Tag: Lord Jesus

1700TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NICENE CREED

This coming May 20th, 2025, the Christian world will commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the preeminent creedal confession of Christianity: the Nicene Creed, which was first articulated in the City of Nicaea (43 miles outside of Constantinople) in the year 325 AD. So, as Lutherans, we join the global Church of Jesus Christ in celebrating the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed as an enduring confession of faith in the Triune God and in the saving work of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. For Lutherans, the Nicene Creed is a theological anchor and vibrant testimony to God’s grace, and its anniversary invites us to remain grounded in the unchanging truth of God’s Word and the theological fundamentals reflected in the Nicene Creed. Moreover, this 1700th anniversary also invites us to engage in ecumenical dialogue and cooperation with other branches of Christianity.

Back in 325 AD, the early Church faced a crisis. A teacher named Arius was claiming that Jesus Christ was a created being, not fully divine. So the Ecumenical Church Council of Nicaea gathered to defend the truth of Christ, producing the Nicene Creed (later refined in 381 at Constantinople). This creedal statement of the Christian Faith boldly declares that Jesus is “begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father” — fully God, of One Being with the Father and the Holy Spirit in an Eternal Tri-Unity (see the second article of the Nicene Creed). It’s a forthright and unwavering statement of who God is and what he has done to save us through his only begotten Son, Jesus.

When we confess the Nicene Creed, we’re not just reciting ancient history; we’re proclaiming the Living God who saves us through his Son, “who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven” (second article of the Nicene Creed). In an age of theological ambiguity, the Nicene Creed grounds us in the truth of the Gospel, pointing us to Christ as the sole mediator of God’s New Covenant. In a world that often dilutes God’s grace and truth, this creedal statement keeps us anchored to the truth of Christ our only Savior.

The 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed unites Christians across traditions: Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, and others. This shared creedal confession creates a basis for meaningful unity, even as we acknowledge and navigate differences. For example, Lutherans may differ with the Roman Catholic maximalist understanding of St. Mary’s role within Christian spirituality, or Lutherans may differ with some Protestants concerning the spiritual efficacy of the Sacraments, but our common affirmation of Christ as our Divine Messiah gives us a starting point for increased ecumenical dialogue and cooperation.

True Christian unity is not uniformity, therefore. We’re not meant to gloss over theological divides. We’re not here to pretend differences don’t exist or to compromise our Lutheran confession for a superficial unity. Consequently, we Lutherans can approach inter-church dialogue and cooperation while holding fast to our theological and spiritual distinctives: [1] the Lutheran principle of the preeminence of the Holy Scriptures as the primary source and authority for Christian faith and life; [2] the Lutheran understanding that God’s Word within the Holy Scriptures speaks both Law and Gospel, and we must clearly distinguish between Law and Gospel (not confusing them together); and [3] the Lutheran conviction that God’s saving grace and truth are primarily transmitted to us through both the Word and Sacraments of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. So we approach Christian ecumenism with clarity and charity, focusing on the Nicene Creed’s proclamation of the Triune God and Christ’s redemptive work as the basis for Christian unity.

As we celebrate 1700 years of the Nicene Creed, we join Christians throughout the world to proclaim the Triune God with boldness and joy. For in the Everlasting Covenant of Jesus Christ that the Nicene Creed uplifts, the great New Covenant sealed by the blood of Christ, God freely offers salvation. Through “one baptism for the forgiveness of sins” (see the third article of the Nicene Creed) God pours out his grace, uniting us to Christ and giving us the gift of faith to trust in him alone for our salvation. So as we confess the Nicene Creed during these Seven Sundays of Eastertime, we stand shoulder to shoulder with Christians across centuries and traditions, transformed and united by the Good News of Jesus Christ that saves us. This Gospel truth is our anchor, and it’s the foundation for our ecumenical relations with all the various branches of the Church of Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.

Christ is risen! Pastor Tim

PLANTING TREES

There is no doubt that we live in a time of colossal and world-shattering change: socially, religiously, culturally, nationally, globally, etcetera. It is indeed the end of the world as we know it.

Historians have recognized that approximately every five hundred years human civilization goes through some kind of major transition from an older structure of things to a new one, and it sure feels like that’s exactly what’s happening in our time. In fact, the last major civilizational shift was the Protestant Reformation, five hundred years ago, when Martin Luther and the other Protestant Reformers sparked this world-changing transfiguration through their reforms of the Medieval Roman Church.

Today, the world as we have known it is rapidly being replace by an emerging reality that is not yet fully clear. Consequently, speculations of the various end times theologies and ideologies abound. And due to the influential pre-millennial theology of the Left Behind novels, some Christians have started to regard any global peacemaking initiative as automatically some kind of great antichrist deception.

Consequently, such Christians (in the name of Jesus) often orient themselves against work for international peace and reconciliation because their Left Behind theology says that such work is always secretly on the side of the evil one. However, our Lord Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). And when Martin Luther was asked what he would do today if he knew the world would end tomorrow, Luther said, “I would plant a tree.”

In other words, even if we knew that tomorrow the world was going to end and the Kingdom of God was going to come in its fullness, we are called to never stop planting “trees” today (both literally and metaphorically). That is, we are to especially plant the metaphorical trees of peace and truth and grace today, no matter what God has in store tomorrow.

God’s people are to always and continually take part in the creative and redeeming work of God today and every day! By the grace and power of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, we are to plant trees of faith in the midst of fear, trees of hope against all hope, and trees of righteousness and peace. And of course, we are to not forget to plant real trees that give us oxygen and help regulate the balance of life on God’s green Earth. Therefore, to prescribe and do anything other than this is to be “anti” (against) Christ.

As our Lord Jesus declares in Matthew 25:31-46, we are called to continue to labor to make the world a better place right up to the great Day of the Lord, the great Second Advent of Jesus Christ. By God’s grace, we are to continue to work (right up to the very moment of Christ’s return) to ease human suffering, to promote equal treatment under law, and, of course, to be peacemakers in the name of Yeshua (Jesus) our Eternal Savior.

Together in Christ, Pastor Tim