I Believe

I suppose the biggest news around our church is that VBS is happening next week! If you don’t believe me, come to worship on Sunday, and you will see something up front never seen in the history of St. Patrick. You will have to take my word for it—you won’t be disappointed. I will give you a hint: being “lashed to the mast” is a real possibility!This Sunday, and for the rest of the summer, we are talking about The Apostles’ Creed, and I can't wait! Here is what is interesting to me about the Creed and the way people think in our day: for the most part, our culture is only excited about the new and the novel. Because of technology, things are changing so rapidly that it is easy to get addicted to the next new thing. For instance, it is hard for me to believe that fifteen years ago there was no such thing as iPhone or social media––two things that have totally reshaped the human landscape. I can’t even remember life without them! Don’t get me wrong, I love technology and it does tend to make life easier, if not always better. Yet I would propose there is more about what it means to be human and to thrive packed into this one short creed than in all the technological advances I have witnessed in my lifetime. The human things do not change. What it takes to thrive as a human being now was true centuries ago. So, I invite you to slow down and consider the wise words of Chesterton, who says that “tradition is the democracy of the dead.” He said that because, even in his day a century ago, people only listened to what was in vogue at the moment. His statement is a challenge: when a new thing comes along, how do you get wisdom to look at it? How do you keep from being caught up in the provincialism of the moment? Chesterton suggested that we look back at what people have said and done for ages––not that it is infallible, but it allows us to get outside our own little moment and think about things with “the wisdom of the ages.” So, we will do that this summer; we will look at the Apostolic Tradition, as it was codified into a few statements that describes the heartbeat of Christianity and what it means to be human.  Blessings, Jim