Why do we keep saying the Nicene Creed?

I suspect relatively few of you have much formal education in Philosophy. Most parents would not be happy to get a call from their son or daughter at college saying they have decided to switch their major to Philosophy. After all most Philosophy majors can look forward to great careers pumping gas, or waiting tables.

My own search for a major in college was a dialogue between my interests and my abilities (or more correctly, my limitations). I started off as a Psychology major. After taking all of the courses in human psychological development, and dysfunction, I learned I would have to take a course in statistical analysis as a part of the psych major requirements. I have a horrible history as a math student. I did poorly in grade school math and have never progressed, barely surviving high school algebra and geometry. So I decided to look for a major that did not have a math requirement and I switched to Philosophy.
I became a Philosophy major and took all of the courses beginning with ancient Greek metaphysical philosophers all the way through to the 20th Century existentialists. I loved it, but there was one problem. In addition to being mathematically challenged, I am also a very slow reader. I was only accepted into college on the condition that I take, and pass a remedial reading course my first semester. I took the course and I passed it, barely.

As I progressed through my Philosophy courses I noticed the books kept getting bigger and bigger each semester. They were rapidly approaching the point where I could barely keep up with the reading. So I began the search for another major; one that did not require math and where the books were small enough I could keep up with the reading. I found the perfect solution: Sociology.

At that time a major in Sociology had no math requirement and the books were not nearly as intimidating as in Philosophy, and the subject was interesting. So I graduated from college with a major in Sociology, and with minors in Psychology, Philosophy, and in History. Which, all in all, is not a bad background for one going to seminary.

Because of this background I have been able to appreciate how philosophy and theology have been in a constant dialogue at any given time in history. You cannot fully understand the theology of a given time unless you also understand the dominant philosophical thinking of the same period.

Example: In the earliest years of the church the works of the great Greek philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, and their predecessors were focused on questions like: WHAT IS REALITY AND WHAT IS IT MADE UP OF. In the language of philosophy these are called "metaphysical" questions.

The oldest, most primitive philosophers said that the basic building blocks of REALITY, are the four basic elements: earth, air, fire and water. Plato addressed the same question only he said that the world we experience, and call reality, is not real at all, it is a reflection of the world of Ideas, and that only Ideas of things are real. (Don't focus too much here on Plato's answer, rather focus on the question that all ancient philosophers asked, which is: What is reality made up of? Plato's contribution was that there exists two realms of experience: the realm we experience daily, the material realm, which is NOT REAL, and the realm of Ideas which is the only REALITY. This later became refined to suggest that there are two realities, the physical/material realm and the spiritual/ideal realm.

The Gospel Jesus proclaimed and the story of His death and the resurrection of His body, was born in Judaism, by Jews, about Jews and primarily for Jews, all of whom understood their unique common history and traditions. Paul took this message and this story and introduced it to people living the Greek world, who wee steeped in Greek thinking and who know nothing of Jewish history or tradition. These Greek people immediately asked questions the Jews had never thought of (they did not read Greek Philosophy). Those questions had to do with the same questions they asked of all reality, what is it made of, and in this instance, what was Jesus made of? Was he made of human/material stuff (they used the word "essence" instead of "stuff", but they thought of it as we would think of "stuff", some undefined "substance") or was he made of spiritual/divine stuff. In other words, was JESUS a man, made up of the stuff of the material realm with some godly/spiritual qualities, or was he made up of the stuff from the realm if Spirit/Ideas, the divine realm, with just some human/material attributes.

In their Greek minds something, in this case Jesus, could only be made of one kind of stuff--Material or Spiritual stuff. What was Jesus made of? This theological discussion, dominated the theological dialogue for over 300 years. The issue was so critical to the life of the early church they called a series of Ecumenical Councils, gathering most of the bishops of the church throughout the world and produced what we now call the Nicene Creed as the final statement of the issue. That Creed clarified the following: Jesus was "God from God, Light from Light from Light, True God, from true God... of One Being with Father... and he became Man." Jesus therefore had two full , complete and absolute natures, one human and one divine, neither nature is diminished by the other.
We don't ask these questions anymore, like they did in those early centuries. This is because the dominant philosophy of our era, existentialism, has taught us to ask different questions. We no longer ask the metaphysical question: What is reality made of? We now ask the existential question: What is the meaning and purpose of life, including me and my life?
Though we no longer ask the metaphysical question in the same way they did in the early centuries of the church, each of us in our own mind, in our own image of Jesus, struggles with the notion that he was fully divine and fully human. If you see Jesus as someone who, because he was God was somehow different from you in any way, you are struggling with this question. Similarly, if you see Jesus as a good man, but not as the immediate and intimate presence of the ALL HOLY ONE, you struggle with this question also.
This basic Christian affirmation of the two full natures of Jesus in one person continues to be the most difficult thing for Christians to understand even today. We either allow our focus ion his divine nature to diminish his being human, exactly like us, or allow his human nature to diminish our appreciation of his absolute Holiness. This is why we must keep saying and pondering the Nicene Creed. It reminds us weekly of the mystery of Christ, fully divine, fully human," who "came into the world that had its being through Him, and the world didn't know him. He came to his own people and his own people did not accept him. But to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God." John 1: 10-12

Live One Day at a Time.

Now that Scottie has been home for a while she has really rallied. She has felt very good, and will begin to return to work today for a partial day. She has doctor's appointments most every day this week and we hope she will be starting on the trial treatment program soon.

The title above "Live One Day at a Time" is a mantra we all hear and have probably passed on as sage advise to family or friends who are going through tough times. During these past few years Scottie and I have discovered the truth of these words. We truly do live one day at a time. And what that means is: if today is a good day, don't ruin it by worrying about what may happen tomorrow. Good days are precious gifts, celebrate every minute of them by filling them with as much love and laughter as you can.
You have heard the saying "Live each day as though it were your last". I don't care for that notion. I prefer a different approach: "Live each day as you would like to live forever." That is how we approach each good day, we live it and enjoy it as if it would last forever--good days are a fore taste of, and a promise of, eternity.
There are bad days, and when they come you have to remember they are just ONE day also. Surround the things that trouble you on those days with as much love as you can and then just hang on. Here is where the love and prayers of all of you become so powerful. That is the love we draw on that surrounds us and helps us isolate the things that trouble us and enable us to be truly thankful even on the worst of days. This is the mystery of life that we proclaim as we begin every Eucharist with the words: "Lift up Your Hearts. We lift them to the Lord. Let us give Thanks to the Lord our God...It is right and a good and joyful thing ALWAYS and EVERYWHERE to give thanks to you Father Almighty..." Giving thanks to God always and everywhere is how we celebrate the good days, and it is how we triumph over the bad days.

The truth is most of our days, and most of your days, are "good days", they are true gifts from God, samples of eternity given to be celebrated with love and laughter, yet all to often we find ways to ruin too many of them with worry and anxiety over things, most of which will never happen anyway. A good friend told me once: "All my life I have had problems and most of them never happened. " How wise that is. Most of the things we worry about, that ruin our good days and take away time and energy that could have been spent in love and laughter, in the end never even happen anyway.

I truly believe, and my experience has affirmed over and over again, that the key to living one day at a time is BEING THANKFUL AT ALL TIMES AND IN ALL PLACES. Being truly thankful and expressing that in our hourly (not just daily) prayers enables us to celebrate the good days and know the power that raises up on the bad days.

Every day, the good ones and the bad ones, are gifts filled with the mystery of the Giver. We enter into the mystery of the Giver by giving thanks as all times, in all places, for all gifts.
Thankfully yours,
Fr. Glenn

First Post

Grace and peace to you all,

Recently Fr. Scott and I attended a progran for the Phoenix Episcopal clergy the subject of which was "Blogs" and how they can further our ministries.

In order to get a little experience with setting up a blog, and at the same time to provide members of Scottie's and my families with daily updates on Scottie's condition during her recent hospitalization, I started a blog. Having gained that experience, now I would like to set up one for a different audience: members of the parish, other clergy and friends. I plan to also provide updates on how Scottie is doing, and share some of my thoughts on a whole range of topics. These topics will of course include what is happening in the parish and the diocese and the larger church, as well as some thoughts prompted by some of the things I am reading from time to time, and whatever else may come to my mind.

In my earliest days of practicing law I wrote a brief for one of my mentors that was an absolute disaster. It is an understatement to say he was not impressed with it. Actually he canned the entire brief. He told me the writing was not sharp, and neither was the analysis of the issues. He told me "fuzzy writing is the result of fuzzy thinking." He was so right. What I had written was not clear because the thoughts in my own head weren't clear either. Ever since then I have learned that taking time to write out my thoughts forces me to think more clearly. So I am doing this blog, not to impress anyone with what I have to say, but rather to force myself to write more often and indoing so force myself to think more clearly.

Why would anyone want to read this stuff anyway, I really don't have an answer for that. But I suppose I can say this. I confess only to being a person who tries to do God's will. The hardest part of that is knowing what His will is. In this blog I will share with anyone who wishes to read it, the process I go through in trying to discover His will. Perhaps by sharing that process others may be encouraged in their efforts to know His will also, and perhaps they might share that with me. In this way we can have a little community of disciples of Jesus sharing life's journey. And the great thing is we don't have to go to any meetings to do it. Can I have and "AMEN" on that? I thought so!!

As a closing thought--it occurs to me that we English-speaking people say "good bye" when we leave someone and our Spanish-speaking neighbors say "Adios". "Good bye" is short for "God bye you" which means "God be with you". "Adios" contains two Spanish words, "dios", which means "God" and "a", which means "to", as in "to God". Adios can be taken to mean "to God", or "I give you to God". I haven't done any research on this. All this is just my supposition based on my limited knowledge of English, and my even more limited knowledge of Spanish.

Nevertheless as I conclude this first post to this blog I bid you all "Adios"; I give you to God. AMEN and AMEN.