THE COMMEMORATION OF THE ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF NICAEA A.D. 325
10 June Anno + Domini 2009 (Observed)
"We Confess the Mysteries of the Faithâ€
John 6:66-69 (Deut. 6:4-9; Phil. 2:5-11)
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Some Christian doctrines are just hard for people to swallow. They don't make much sense to our sinful human reason. God is Three, Distinct, Divine Persons, but One God. Huh? God the Son came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made Man. God became Human. And yet, He never ceased being God. Jesus is 100% Divine and 100% Human at the same time. Not part Divine and part Human, but fully Divine and fully Human. Huh? Or, consider the doctrine which led many of Jesus' disciples to abandon Him, as we heard in the Gospel lesson. He was teaching that His Flesh was real Food and His Blood real Drink, even making the claim that unless you eat of His Flesh and drink of His Blood, you have no life in you. It was too much for people to bear. He was speaking crazy-talk to their ears. We can certainly understand their reaction, can't we? I mean, it does sound like crazy-talk after all. It doesn't make a lick of sense to our sinful human reason.
So it is that when sinful human reason is confronted with the mysteries of the Christian faith, many try to rationalize the mysteries so that they make sense. And, whenever that happens, heresy is the result, for in re-defining the mysteries in a rational way, the doctrine is actually changed, so that what is confessed is no longer what God has revealed.
This is what the Arians, who followed the teachings of Arius, a Christian priest in Alexandria, Egypt, did. The eternal relationship between the Father and the Son didn't make sense to them. So, they reasoned that surely there was a time when the Father existed before the Son and that Jesus could not possibly have been the eternal Son of God, but must've been created by the Father. In this way, they departed from the true faith, for in trying to rationalize the mystery, they destroyed the doctrine revealed by God in His Word.
So, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church met to address this heresy, at the behest of Emperor Constantine in 325 A.D. They met in Nicaea and discussed many theological issues, but the chief item on the agenda was the formulation of an ecumenical creed (or, confession of faith) that would make clear what the Church believed, taught, and confessed about the Triune God and His salvific work, in opposition to the false teachings of the Arians. The result is the Nicene Creed, which we still confess regularly during Divine Service today (actually, the version of the Nicene Creed we confess today was finished when the Church met for another Council in 381 A.D. at Constantinople, but because the majority of the Creed was formulated at Nicaea, it retained its name).
This, dear friends, is what the Church is called to do - to make the good confession in this world, presenting the true teachings of God's Word and opposing all false teachings whenever they rear their ugly head. That is why we commemorate the Council of Nicaea today, for there we see the Church at her best, remaining steadfast in God's Word, confessing the truths He reveals therein, even when those truths have us scratching our heads because they don't make much sense to us.
Can you imagine how the Twelve must've been feeling - what they must've been thinking - when Jesus turned to them and said, "Do you want to go away as well?†Surely, they must've had their doubts. The teaching about eating Jesus' Flesh and drinking His Blood had to have them reeling in confusion. But, listen to how they answer, through their spokesmen, Simon Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.†Translation: "Lord, to be honest, none of this makes much sense to us either, but if you say it, we believe it, for we know that you are the Lord.â€
Dear friends in Christ, let it be so with you as well. The mysteries of the Christian faith - those doctrines that don't jive with your sinful human reason, that don't make much sense to you at all - are not given to you to understand, but to believe and confess by faith. Understanding will come later. For now, your Lord bids you trust in His Word and cling to His teachings. He invites you to participate in the mysteries of the faith, for He lived and died for you, that you would be His and united to Him in a fellowship which is certainly more intimate and Divine than you will ever know this side of heaven, but that you will fully experience and understand when you are called home to be with Him in His Kingdom forever.
Thanks be to God that we are not alone in this, but belong to the Holy Church which has taught us how to confess the truth concerning the mysteries of our Holy Faith. Thanks be to God that we are joined together with all the faithful of all time here at this Holy Altar, where we participate in the Chief Mystery of our Christian Faith as we eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in the Holy Eucharist. Can we understand it? No, but we believe it and receive it, trusting in the promise of our Lord that by it we are forgiven of our sins and strengthened and preserved in the faith, that we might continue to make the good confession as members of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.
May our response to the mysteries of our Holy Faith always be, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.†And, when those mysteries have us scratching our heads and standing on the edge of doubt, may our prayer always be, "Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief.†In Jesus' Holy and Precious Name. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto life everlasting. Amen.