Sermon series

Calling Me Home

The most vivid memory I have from my early childhood is of running down the footpath from my house to meet my father, with the expectation of seeing his arms opening wide ready to embrace me. The reason I remember that day is because he didn’t meet me there. It was in that moment at the end of the road that I remembered he had left and wouldn’t ever be coming home again. It was only then that I understood what I had been told and I was left with the pain of deep rejection, feeling sad and unworthy, knowing that my father had chosen to be somewhere else.

That rejection cut deep within me and brought with it a great emptiness and longing. As a child I carried with me the burden of this sadness and the weight of not feeling worthy of being loved. I felt broken and often wondered if I would ever feel truly happy.

From an early age I believed that God was real and over the years that followed he gradually used the hurt that I felt to draw me near to him. I wanted desperately to relate to God but felt sure that he could never really love me. Despite hearing God calling me to him as I read the Bible and tried to pray, it took many years before I truly believed that my heavenly Father would never let me down, and even longer for me to give myself completely to him. God gradually helped me to trust him and to learn to find shelter and refuge in him, even when around me all else seemed to be going wrong.

It was so hard to fathom that the creator of the universe wanted to welcome me and that he loved and cared for me like no other. But in sending his son to die for me the depth of his love was unmistakable.

More recently, I experienced rejection from my earthly father once again. Although still painful, the difference this time was that I was aware that my value doesn’t lie in the things of this earth. I have meaning because I am a child of God. I know that my heavenly Father is trustworthy, dependable and true, and that his love for me is deep and endless and without condition. To this I hold onto tightly.

God, my heavenly Father, who waited so patiently for me with his arms wide open, has called me to him and welcomed me. He loves and cares for me like no other and he alone makes me whole.

I have chosen to run without fear towards my heavenly Father and to kneel at his feet. Because in him, and only in him, can we find true refuge and true peace. He will never leave us or let us down and he is our true protector. He is not only capable of bearing all of our burdens but when we trust him wholeheartedly, he gives us wonderful rest and peace.

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust’. (Psalm 91: 1–2)

Ancient Words

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In the last two years since coming to St Paul’s, I’ve said the Apostles’ Creed more than I ever have. I still don’t know it off by heart but I’m hoping that one day soon I will. While it’s important for me to become more familiar with it, what I really want to know is: who wrote it and where did it come from?

With the name the Apostles’ Creed it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think that it was written by the apostles. And although there were once legends that this was indeed the case, that the apostles each wrote one of the clauses, this is no longer a popular idea.

So, if the apostles didn’t write it, who did? It is thought that the words for this creed were first put together by the early church around the year 150 AD, most likely in Rome, in response to the alternate doctrines being presented at the time by Christian Gnostics (those who believed that knowledge could lead them to salvation) and by Marcion, an infamous teacher and heretic. The earliest version was therefore known as the Roman Creed. The most common use for it initially was as a series of questions during baptism, as a way of asking people what they believed. It was a means of identifying true believers, because those who were prepared to affirm the beliefs stated in the creed were unlikely to have been negatively influenced by the false teachers around them.

The earliest written form that we have of the Roman Creed is in a letter from Marcellus of Ancyra to Julius, the bishop of Rome, and was written in Greek around 341 AD. There are also slightly later versions of the creed that can be found in Latin. The form of the Apostles’ Creed that we now use is most closely linked to a Latin tract that was written by a monk called Priminius in the early eighth century.

It’s amazing to think that what we say together regularly on a Sunday could have been written so long ago, by people in a very different time and place. But rather than focusing on all of the reasons why such an ancient creed might be relevant to us today, as I think it is, I’d like to encourage you with just one simple thought.

Over the many, many generations since the creed was first written Christians have chosen to hold onto this set of core beliefs, ones that they have not been willing to compromise on. For generations people have continued to gather together to profess their beliefs before each other, thereby helping to strengthen their own faith and encouraging those around them.

In light of the uncertainty around us at the moment I’d suggest that the Apostles’ Creed serves as a reminder that we are bound together in faith not only with those near to us but with Christian brothers and sisters from all over the globe, including those from different times. And just like the early Christians, I believe that we can be an example of a body of Christ that does not give into fear, but instead stands united in faith, love and hope.

The historical information used in this post came from the following sources: 

Apostles’ Creed, Marcion. Lexham Bible Dictionary (Logos Edition). app.logos.com.

González, Justo L. The Story of Christianity. Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation, pp. 58–66, 368. New York: Harper Collins, 1984.