Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
Lindsey Blair: Welcome to the Midweek Checkup. My name is Lindsey Blair, and I’m joined by Bobby Gilles. This past Sunday, Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Deuteronomy six, verses four and five, in our brand new series called Orthodoxy.
Bobby: Pastor Jonah said that creeds provide guardrails for healthy relationships. Sound funny? Well, let’s dive into the Midweek Checkup.
Lindsey: Jonah began by saying, “Imagine if I handed an infant the complete works of Shakespeare and I said to her “here, little one. This is all you need to know English. Good luck!” Often we hear people say, “All I need is me and my Bible. But this book contains sixty-five thousand cross-references, fifteen hundred years of history, and was written in three languages. This does not mean the Bible is impossible to understand, but it's complicated, and too complicated to go alone.
Bobby: Just like with English, people have created rules and rhymes to help us master the basics. These tools are called Creeds, simple summaries of our beliefs. And they begin in one place, the Shema — this sermon’s text: Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.” These sixteen words are a summary of the entire covenant laid out in Deuteronomy 5.
Lindsey: When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, he quotes the Shema. And he makes a point to explain how this not only shapes the way we relate to God, but also to each other when he adds, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Remember, the SHEMA is a summary of the ten commandments. So...to love your neighbor as yourself means you honor your parents, you don't murder, you don't commit adultery or steal. You don't lie about other people, and you don't wish for what other people had.
Bobby: We need guides to help us begin with the basics. So, the Lord gave us a Creed. Our ancestors recited it daily, because within it, everything we could grow to learn was contained. So to summarize, a creed is a simple and memorable summary of the Scriptures. It is clear and compelling. And it is all about relationship. Everything God created exists in the service of relationship.
Lindsey: Early Christian creeds, like the NICENE CREED, are all structured around God's relational nature, the TRINITY. In there, we learn what God is like. We learn how we can come to him—through the second person of the Trinity. Every week, deeper and deeper into our bones, these truths sink so that, deeper and deeper, we may learn to live them. So Creeds are guardrails for thriving relationships. Do we recite them to sound old and cool? No. We recite them to remember them. Do we remember them so we can win doctrinal arguments? NO. We remember them so we can embody them for the sake of relationships.
Bobby: Next Sunday, we’ll continue our new series called Orthodoxy: Guardrails for the Thriving Soul. And in Bible Fellowship, we’ll begin a summertime discussion of Paul’s letter to Romans. Join us and bring a friend.