a time. His word is a lamp to my path.