Preaching The Nicene Creed

This Past Sunday we began a new series in our catechism service on the Nicene Creed. We are proud to be a creedal and confessional Church at Christ Reformed DC (you can find our Creeds and Confessions at threeforms.org). When the Churches of the Reformation sought to reform and restore the Church they turned to Scripture as the only infallible rule, but they turned also to the Church Fathers and the creeds as faithful summary of Scripture. You can see this respect for history in the Belgic confession where it commits to willingly accept the Ecumenical Creeds: Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian. It does this because they are faithful to Scripture and summarize it well. 

““And so, in this matter we willingly accept the three ecumenical creeds—the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian—as well as what the ancient fathers decided in agreement with them.” ”

— Belgic Confession, Article 9

We also have in our tradition, from the time of the reformation, the practice of catechetical preaching. Ordinarily, this service is an evening service. We believe that viewing catechesis, doctrinal teaching and preaching, as worship is a strength of our tradition. The ordinary practice is to teach through the Heidelberg Catechism, which is fittingly divided up into a year.

“At one of the services each Lord’s Day, the minister shall ordinarily preach the Word as summarized in the Three Forms of Unity, with special attention given to the Heidelberg Catechism by treating its Lord’s Days in sequence.
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— Church Order of the URCNA, Article 40

We just wrapped up a year through the catechism which you can find (here). In the catechism we teach through the Apostle’s creed (Lord’s Days 7-22). And in addition, a few years ago we did a series through the Athanasian Creed at Advent. Now we are beginning a new series through the Nicene Creed. 

The Nicene Creed, like other creeds, has been used in conjunction with the sacraments. Whereas the Apostles’ Creed was developed from Baptismal creeds, the Nicene came to be used by some communions in connection with the Eucharist as a full statement of faith before communing members of Christ’s Church.

“in the East it incorporated the earlier baptismal Creed, and so became itself a baptismal Creed, it is more properly a Creed for the matured Christian, and has been used in the West as well as in the East as the appropriate Creed for the Eucharist. The Apostles’ Creed was a Creed the acceptance of which was necessary for baptism and incorporation into the Christian Church. The Nicene Creed was a test of orthodoxy, and necessary for full communion in the Church.”

— Charles Augustus Briggs, The Fundamental Christian Faith

Whenever we turn to our church’s creeds and confessions, we are mindful that they are not divinely inspired scriptures, but human documents produced as a result of particular historical controversies. Understanding this context is important for understanding not only what we confess, but why we confess it. In our series we will seek to be mindful of the long story that begins in Alexandria, Egypt, early in the fourth century, runs through Nicea, in 325, and reaches a climax of sorts at Constantinople in 381. Characters in this story include the Presbyter Arius, who believed that there was a time when the eternal Word did not exist, the Emperor Constantine, and Athanasius.

The Nicene Creed has much to teach us about who God is and what the scriptures teach when carefully considered. Join us Sunday mornings at 9:30 as we dive deeper into the Christian faith and into the message of a Trinitarian God who saves.