Welcome to Maple Grove United Church
Rooted in Faith, Growing our Future
 
 

The New Creed

Reflections by Joan Vinall-Cox, PhD.

Jump to any section you wish by clicking on the numbers at the right.

We are not alone,
we live in God’s world.[1]


We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,[2]
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,[3]

to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.[4]


We trust in God.[5]

We are called to be the Church:[6]
to celebrate God’s presence,[7]

to live with respect in Creation,[8]

to love and serve others,[9]

to seek justice and resist evil,[10]

to proclaim Jesus,[11] crucified and risen,[12]

our judge and our hope.[13]


In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.[14]


We are not alone.[15]

Thanks be to God.




The New Creed is the most important statement of faith for members of the United Church of Canada. It is our interpretation of what it means to be Christian, what we believe in, and how we should behave.

Learning and Interpreting

There are three aspects of The New Creed that we need to explore:
How We Will Learn




We are not alone,
we live in God’s world.

This says everything — it's the beginning of the New Creed, and it's a summary of the whole New Creed.

So what does "We are not alone" mean?

Have you ever felt absolutely all alone?

We are not alone.
Always, the New Creed promises, God is with us,

That can seem like a strange promise, and a weird idea.
Sometimes it takes a while to get used to such a thought.

Sometimes, especially when we are young in our spirituality, we only notice God's presence when we are in an extreme moment of great joy or great turmoil. That's when we feel the need to pray — which is how we know we want to get in touch with God.

We are not alone.


Footsteps In The Sand
You may have read this poem; many people feel it explains what it is like to have God with us always.

This is a very visual story — try to picture what is happening as you read it.

One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand:
one belonging to him, and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of his life
there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times of his life.

This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it:
"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed you most, you would leave me."

The Lord replied:
"My child, My precious child, I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."
Thinking about God
You can see that this poem isn't a scientifically accurate report; it's a metaphor, an image that helps readers understand a truth that is hard to put into words.

It's difficult to talk clearly about God; we often use metaphors to help us understand spiritual truths.

Thinking About Being With God
Remember a time when you felt all alone and deserted by everyone.
Ask a friend from your congregation if she or he has ever had that kind of a sense of aloneness. Listen closely to their answer.

Reaching Out
Create an art piece, or a collage, or a poem or a very short story that connects with a time when you were feeling all alone, or maybe about a time when you were feeling connected to God, and share it with a friend. [top]

We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
What We in the United Church Believe
We believe there is a Power, a Force, a Wisdom shaping our individual lives, and the world as a whole. God is much more than our human minds can ever imagine.

Each of us probably has a different, and always limited, feeling or understanding about What or Who God is.

Believing
Our North American culture is good at learning how to figure things out, and how to doubt until something is clearly proven, but we're not very good at faith, at believing.

Some parts of life can only be explored by believing, or at least acting "as if" we believe for a long enough time to see what happens.

Believing in God is a kind of exciting experiment, and it takes courage.

Believing in God
Like other Christians, and spiritual seekers in other faith communities, I have found that my life makes more sense, that my experience of the world is richer and steadier through my belief in God.

As well, I have watched other people whom I admire who are grateful that they have God as a Guide and a Safe Haven. Their example inspires me.

God is Creating
The world and everything in it was created by God, and God is still active in the world, still creating. Some people think of God as the Life Force; others imagine God as an Artist creating our beautiful world and our wonderfully complex lives. God is beyond all human imagining, just like an adult's life and actions are beyond an infant's ability to make sense of.

We can think of God as a loving parent, or a wise teacher, a Being who wants to help us live wisely and keep on growing and becoming more who we actually are, a Being who keeps on creating us.

We believe in God:
who has created and is creating.
What do you think it means to believe in God?

Ask a member of your congregation what he or she thinks. (They'll probably be embarrassed and stutter a little. Many people find it hard to put what they believe into words, and our culture sometimes sees belief in God as not quite 'normal', which makes it even harder for them to talk about their beliefs. Go easy on them. By agreeing to discuss their beliefs with you, they're trying to practice their faith — which is more difficult than practicing soccer or a musical instrument!)

God's Creation
There are two different Creation stories in the Old Testament of the Bible:
You've probably heard a version of the Adam and Eve story — read Genesis 2:15 - 3:24.
Bible historians say that Genesis 1:1-2:3 is the Creation story that was written first. Read it too.

Two Genesis Creation Stories
Which story sounds more like primitive science, an attempt to understand the world, and which like a psychological thriller or judgmental gossip? Why?

Find out what your spiritual mentor thinks. (You might have to tell her or him about what the different stories are. You might even assign her or him the same scriptures that you have to read.)

Reaching Out
Describe or find a picture of a part of God's world that you are grateful for — like a particular spot, or person, or piece of music, or. . .
[top]

who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh
Jesus
Jesus is one of the most studied humans who has ever lived.
Many people currently talk about the historical Jesus, and what sayings in the Bible are actually His.

Most of the New Testament books were written at least 70 years after Jesus died, in a very different language and culture, and a long time ago. So studying the Bible and trying to understand just how God is speaking to us in our lives here and now is, I believe, an act of deep belief and devotion. I also believe that God wants us to be thinking, caring beings, trying to understand ourselves, others, and God.

Jesus and God
There are many different views on how to look at Jesus:

Some people in the United Church believe all three; some believe only one or two of those.

There are other views too, and people change their understanding at different times in their lives.

"The Word"
People say that Jesus is the Word of God in the flesh.

This is a mystical statement and very hard to understand intellectually.

Understanding something "mystically" is usually interpreted as sensing the "hidden meaning".

Jesus is the Word made flesh
Simply, Jesus understood the deep meaning of life, that is, He was inside Life, which meant that He was fully connected to God. (See how hard this is to explain?)

Jesus was / is both human like us, and at the same time, He is God, And He taught that we all are Children of God, like Him.

When we try to live a loving life, as Jesus showed us, we live with peace and harmony inside us, but, paradoxically, it's often a struggle to live like Jesus taught to, trying to love our neighbours and ourselves.

Jesus, I believe, is both human and God, and our role model for the spiritual life. He struggled as we struggle, and He suffered, as everybody suffers sometimes. He had moments when He felt close to God, and moments when He felt alienated from God, just like we do. Jesus is our teacher and guide.

Reaching Out
Think of a time, perhaps when you were in the woods or mountains, or near a lake, when you had a great sense of peace and connectedness. Create something, write, paint, sew, carve, sing, or do something that you love to do, as a response to this time. Share what you've created with someone you love, and discuss whether it was a spiritual time for you.
[top]

to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.
The Impact of Jesus
In the United Church, we believe that changes us, makes us different, connects us with God.

So what?
So why would we want to be changed, to be different?
Who feels perfect? Who is always calm and good? Who is never unhappy? Who can live without being affected by anyone else? Who can always take good care of themselves and their family and friends?

Jesus suffered, but. . .
Jesus suffered, as all humans have and/or will suffer, but He only briefly doubted His link to God, and that time of doubt is when He suffered most.

The story of His death and resurrection is the story of His being separated from God, and then becoming alive in God again.

Like children. . .
We are all connected with God, all part of God, but we aren't always aware of it. Sometimes we are, or feel, disconnected from God. Even though things might look good from the outside, nothing feels meaningful. We feel lost and our life feels pointless.

Depression can be partially a feeling of separation from God, a contributing factor in some addictions.

Jesus came "to reconcile and make new".

Have you ever been away from someone you love for a long time?
When you met them at the airport or where-ever, how did you feel?

Did your body actually feel better, more relaxed?
Were you excited, joyful, filled with energy?
Did you feel almost like a "new you"?

This is a small indication of what it means to be "made new" in God through Christ.

Have you ever had a big fight with someone, or felt betrayed, and then made up or found out that things were okay?

Can you remember the change in your emotions, the sense of relief, and the easing of your tension?

Understanding Jesus' message about loving yourself and your neighbour and learning how to live that way is a spiritual reconciliation, a connection with the deep meaning of life, an alive, vital linking with God.

Jesus and the Spirit
Another difficult theological concept is the "Holy Spirit", part of the Trinity of God. This is one of the "Mysteries" of Christianity.

I believe we don't have to "understand" that, but we do need to have a sense of how Jesus "works in us and others by the Spirit".

The Spirit
I believe that all humans, indeed all beings and the physical world itself, are linked together, part of one organism. What happens to one person, or river, etc. affects everyone else at some level.

Have you ever been with someone, and just known that they were feeling a certain way, even if they weren't especially showing it?
Have you ever had the same idea at the same time as someone else?

That's the Spirit, our unconscious connection with each other.

The Spirit pulls and pushes us in certain directions, gives us ideas that lead us in surprising directions, and has the same effect on others, so that sometimes things come together in amazing ways.

And sometimes we have to struggle and suffer in order to grow in ways that prepare us for a future path that we have no vision of now.

God, Jesus, the Spirit guides us, sometimes through everything going well, sometimes through everything closing down and forcing us in a direction we are reluctant to go in.

Learning to listen to the Spirit is something we work at all our lives. That's one of the purposes of prayer.

Reaching Out
Part of prayer is learning to listen. Take some spiritual time out to listen to God. Like any exercise, you have to practise this to become "good" at it. I suggest you try it every day for a week, (a month would be better.)

This is a form of Centering Prayer, and is both difficult and rewarding.
[top]

We trust in God
Have you ever played that game where you close your eyes and, trusting that the person behind you will catch you, you let yourself fall backwards? It can be really scary if you don't know the person behind you well.

In the United Church, we believe that God is always there to catch us. That doesn't mean that nothing upsetting or damaging will ever happen to us. Life, and God, aren't like that. There is suffering in everyone's life. What we believe is that God will help us get through the tough times. Think back to the poem, "Footsteps in the Sand". God didn't prevent the hard time; God supported the person so they could get through their difficult, painful times.

If we lean back into God's support and trust that God will be there, we will find a source of support. I trust God because I have seen the peace that such trust has brought to people I know and care about.

I know it's scary but try to take a deep breath, close your eyes, and relax into trusting in God.
[top]

We are called to be the Church
Look around you the next time you are at a church service or function. Are there people here who could be having more fun somewhere else? Why are they here? What are they getting out of it? Why are you here? Is it just because your parents have this thing about you getting confirmed? And why do they want you to get confirmed?

Maybe this is one of those things that both you and your parents find hard to talk about. Maybe it just feels right. Maybe you do and don't want to be in confirmation and the whole thing is irritating because it's confusing. But you are here. And your leaders and sponsors are here. And the rest of the congregation is here. And we are here because something called us. We felt a need to connect to God, both in ourselves and in and through other people.

So we are called to be the church: not a building, but the people who worship God together and care for each other, even when we are difficult and/or needy. Especially then.
[top]

to celebrate God's presence
Although some of you might not be really fond of church services, you might like the Christmas services with all the carol singing. It feels good to be in the candlelit sanctuary singing "Silent Night, Holy Night." You might find, as you get older, that church services and hymns and prayers have a different meaning for you than they do now.

But there are ways to celebrate God's presence other than worship services. Sometimes a small kindness to someone else, or a sense of wonder at the beauty of a flower or a river, or someone's smile is to recognize God in the moment. Gratitude for these small joys is a celebration of God's presence.
[top]

to live with respect in Creation
Living with respect in creation includes taking care of and respecting the environment, but extends beyond that. Often people find themselves experiencing a sense of holiness when they are in the forest or a part of our earth that we humans haven't changed much. I remember moments of looking at rocks, water, trees, snow, mountains or any aspect of nature and feeling a quiet recognition, a sense of God's presence. I remember being at camp as a child and looking around with wonder. I didn't have the words then to name that moment as respect for Creation, but it was. Perhaps you have had moments like that, too, where you felt a quiet holiness.

Everyday, when we make apparently small decisions, we are choosing to protect this world we live in, or not. When we try to live with respect and balance in our homes, at our jobs, and in all our activities, we are respecting Creation. Respecting the people around us, respecting materials and machines and maintaining them, making environmentally wise decisions, trusting God even when things aren't going the way we want them to, all these behaviours are ways of showing respect for Creation and for life, and acceptance of the constant change that is life.
[top]

to love and serve others
It's easy to love in theory and/or at a distance. It's easy to serve others when you, and especially when they, understand that you know what's best for them and that you are in charge. It's hard to love people who are difficult, who are behaving in ways that you think are wrong, who make uncomfortable demands, or whom you just don't understand.

And it's confusing, especially as we seem to live more closely together, with different cultures and lifestyles in contact. What is a difference that is acceptable? What is a difference that is unloving and dangerous? Can we even make those kinds of judgments? And can we be too accepting?

Loving and serving others is constantly challenging. Loving and serving others is both what Christ commanded us to do, and the path, the discipline, which leads us to Him. When we love those we find difficult to like, we learn much about ourselves as well as about them, and, like Christ, we are letting our petty personal feelings and biases "die" in order that we can be more fully a part of humankind.

We have to learn how to love the people we encounter. The first step is to see each person we meet as a human being just like ourselves and treat them with respect.
[top]

to seek justice and resist evil
The most important step in loving others is to work at creating a family, a community, a society, a world where justice is valued and practiced. When we value honesty and fairness in ourselves and in our families, our communities and our societies, I believe we are "seeking justice and resisting evil."

Sometimes "seeking justice and resisting evil" seems to be against our very human natures. We all feel entitled to what we have, and sometimes we aren't very sympathetic to people who have less than us. Some people are much richer than others, and we often think there are only limited changes we can help to make that deal with that inequity. And sometimes it's obvious that something very wrong is happening, that innocent people are being damaged by twisted people or situations. What do we do then? Sometimes we act as individuals, but we can act in groups too.

The United Church as an organization speaks out against injustice. We try to right wrongs in our own communities and around the world. The United Church has supported fights against injustice that seemed hopeless at the time we first spoke up. Take a look at this graphical summary, prepared by our minister, of some of the ways that the United Church has had a major influence on social justice in Canada. Look around our church and listen. Can you find people trying to help others in our community and around the world? They are trying to "seek justice and resist evil."

As a community of congregations we can take leadership and/or follow others in recognizing injustice and evil, speaking out about these problems, and taking action to restore justice. We promise, every time we say the New Creed, to do so.
[top]

to proclaim Jesus,
What does it mean to proclaim Jesus? The first image in my mind is the partially media-created picture of the aggressive proselytizer waving a Bible and asking if I've been saved. That is not how I proclaim Christ.

I believe Jesus Christ knew and described a path of spiritual growth that I am trying to live by, as countless others have over the millennia since he lived on earth. I revere the Christian tradition, although I acknowledge that sometimes parts of it have been misused. I also believe that part of loving my neighbour as myself, as Christ instructed, is acknowledging that people who lived before Christ, or in other spiritual traditions, have paths of spiritual growth that I can and should respect. I do not believe I can judge them, or in any way know the mind of God about them.

I proclaim Jesus as leading me by showing me how to reach for closer union with God.

Reaching Out
How do you proclaim Jesus, especially inside and to yourself? Take some quiet time and think or write or create something that helps you answer that question.
[top]

crucified and risen,
And here we are at the crux. How can I, benefiting as I have from the blessing of God's gifts — a culture that honours and extends our knowledge of God's world, a mind to think with and learn, and the Christian tradition I grew up within — how can I believe literally that Christ was crucified and then rose again? And how can I not and call myself a Christian? And if I have trouble with this belief, what does that mean about my Christianity?

If you don't struggle with believing that Christ was resurrected, are you thinking enough?

It's easy to believe that Christ was crucified. If he lived, he died sometime, somehow; we all die. And even a shallow reading of history shows that people have cruelly executed other people, and that crucifixion was a common method of execution during the time of Jesus. But how do I, how do you, believe he rose again?

There are what I think of as explanatory stories — "Jesus wasn't actually dead when he was buried. . ." or, "It was a conspiracy, conscious or unconscious, among his followers." These explanations simply don't satisfy; they are rationalizations to deal with the difficult paradox of believing that Christ rose from the dead.

I can accept the explanation that the story of Christ's death and resurrection is a symbolic explanation of suffering, loss and transformation. The image of Christ hanging on the cross between the sky and the earth, between human existence and God, visually, symbolically, shows me that life contains suffering, and that there is life beyond suffering, that we must suffer loss before we can grow and learn. But is it just a symbol? That's just not enough.

I can't believe the Resurrection rationally, using scientific and scholarly proofs, but I can accept arationally, that is, outside of rationality. Even a little research or life experience shows that some things are neither rational nor irrational. They are outside of and beyond either definition.

From the analytical part of my mind I assert that I cannot know that Jesus rose from the dead because I wasn't there and there is no direct proof. From the wisdom of my heart, I echo words from Mary Oliver's poem Logos.

. . .don't worry about what is reality,

or what is plain, or what is mysterious.

If you were there, it was all those things.

If you can imagine it, it is all those things.

Eat, drink, and be happy.

Accept the miracle.

I accept the miracle.

I accept the miracle because I see it in life around me. You can say, rationally and scientifically, that these aren't miracles, and they aren't, in those terms. But they are triumphs of the human spirit and evidence of the Holy Spirit.

I accept the miracle not just because Christ experienced misery and suffering like all humans do at times in our lives, but also because Christ's suffering and death helps me accept and survive my own suffering. And I accept the miracle because I am also like those who crucified Him.

All of us are less than perfect. We have all done things that have caused emotional or physical harm to others. We have all seen things being done wrong, and walked on, looking away. No one is unwounded. And no one is innocent. We all suffer and we all hunger for Grace, for another chance. Christ's death is my death, and Christ's resurrection gives me the Grace, another chance, even though I don't deserve it.

John Newton, who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace," suffered and almost died many times, working in the slave trade in the eighteenth century. After surviving a violent storm at sea, he became a Christian, and later called those two events his "Great Deliverance." At first he simply treated the slaves in his power more humanely, but eventually he stopped trading in slaves at all and became a preacher. (wikipedia.org/wiki/AmazingGrace)

He wrote:

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav'd a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

His belief in the resurrection of Christ didn't just save his life, it changed it, and it saved the lives of others, and became part of the great force that outlawed slavery. Christ working through John Newton and others created a world that saw slavery as evil. Newton didn't just find grace for himself; he helped create it for others.

His belief, and the belief of people I know, family, friends in my congregation, and my own spiritual experiences (so hard to put into words, but so rich and real) have led me to accept the miracle of Christ's death and resurrection. The Grace of God changes people and the world.

Reaching Out
Have you ever had something wonderful just "happen" to you? Have you ever had a release from something awful that looked like it was going to happen for sure? Have you ever had something awful happen to you, and later realized it was all for the good? Think or write about some of these events. Are they examples of God's Grace, and have they been a kind of resurrection?

Ultimately, I accept the miracle, because I know I will die, and Christ's life, death, and resurrection allow me to find meaning in my own life and ultimate death.
[top]

our judge and our hope.
Christ lived, fought temptation in the desert, lost his temper and vandalized the market in the temple, and got irritated with people who were demanding or unwilling to understand. Yet he loved people so much that he was willing to suffer death for us. I trust Him to extend God's Grace to me. By choosing Christ as my judge, I have hope.
[top]

In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
Those who live in our materialistic times and believe that "he who has the most toys when he dies, wins" are implicitly acknowledging the meaninglessness of their lives.

We humans live knowing we will die. And we live with suffering as well as joy and contentment. Christ has shown us what is meaningful, what we can value in life that is beyond what we can own (and lose). I believe that if we value our connection to Christ, the Holy Spirit and God, God will be there for us. I don't believe that will allow us to escape suffering, but I do believe it will give us comfort in our suffering, as the poem "Footsteps", near the beginning of this meditation, describes.

I don't know if there is life after death, but there may be. The similarity of stories from people who were clinically dead then revived suggests that there might even be scientific evidence for life after death. I figure I'll find out when I get there.

When my mother-in-law knew she would be dying soon, she told the nurses who were caring for her that she was confident she would be with Christ, and they were not to mourn. She was strong in her faith even as she faced death, and it gave her, and those around her, peace. I see people who are getting old and going through the progressive losses that are a part of aging, yet their connection to God remains strong and gives them meaning and peace. I see people who have difficult lives who are comforted by the presence of God in their lives.

We are not alone.
I believe, whether we open ourselves to God or not, God is with us always. God is with us, whether we are in denial about that or in ignorance of it. And it's such a relief, knowing that we are connected to God, that God is with us.

Thanks be to God.
John Newton celebrated the anniversary of the day he turned to God for the rest of his life. God gives us Amazing Grace in our lives and in our deaths, and beyond.

We give thanks.
Reaching Out
Count your blessings; what can you be grateful for? Start a list and keep adding to it.

Amen.
[top]

Copyright © Joan Vinall-Cox and Maple Grove United Church.