Saying the Same Thing

from the September 2008 “Herald”

There are many good reasons for saying the same thing in church, such as the Creed, week after week. Foremost is memorization, which is especially important at certain times in life; young children are able to participate in the liturgy even before they can read if they know, for example, the Lord’s Prayer (this is one reason the liturgy arose as it did, before literacy was widespread), and the elderly have the comfort of God’s promises deeply committed to memory if their eyesight is failing. People of all ages have the benefit of knowing God’s truth throughout the week if they follow the example of Psalm 119:11, “I have laid up thy word in my heart, that I might not sin against thee” (RSV).

Another important reason is unity within the church. All Lutherans agree that they believe what is in the Small Catechism, and Christians the world over have the Nicene Creed in common. In the worship service, we are able to declare this unity as each of us says together, “I believe.” Regardless of the differences we might have within the congregation or between denominations, let us always remember that we share a heavenly Father who created us, a Savior who redeemed us, and a Spirit who sanctifies us.

But there are also good reasons not to say the same thing week after week. Foremost among these, perhaps, is the danger that reciting the Creed, the Confession, or the Lord’s Prayer would degenerate into mere thoughtless repetition, without any awareness of what is being said. Then we are no better than the pagans Jesus condemns in Matthew 6:7. Somehow we need to focus on the truth of what we’re saying; one suggestion that is sometimes made is to be sure to look at the words on the page as you say them.

Another way of avoiding thoughtless repetition is to use a different version of the text — for example, another translation of the Creed. Then you are forced to pay attention, precisely because you don’t know the words! Ideally, this also increases understanding, for it either reinforces what you already know, or it calls into question what you thought it meant. I always use the example from my childhood of not knowing what “the quick and the dead” meant. With our current hymnal, people might wonder why the Nicene Creed begins with “We believe” instead of “I believe.” (The answer is that the original text from the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 was “We believe,” expressing the unity of the bishops gathered there; in liturgical use, the tradition arose of substituting “I believe” to convey the personal nature of faith.)

In the coming weeks, we will attempt to accomplish all of these goals. Our national church body, the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), has a standard form of both the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed which is different from the ones we have been using. (The ones printed in our bulletins each week are taken from our hymnal, which was produced by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, or WELS.) By using an alternate version of the Creed, we can show unity with our brothers and sisters in the LCMS, and we can make sure we know what we’re saying by carefully following along; it might even bring up some questions in your mind about why something is worded the way it is, so please ask!

At the same time, we don’t want to lose the benefits of memorization, so we will not be featuring a different version every single week. Many of us have already learned the current versions by heart, so we will not abandon them. We will simply be adding to our repertoire an additional version, one that will seem closer the Creed that most of us knew growing up. My goal as your pastor is that on your deathbed, whether you can see or not, you would have the comfort of words that you know and understand that convey the hope of everlasting life in Jesus’ name.

So we will continue to “say the same thing” week after week. That, in fact, is the root of the word confess. When we “confess” our faith, we are saying (“-fess”) the same (“con-”) that God has said to us: He has revealed His truth to us in sacred Scripture, and we repeat it back to Him as an act of faith. If we vary the words a bit, it will be to increase our focus and our understanding. As we all say it together, it shows our unity as members of the “holy Christian Church, the communion of saints.”