Session Three - 'One Lord' - Jesus is definitely divine

We started by praying A prayer of St Anselm as usual.

Different things jumped out from the prayer on different readings, as is often the case when returning to a text several times.

‘MY PRAYER IS A COLD LITTLE THING, LORD, because it burns with so faint a flame’ gave rise to the image of St Anselm praying by candlelight.

In his second paragraph, St Anselm writes how he doesn’t understand but believes and wants his belief, such as it is, and his understanding to grow. A prayer of St Anselm

We were reminded of the father who comes to Jesus, to heal his mute son, and says to Jesus, 'Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!'.

This also reflects the idea that those who met Jesus were very like us at times. We know Jesus can perform miracles, but don’t believe he will perform them for us. 

We also noticed that the more we understand of God, the more we understand that there is to know of God and, therefore, the less we understand Him. However, the good news God is a bit like sugary foods: the more you spend time with Him, the more you hunger and thirst for Him!

Holding onto, what can be fleeting, experiences of God is also sometimes difficult in a cynical world. We are in a world where we start doubting – from inside us and from outside us.

We were also reminded of last week’s discussion and the attitude of St Anselm towards loving enemies and how revolutionary it was at the time where Romans even used their gods to curse their enemies.

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What does the word ‘Lord’ mean to you in your relationship with God?

The section on Jesus is the biggest part of the Creed. (Last week, we studied that we believe in one God, the Father Almighty. This week is on Jesus’ divinity; next week is on His humanity.)

The meaning of the word Lord:

• someone greater than you;
• on a higher level;
• who you respect and revere;
• and perhaps fear;
• ruling over you;
• to whom you are subject.
• represents supernatural power over evil in a religious context.

The idea of Lord puts people off today – to ‘lord it over someone’ is a negative thing. The House of Lords used to mean more in British society. It’s a word that is often now used pejoratively. From an American perspective the landlord owns a building. A Lord used to have power over serfs in the feudal system in British society.

In Christianity it means maybe a willingness to accept Jesus’ authority in a way we don’t accept other authorities anymore. There is also a distinction between a king and a lord. Kyrie, used by the Church of England, is the word for lord in Greek.

The word ‘lord’ had its roots in concepts that existed at the time of writing the Creed. Adoni and Yahweh were other names of God. Adoni also meaning the Lord in the Old Testament.

We mentioned Yahweh breathing (breathing in saying ‘Yah’ and breathing out ‘weh’) and the idea that by breathing we are connected to God’s creative spirit; and we mentioned the concept of God breathing life into people and the whole of creation.

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What is meant by ‘eternally begotten’?

‘Eternally begotten of the father’

We discussed what this means and our thoughts were that God is constantly present in the creative process, and it is a circular creative process that is continually happening through Christ. It is perhaps a deliberate paradox to take us out of the logic and human terms that make us think outside the box.  We mentioned other paradoxes in the Bible:

·       ‘Of one being with the father’  

·       ‘Virgin birth’

·       ‘Unless you die you cannot be born again’

Jesus even used imagery about a grain of wheat – unless it falls and dies it cannot germinate and be born again.

These concepts are incompatible with a narrow world view, and they are outside time and existence. We’re discussing things that didn’t have a beginning. They were simply eternally so. It enables creatures inhabiting space and time to think in a new way about a divine reality.

Shakespeare used oxymorons to express the inexpressible and, in doing so, overcomes the limits of language. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo tries to come to terms with the fight between the two factions in his family: ‘O brawling love, O loving hate’.

We then discussed the Creed as a piece of literature to be treated in the context of its time and noted how language, as a label for things in our world, can be used to express meaning. For example, some of the King James version of the Bible reads like poetry and the original Hebrew texts in the Bible were at times onomatopoeic. Phrases such as walking through the ‘valley of the shadow of death’ and ‘like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks’ have been used in popular and traditional culture as they are beautiful imagery.

Nevertheless, the Creed is not just a piece of literature. It provides an important framework of belief.

Arius, whose views opposed the Creed, which we discussed in an earlier session, believed that Jesus only existed from the nativity. Therefore, the Creed was written, in part, to overcome his beliefs

Arius’ beliefs are not so unusual today, as there is a popular modern belief that Jesus was a good man, and not himself God, but was in touch with God.

Arius diminishes the nature of Jesus by his argument and can’t put Him on the same rank as God. Popular belief today, and other religions, often see Jesus as a prophet but not as God. We discussed the concept of other religions being pathways to God.

Jesus is, of course, different, however, because of the crucifixion and resurrection. We don’t hear about Arius’ take on the crucifixion and resurrection and noted that history has been recorded from the perspective of those who won the argument.

People were trying to work out who Jesus was at the time. People might want to change the Creed in the future and different interpretations of the Creed exist. The Creed exists as a piece of literature written in its time. As already mentioned, the Creed provides a framework of belief.

On the first Sunday of the month, in our church, we do affirmations of faith that are in line with the Creed. There is a danger, with too much creative freedom, that churches can easily drift into wishful thinking, if we wander too far from the framework of the Creed. Songs and affirmations of faith have to conform to accepted standards established by the Church of England and have to be theologically ‘correct’ in relation to the Creed.

Indeed, in order to depart from the traditions, which is a meaningful, exciting and dynamic way to worship, you also need the grounding of a strong framework of something like the Creed to anchor into.

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What does Jesus Christ is truly ‘God from God, light from light and true God from true God’ mean?

This text, a tricolon, functions in the same way as poetry, by juxtaposing these phrases and repeating the structure in a rhetorical fashion. It is also designed to be chanted to make a point. Like psychological techniques to reinforce belief, it is an affirmation which we repeat in church. Thereby, strengthening our belief, and perhaps it is even a way of writing our faith onto our hearts.

We discussed Communion being like true theatre (theatre being a point of connection and deeper understanding between the congregation and God) and our body language and actions in the service being how we respond to God.

We analysed the texts from which the Creed was crafted.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning.

We discussed the ‘Word’ as a non-literal, metaphorical interpretation of Jesus, and noticed the use of rhetoric again in John’s writing.

John 8:59 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Jesus’ two words: ‘I am’ got people so angry that they wanted to stone him. This was because Yahweh means I am, and it has Old Testament significance. When God reveals himself to Moses, he reveals himself as ‘I am’ who ‘I am’. Jesus was therefore referring to himself as being equal to God.

John 17:3  Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

The Creed refers to ‘begotten, not made, of one being with the father’ which we understood to mean that Jesus was the creation of God, and being equal to God, of one substance with the father.

‘Through him all things were made’ from the Creed puts Jesus on a par with a creator God.

John 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John is a rich source for the Creed. Perhaps Arius wasn’t referring to John in his thinking as the New Testament hadn’t been finalised yet. We find the light imagery coming into the Creed from John. Light being synonymous with life, coming from the life-giving sun.

Colossians 1 15-16 ¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

This text from Colossians also informs the Creed.

Next week we study Jesus' humanity