Credo: This I Believe

Recently a seminary classmate from my home presbytery was called to a church nearby and mentioned that he had liked my Statement of Faith which I prepared for ordination. I was touched by this, and thought it might be time to go find it again amidst all my ministry papers, and I share it with you here:

Credo

I cling to the church reformed

        And always, still, needing to be reformed

                    Fallible, broken, but worthy of change

                                God alone may be capable of perfection

                                                                    But we are not all for lost.

I believe Holy Scripture is the Word and Event of God in our lives

        Also broken by human doing, despite our best doing

                    Sometimes contradictory and not always clear

                                But also, by and through and with and in God

                                                                                Complete and whole.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

        The Lord, the Giver of Life

                    That she does, indeed, give Life

                                And breath; that she stirs to life

                                            That which seems beyond all hope of being stirred.

I believe in Christ, who came not only to save, despite death

                    But also came to teach us, in life, how to go on living

                                                                    And this, in its own way, also saves.

I believe in Christ

        Speaking truth as well as reconciliation

                    Justice as well as peace

                                Disrupting human convention

                                            Crucified for his ‘sins’

                                                        Would Christ be welcome in our churches today?

I believe in Christ

        Incarnate among us

                    As a human, still facing human shortcomings

                                Foreign women taught him love of neighbor

                                            Perhaps having other things to learn

                                                        By becoming fully us

                                                                    Yet also intimately God

I believe that in worship we encounter the Holy;

        In water, wine, and bread, God touches us still.

                                Here Christ holds us and heals us;

                                            Here the Spirit reconciles us to one another

                                                        In the midst of bitter church conflicts, remember:

                                                                                We are all still standing on holy ground.

I believe in God who created heavens and the earth

All that is, though seen and unseen

        Though heard and unheard, powerful and vulnerable

I believe that God did not walk off

        Leaving us to our own devices

                    That God knew we couldn’t make it on our own

                                And stayed with us, creating, redeeming, sustaining

I believe God is still speaking

        Moving, changing, inspiring

                    Beyond class, race, or gender

                                God calls whom God wills.

I believe God wills for God’s people—

        All God’s people—

                    Justice, freedom, and wholeness

                                That the world alone cannot provide, and often works against

                                            That the church alone cannot provide, and often works against

                                                        God has not yet given up, despite us.

I believe God is not done with us yet,

        Even when life be too painful for words;

                    That in this world we can choose to go on living

                                Or to go on dying

                                            In that desolation God is there

                                                        Even when no one else is

                                                                    And I believe that even when

                                                                                we cannot see the path ahead,                                            

                                                                                                                    There is one.

I do not need to believe

        That God is all-powerful,

                    or all-good

                                or all-just

                                            or all-knowing

                                                        to believe in God.

In truth, I need only to believe that God is Greater.