The historic creeds of the church do not thrill many folks - not many folks even want to continue saying them in worship. In many ways I climb into that boat also. And yet, I am now thinking that the only reason I have question the recitation of the creeds is that I have lost my sense of faithful imagination. Images used in the past may turn old - even too old to help us recall the power that brought people to use them in the first place. Let me share what happened to me today.
In worship we were directed to join in and recite the Nicene Creed (that is the longer of the two that are used in congregations that recite the creeds). I went along with the direction. And then, in the last line of the creed I heard life - I felt alive - I realized how much life I have right at hand - I thought about moving forward without the baggage of the past. I took in exactly what the third article of the creed was lifting up for all of us: a deep breath of air - a holy reminder of life at hand - a power that is meant to bring into being the life that the powers of death simply hate: a life of nonviolence - a life of self-sacrificing love - a life of mercy without end - a life full of hope for how we will be transformed from day to day into a people whose lives do not simply repeat the lives we have been living - a life of forgiveness for all.
In the last half of the last line of the creed we say: the life of the world to come. We say those words as a completion of the whole sentence's imagery. The whole thought goes like this: We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. As a people whose lives are full of God's creative wind, it is vitally important for us to keep in mind - that which has been declared dead - that which has hawked the empty promises of death - that which has endured the lies of death's power - that which has violated the wonder and glory of our humanity - and call it out as being powerless among us. That is called the resurrection of the dead.
Within the wind of God's creativity, the power of death that tries to whip us up into a frenzy of hate and disorder and abuse and revenge and violence and unbound desire becomes nothing more than a limp attempt at life - a bravado of self-consumption and self-adoration that is only able to cause death. So with a bit of imagination we think about life that is to come - life that can spring even from the domain of death. I find that - to be a breath of fresh air. Even when I am being consumed by the bullshit of death's imitation of power and I long to have a piece of it for myself, there is a promise of resurrection of the dead. New life is always at the doorstep. I will not be lost in the abyss of desire that keeps the seeds of death growing within me. Rather, even death will face resurrection. Yes, even all the bullshit that attempts to suck the wind out of the life of the world around me - will experience resurrection. That is a promise that blows my mind. It is a promise out of my control for if I claim to be in control of such a wild, life-blowing event it will be another sign of how I am a devotee of death's rule.
Therefore we say the life of the world to come. Beyond the power of death is life. Within this day, that promise of life lifts us up so that we will breathe in the power that death simply cannot overcome. The promise of the life of the world to come is the breath that is full of the kind of imagination that somehow moves - cowards like me - anxious souls like me - back-turning, back-stabbing wimps like me - unforgiving fools like me - to resist that which comes so naturally to me. Ah, the life of the world to come - it is coming - it is a promise - it is eternally available - it is that which was and is and will be - even when I dare not go there. Resurrection of the dead simply means we are alive within a promise that expands our lives into the unbounded realm of the kind of creativity that restores that which has been corrupted - heals that which has been wounded and thus now only knows how to wound others - embraces that which we have been pushing away from us - sacrifices that which we once thought we must have as our own.
Now I wonder about how things will take shape for me. Will I remain within the allure of death's claim on life? Will I take time - all along the way and within each day - to look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Blow me away with that thought and restore a breath of new life within me.
TRRR
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