Building on the Hebrew Scripture Jesus calls believers to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your ‘your life force,’¹ with all your mind, and with all your strength."² To love God is to pay attention to God. One way that Christians have traditionally paid attention to God is through the language of personal statements of belief and through the church’s confessions of faith such as those used in the morning call to worship.

Peter Steinfels recently joined the currently hot debate about creeds in his New York Times, "Beliefs," column. He described how many people "either sleepwalk their way through the creed when it is recited in their churches or puzzle over it or even privately edit out the parts that seem discomforting."³ Formal creeds have a risky, pat quality about them that discourages critical thinking, intellectual exploration, and spiritual questioning. Formal creeds can be used as theological weapons against those with differing experiences and ideas. And they are often focused on the divinity of Jesus at the expense of his humanity.

I assume that most of us in this sanctuary today think critically, read and wrestle with Scripture, are not intellectually lazy, avoid using theology as a weapon, and try to balance Christ’s humanity and divinity. It is also safe to assume that if you had to choose between a creedal teaching that I tried to impose on you using my awesome ministerial authority, or a practice of prayer, meditation, singing, and a personal experience of God’s presence, the overwhelming majority of you would overwhelmingly choose the latter while I hastily polished up my job-hunting skills.

EXERCISE:

Given those assumptions, I invite you to quiet yourself for a moment and then use the blank piece of paper in your bulletins to write, in your own words, in a phrase or two, a belief that you personally hold with all your heart, mind, life force, and strength as a result of your personal experience of God or Christ. Think experience; think outside the theological box as well as inside (relationships, grandeur of creation, a moment of grace or mercy or love, creativity…)

We are suspicious of modern versions of authoritative orthodoxy such as history witnessed with Constantine’s endorsement of the Nicene Creed and behind which he placed the intellectual and political might of the Roman Empire. We are less and less concerned about so-called "right belief," increasingly preferring instead to pay attention to experiences of Divine truth that open our hearts and minds so we may grow and move toward clearer, deeper union with God.

EXERCISE:

I invite you to go back to your personal statements of belief. Sit quietly with your words for a few moments. Two questions: first, specifically, how does this belief help me pay attention to God; and second, how does my belief or the way I hold it open me to fresh insights and experiences of God? Jot an example or two on the green sheet.

The same three-part query is applied to historical institutional creeds. That said, it is essential that each of us take responsibility for our spiritual journey and how we pay attention to God – that is to say, how we love and relate to God -- seeking a whole and healthy balance of words, experiences, and deeds. We may favor spiritual practices over religious creeds. We may jettison old, formal confessions because the intrigues, politics, and power of other ages are not relevant. We may find greater meaning in crafting words of belief from our own experiences and longing. We may turn away from formal statements because the Spirit does not thrive in us through orthodoxy and "right belief."

When we pay attention to God, take responsibility for our own spiritual journey, and welcome personal experiences of God, we no longer have to choose one particular way of holding belief and faith as "the right and only way." I am something of a paradox in this regard. I find particular meaning in some of the formal creeds of the church while at the same time greatly fearing them for the rigid and often harsh way the churches use them. I am a paradox because my beliefs help me locate myself spiritually within certain boundaries, boundaries that I consciously work to keep from becoming impenetrable territorial barriers.

My soul is restive about the balance of experience and belief, and about my creed and the creeds of the church. Paradoxically, I am at peace when I release myself from beliefs. In a manner of speaking, less is more: less belief, more peace; less creed, more attentiveness to presence. It may seem to some that I am retreating from my Reformed Tradition roots when in fact I am holding them differently, with more intention and attention centering on presence, experience, and practice, and on mystery, affirmation, and gratitude.

Let us not sleep walk through the old confessions of faith or march lockstep to our own conventions. Relative to the old ones, now-and-then we should drop a line or two, change a word here or there, not because they make us uncomfortable, but because it is disingenuous, if not unfaithful, to speak words that are harmful to God’s inclusive graces or irrelevant to our times.

There are times when we grow weary of political correctness or the death instincts at work in the marketplace and the body politic and the church universal. At such times we can – and perhaps must -- subversively recite an old creed that brings us fully into the glory, compassionate power, loving presence, and wisdom of God, qualities that confound the rationality and certainties of the modern technological era.

As we make that arduous, wonderful, snaking roundtrip journey between the head and the heart let us faithfully attend to dynamic personal and communal experiences of God. Let us be surprised both by the experiences and where and when they happen. Let us guard against embracing churches and beliefs that build barriers, dictate terms of faith, and praise exclusivity. Let us embody Christ, dwell in Christ consciousness, and set into motion beliefs that are love’s inclusive presence.

This week, invite the Spirit to open your heart, mind, and life to the experiences that gave birth to your words. Spend time with your statements of belief, refining, expanding, and exploring them. Bring them back next Sunday, and at 11 let’s meet and share the experiences and words that ground our faith. We can practice changing beliefs, doctrines, creeds, and dogma into the stories of who and whose we are and how we pay attention to God and experience our union with God day-by-day.

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¹Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering A Life of Faith, pg. 187.
²Reference is made here to Matthew 22:37-40 and Deuteronomy 6:4-8 (particularly verse 5.)
³Peter Steinfels, The New York Times, "Beliefs," 6/12/04.