God the Father
The most famous fisherman there has ever been was a Jew called Simon bar-Jonas, that is, Simon son of Jonas. We know him by the nickname which Jesus gave him – Peter, the Rock. Being a Jew he was taught in his childhood the great truth which the Jews alone knew, that there is one God, the Living God, who is so holy that even “…the heavens are not clean in his sight…” (NRSV, Job 15:15).
As Peter grew up he learnt that God required him to be holy too. “…be holy, for I am holy”, or, as God said to Abraham, the founder of the Jewish people, “…walk before me, and be blameless” (NRSV, Leviticus 11:44; Genesis 17:1). So Peter learnt God’s Ten Commandments which told him what he ought to do, but, like everyone else, he found that he could not keep them.
God the Son
And then one day Peter met Jesus by the Lake of Galilee. Jesus asked Peter if he might use his boat to teach the people from, so that he could be heard by the great crowd which lined the beach. When he had finished speaking to them, Jesus told Peter to pull out into deeper water and put his nets overboard. “Master”, said Peter, “we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets” (NRSV, Luke 5:5). And they did so and caught so many fish that their nets started breaking.
Peter follows Jesus
And as Peter stood there next to Jesus, he realised that his sins made him completely unfit to be in the same boat with so holy a person as Jesus, and he fell on his knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” And Jesus said, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people” (NRSV, Luke 5:8,10). When they had brought their boats to the beach, Peter, with James and John, left everything and followed Jesus.
So for the next three years Peter lived in Jesus’ company. The teaching of Jesus captured him completely. As the Temple guards said later, “Never has anyone spoken like this!” (NRSV, John 7:46). Jesus drew out the full meaning of the Ten Commandments and summed them up by saying, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (NRSV, Matthew 5:48).
The perfection and power of Jesus
But Peter soon found out something which was quite amazing: he found out that Jesus was completely perfect himself. As Peter put it in a letter years after, “He committed no sin…” (NRSV, 1 Peter 2:22). Indeed, he did what only God himself could do, he forgave other people’s sins. It was absolutely plain to Peter that Jesus was different from anyone he had ever heard about, in fact, different from anyone who had ever lived. He had power to put a sudden stop to a raging storm on the Lake of Galilee by just saying, “Peace! Be still!” (NRSV, Mark 4:39). He had power over diseases; he even had power over death itself. You remember how he brought Lazarus back to life again after he had been dead and buried for four days (John 11).
Jesus: true God and true Man
Besides all this, Jesus spoke as though he were God himself. He said that he had existed for ever (John 8:58), and that at the end of the world all humankind, millions and millions and millions of people would be judged by him. Indeed, people said that he was mad and had a devil in him (John 10:20). If Jesus had been just a man and no more, they would have been right. Only a man who is either mad or bad talks as though he were God. But Peter knew that Jesus was neither mad nor bad. He was completely holy and true.
It was the Resurrection of Jesus which finally showed the disciples who he really was, and on Low Sunday Thomas put it into words, saying, “My Lord and my God!” (NRSV, John 20:28).
Saviour
But they learnt more than that. On Maundy Thursday evening, a few hours before his Crucifixion, Jesus had said at the Last Supper, “…this is my blood of the new covenant (testament), which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (NRSV, Matthew 26:28). And Peter knew that Jesus, by his death on the Cross, had won forgiveness for him and had taken away his sins. As he put it, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness…(NRSV, 1 Peter 2:24).
God the Holy Spirit
So, as a result of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, Peter’s sins were taken away, and all he needed now was a new power and spirit to keep God’s Commandments and to grow in holiness. And this power and spirit he received when Jesus sent God the Holy Spirit himself to the Apostles at Pentecost, the Birthday of the Church. It was the Holy Spirit, given to the members of the Church at their Baptism and Confirmation, who gave them also the same living power to do what God wanted them to do and to be what God wanted them to be.
The Articles of the Creed
It is the Creed which sums up for us what God has done for us. The Creed is composed of a number of statements or Articles which are divided into three paragraphs. The first tells us of God the Father who made us and all the world. The second tells us of God the Son, who has saved us and all humankind. The third tells us of God the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies us (makes us holy) and all the elect people of God, that is, the members of the Church. So, like St Peter, we believe in Three Persons and One God.
The Ten Commandments
And as the Creed sums up what God has done for us, so the Ten Commandments sum up what we must do for him. And keeping the Ten Commandments means not only avoiding sin but showing our love for God and our neighbour by positive acts of goodness in our daily lives as Christians.
Thus in the Prayer Book Baptismal Service, candidates promise to believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith; and to keep God’s holy will and Commandments, and walk in the same all the days of their lives. (1)
In the Common Worship Service, candidates make a Profession of Faith based on the Articles of the Creed and those who are old enough to answer for themselves make promises in answer to a number of questions, including (2):
“Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?”
“Will you persevere in resisting evil,
and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?”
“Will you proclaim by word and example
the good news of God in Christ?”
“Will you seek and serve Christ in all people,
loving your neighbour as yourself?”
SUMMARY
1. The Creed summarises what God has done for us. From it we learn to believe in:
a) God the Father who made us and all the world;
b) God the Son, who saved (redeemed) us and all humankind;
c) God the Holy Spirit who makes us holy (sanctifies us) and all the elect people of God (members of the Church).
2. The Ten Commandments summarise what we must do for God all through our lives.
References
1. Church of England (1662) The Ministration of Publick Baptism of Infants to be used in the church. Available from:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/bcp/texts/publick-baptism-of-infants.html (Accessed 24 August 2010) (Internet).
2. ©The Archbishops’ Council (2006) Common Worship. Baptism and Confirmation. Available from: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/downloads/pdf/cibaptismandconf.pdf (Accessed 24 August 2010) (Internet).