I Believe in God the Creator

Children’s time: cake ingredients to make cake from scratch

What are these for? (baking)  

what might we make with these? (brownies, cookies, cake)

Do we need anything else? (a pan, a spoon) 

Can these ingredients make themselves into a cake?  (no)

What else do we need? (a baker)

That’s right! Even with all the right supplies, we still need a maker…a baker…someone to create the cake and make it come out right.  In a way, God is the great baker…or creator. God is the one who took all the separate ingredients and make the land and the oceans and lakes. God make the plants and the animals and then God made people.  God had to put it all together in just the right way so that we could be here on earth like we are.  

Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning when God created[a] the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God[b] swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

History of the Creeds

• We will be taking the next few weeks to study the Apostles’ creed and talk about what we believe as Christians.  (Creed Slide)

creed: noun \’kred\ 

a statement of the basic beliefs of a religion; an idea or set of beliefs that guides the actions for a person or group

(Not “Apollo Creed”—slide of Apollo)—back to Creed Slide

• I understand that some may struggle with certain parts of the creed. That’s ok. This isn’t a litmus test. You don’t have to say you believe each line before you can be a United Methodist or a Christian. But it is important to know our common core and to push on it a little bit. Why do we believe it? What are the alternatives?  And how might our beliefs affect our daily lives and actions.  (Black slide)
• In studying the creed, it’s important to understand why it was written in the first place.  The Christian movement was spreading all over the mediterranean and into Africa and as word spread, so did a variety of nuances about the Christian message. Some of the leadership felt like some groups/churches were getting too far afield and so they had to find a way to bring them back to a common center.  They had the Gospels, and some of the epistles, but they were free to interpret them however they wanted.  So, the church leaders began holding council meetings to try and decide on Creeds. The Creeds served as a keel…a center…a core of beliefs to which each church should be held accountable.  
• The councils deciding the creeds were a big deal.  They were contentious and people died.  Heretics were not tolerated.  These statements weren’t decided on easily.  The process was arduous and people staked their lives on the statements we will study.  So, we should take the time to study them and learn the centerpiece of our heritage. The most common creeds spoken in the church around the world are the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed and for most of us, they are so common, it hardly seems like an issue. Even if we don’t fully agree with every statement…we understand, to some degree, why it says what it says. 
• In the coming weeks, we’re going to dig deeper and connect with the most respected beliefs in our faith. 

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth (statement slide)

This is the first statement in the Apostles’ Creed.  I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth.  In it, there are multiple truths that we maintain as Christians. 

1. We believe in God (slide)
2. We believe God is Father (slide)
3. We believe God is Almighty (slide)
4. We believe God is Creator (slide)
5. We believe in heaven and earth.  (slide)

We believe in God.  (Slide)  That’s our starting point.  We believe in God.  We’re here because we believe in God…we may not all know what exactly we believe, or if what we believe is right…but God is a given in Christianity.  But God isn’t necessarily a given for everyone, right? There are plenty of people who don’t believe in God.  I don’t want to try to prove that there’s a God.  We could debate around that all day, probably all week, if not longer.  But we do need to identify that the things we look at may be seen or interpreted differently by other people.  Some of us look at the stars in the sky and stand in awe.  (stars slide) We see the hand of God stretched across the sky.  Others see the grandeur of the mountains and can only imagine there is someone greater even beyond the size of the mountains.  (mountains slide)  Others look at the tiny details and wonder how even the minutia could matter so much.  (flower slides) But there is beauty and intricacy, not just once, but over (flower slide 2) and over (flower slide 3) again.  We, as Christians, believe there is a God and that we can see God at work in a myriad of ways.  

Maybe we inherited that belief from our parents or grandparents, or maybe we’ve had experiences that confirm the existence of God for us.  But this much is true. We believe in God.  

God is Father.  God is in relationship to us. God is personable. God is knowable. God is relatable.  And while we’re all inclined to lay the identity of our own father over top our view of God the father, it’s important to know that God as father had a particular connotation in the biblical times, which may or may not line up with our notion of father.  God as father meant:

• provider
• protector
• authority
• the father passed on his trade, so he was also:
• teacher
• mentor
• role model
• As a son, you learned your father’s trade and worked with him until you could continue that work on your own to provide for your own family and in turn, teach your own son.  

God as Father means God is one we know, love, and spend time with. God as Father means provider and teacher.  God as father means One we mold our lives after—in all the best ways. God is not distant and removed—beyond us or our experience. God is family—known and loved—within our reach.  And if God is father, then we are children—all of us—we are the Father’s beloved children and that becomes a defining factor in our relationship.  

God is Almighty. God is powerful.  If we look in the scriptures we see God has the strength to move mountains.  God can calm the storms of the sea. (slide of storm) God can count the hairs on your head.  God can breathe new life into a valley of dry bones.  (black slide) God is not weak, incompetent or impotent.  In the face of the world, our problems, and our failures, God is infinitely able.  God is powerful and able to intervene and act on our behalf.  Obviously, we haven’t mastered how to invoke that power, but the truth we fall back on is that God is capable of action—not limited in the ways we are.  

God is creator. Now, we get to the most contentious piece of today’s statement. God is creator.  That’s a judeo-Christian belief.  It comes right out of the chapter from Genesis that _________ read this morning.  God is creator.  Well, ok…but if we claim that…if we believe that…do we have to believe that God did that creating in the time frame described in Genesis?  Were they 24 hour days?  If so, is the world really younger than 10,000 years?  Or did God do God’s creative work over billions of years using the means described by science?  

United Methodists, as a denomination, lean toward the latter.  We claim God is creator and that the sequence of the creation story falls in line with the order outlined in science.  And while we hold to the scripture view of God as Creator…that’s not to refute science but to highlight that if God is creator, then we are created—intentionally designed and made by God.  And that, too, defines our relationship with God and with each other.  We are created beings connected to all of creation and responsible for its care.  

We believe in Heaven and Earth.  We believe there is a dwelling place for God called Heaven and a dwelling place for us called Earth.  (Heaven Slide) And we believe that Heaven is the place we go after death…that there is hope for the future. But beyond that, Heaven is the place that is the fulfillment of all that God desires. Heaven is peaceful, it is just, it is joyful, loving and grace-filled.  Heaven is the standard to which we aspire for our life on earth.  (earth slide) And Earth is the place God gifted us, where we are invited to grow in grace and fulfill all that God has dreamed for us.  (black slide)