The defining moments are coming

In the early 70s, Presbyterians in the United States published a new Worshipbook. Its “Service for the Lord’s Day” included a new creed, which in the congregation I attended was called simply the Contemporary Statement.

This is the good news which we received, in which we stand, and by which we are saved: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day; and that he appeared to Peter, then to the Twelve and to many faithful witnesses.
We believe he is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, he is our Lord and our God. Amen.

I have always been rather impressed with the simplicity and power of that statement. For me, at least, it was also quite memorable. A few years later, I chanced to discover the first paragraph is a fairly close paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 15:1-6. Even more years later, I learned source critical analysis suggests this creedal snippet could be about the oldest text in the New Testament. It could be Paul’s quotation of a doctrinal formulation going back to the disciples in Jerusalem.

This is almost certainly only part of the theological heritage Paul received and passed on in his ministry. Speculating about what might or might not have been other parts of that heritage is an endless argument from silence. But we can be certain this was part of the doctrinal foundation of that earliest church.

It is a time of eager expectation in society as a whole as the days lengthen and the trees and plants begin to grow bright and green again. In the church, spring is still Lent, the time of the church year set apart to prepare for Good Friday and Easter. It should also be a time of awe-struck devotion for us: we prepare for the basic events that define the church as the church, for the events that make salvation possible.

The death on Good Friday, a death foretold by prophets whom God used to prepare the way. A sad Easter Saturday in the tomb. And a glorious Easter Sunday, when the triumph of the power of life is revealed for any who care to see.

People often try to build church unity for this great cause or to respond to that great need. And there are times for people to pull together in the short term. But has any more perfect platform for abiding Christian unity been written than these words from Paul?