Mindekirken
6 Pentecost June 23, 2002

Confession without Fear Matthew 10:24-39

Pr. Jens Arne Dale

In the year 325, there was a church assembly at Nikea. The crowd that met was strange. It looked like they were gathered for a church para-olympics. Many of the participants had visible handicaps. Some lacked an arm, others had had their eyes damaged, and they were all aware that they lived in a time of persecution. And the crippling was due to torture. At this point, a regrettable fact has to be admitted. The persecutions had often been started by other church groups. At that time, the church was a considerable factor of power in the Roman Empire. The internal struggle for the right teaching could be really severe. The assembly of Nikea 325 was remembered for two things.

The first, however, is totally false; not about women having souls, but that such a resolution was affirmed. There is no trace of that in the sources. The myth of this resolution is a lie that has been repeated to this day, but that doesn’t make it more true. The second, however, is concerned about something that is very true: the creed.

The creed is the sum of the Christian faith. Every sentence is carefully brought out as a verbal strike against all enemies of the faith. The ones who first gave us the creed fought for their words under tough resistance, and they themselves had to be exposed to strikes. We may find symbols of this in the emblem of Mindekirken. There, the cross is surrounded by two axes, one for the fight of the faith, the other for the martyrdom. Our emblem doesn’t point back to Nikea, but to St. Olav, but it is the same matter. What really was important to the assembly of Nikea was to state the Biblical message in a clear way by a few sentences. They knew that only through words we could meet him who is the Word. (John 1:1) As we confess the faith in the service, we want to say that this is the God we know. And even more than that, the creed doesn’t only put words to something we regard as true. The word became flesh…and we have seen his glory…says John (1:14) We confess to each other, but we also confess to Jesus. The creed expresses the living fellowship with Jesus. I remember my mother saying sometimes that we could use the creed as a prayer. Of course, she was right. Christian faith will never be like shopping in a big religious supermarket where we pick from the shelves what we ourselves want to believe. If that were the case, we would end up with what Paul calls "another Jesus" (2 Cor. 11:4) The creed we use every Sunday is called the Apostle’s Creed. The Nicene Creed is used on the special feast days. Both creeds are shared by churches world-wide. They have been made before the New Testament was written, as a result of the church’s fight for the right faith. The creed expresses central Biblical issues in some short sentences. The oldest Christian creed, however, we find in the New Testament: Jesus is Lord, or Jesus is Kyrios. As it would be in Greek (1 Cor., 12:3) This short sentence was the creed of the first Christians. But even though it was short, it could cost a lot to say it. The Jews used the word Kyrios only for God, and to them it was blasphemous to mention a man with the title that belonged to God. But this is the center of the Christian faith: Jesus is Kyrios, he is Lord and God. That is the basis of our worship.

Jesus is Kyrios; this sentence is also a verbal strike against the Romans. Amongst them, no one doubted who was the Kyrios. It was the emperor. As the Christians rigidly kept Jesus is Kyrios, they had to take blows from the Roman power. It even happened that Christians were threatened with their life to say The emperor is Kyrios. But many chose martyrdom with the words; Jesus is Kyrios, Jesus is Lord. Why? Because Jesus in today’s text says: Do not fear those who kill the body. They knew that a stroke that separated the head from the body never could separate them from the love of Christ. Such a stroke would lead to a sudden presentation in heaven: Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven (v. 32) The creed is therefore more than words. It is fellowship with the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. It is an expression of our close friendship with him who has ransomed us with the precious blood of Christ. (1 Peter 1:18-19)

The creed is a declaration of love to the triune God. To confess the name of Jesus is to follow Jesus. It may be costly. Jesus never hid the fact that they had called him Beelzebul. Then the disciples had to count on hearing the same. Beelzebul was originally the name of a god of Canaa, but at the time of Jesus, it was used as a name of Satan himself. That tells something about the intensity and irrationality of the antagonism that may come.

To follow Jesus may also cost a lot when it come to family relationships. It’s almost frightening to read the words of Jesus: For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. How could he who is called the prince of peace say: I have not come to bring peace, but sword. It looks like a contradiction, but it comes from the Biblical way of expressing consequence as if it were intention. When a human chooses to follow Jesus and confess his name, the consequence may be conflict when family members turn their back on him. We live in a culture where the family ties easily can be loosened up, and tolerance is broad, so to us this might not be a big deal. But what would have happened if a Muslim man from Somalia joined our Church, and confessed the name of Jesus? Most likely, he would be expelled from his own family and regarded as dead by them. Considering such a situation, "brothers and sisters in faith" would be even more important. One may die socially in relation to one’s family, but Jesus also says that faith may lead to physical death and martyrdom. But if that happens, Jesus says: those who lose their life for my sake will find it. Martin Luther sings:

And if our lives they take,

And rob from us all we have,

Just let these things go,

More than that they cannot take,

The Kingdom of God we have forever.

We hardly risk our lives by a Christian confession. But the words about taking up the cross and following Jesus every day has also a symbolic meaning. It was the prisoners sentenced to death who had to run the gauntlet carrying their own crosses. We sometimes use the expression about difficulties we meet in life. A disease may be a cross; a grief, a plague, or even a mother-in-law, I have heard suggested. But the Biblical expression is picked from the theology of baptism. We die with Christ in baptism, and rise by faith to new life. But this new life of baptism should be developed by the daily death of the old Adam. It’s the daily conversion – the confessing of sins. We may live the new life, forgiven by Jesus, here and now, and then in his eternal kingdom.

We have spoken about the creed that belongs to the church and the service. But it also belongs to the housetops: What you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops (v. 27)

At the time of Jesus, the houses had only the ground floor, and the flat roof was a popular gathering place for gossip and discussions. We have been whispered to in our ear, who Jesus is. Be confident to tell it out loud where people gather. Your housetop may be your job, your family, or friends - wherever you meet people. Do not fear. Be clear with your faith.