The season in the Christian Year called "Advent" runs through the Sundays of Nov. 29 to Dec. 20 this year.

It comes from the Latin word meaning "coming."  Christians have believed for centuries that the season of Advent serves as a dual reminder of the original waiting that was done by the Hebrews for the birth of their Messiah, as well as the waiting that Christians today endure for the second coming of Christ.

From the introduction to "The Apostles' Creed" in the Book of Confessions, office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), 1999.

Although not written by apostles, the Apostles’ Creed reflects the theological formulations of the first century church. The creed’s structuremay be based on Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In a time when most Christians were illiterate, oral repetition of the Apostles’ Creed, along with the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments, helped preserve and transmit the faith of the western churches. The Apostles’ Creed played no role in Eastern Orthodoxy.

In the early church, Christians confessed that “Jesus is Lord” but did not always understand the biblical context of lordship. The views of Marcion, a Christian living in Rome in the second century, further threatened the church’s understanding of Jesus as Lord. Marcion read the Old Testament as referring to a tyrannical God who had created a flawed world. Marcion believed that Jesus revealed, in contrast, a good God of love and mercy. For Marcion, then, Jesus was not the Messiah proclaimed by the prophets, and the Old Testament was not Scripture. Marcion proposed limiting Christian “Scripture” to Luke’s gospel (less the birth narrative and other parts that he felt expressed Jewish thinking) and to those letters of Paul that Marcion regarded as anti-Jewish. Marcion’s views developed into a movement that lasted several centuries.

Around A.D. 180, Roman Christians developed an early form of the Apostles’Creed to refute Marcion. They affirmed that the God of creation is the Father of Jesus Christ, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, was buried and raised from the dead, and ascended into heaven, where he rules with the Father. They also affirmed belief in the Holy Spirit, the church, and the resurrection of the body. 

Candidates for membership in the church, having undergone a lengthy period of moral and doctrinal instruction, were asked at baptism to state what they believed. They responded in the words of this creed.

The Apostles’ Creed underwent further development. In response to the question of readmitting those who had denied the faith during the persecutions of the second and third centuries, the church added, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” In the fourth and fifth centuries, North African Christians debated the question of whether the church was an exclusive sect composed of the heroic few or an inclusive church of all who confessed Jesus Christ, leading to the addition of “holy” (belonging to God) and “catholic” (universal). In Gaul, in the fifth century, the phrase “he descended into hell” came into the creed. By the eighth century, the creed had attained its present form.

The next message series at Vine starts this Sunday, Oct. 11, and is called "Harvest."  Jesus, in his travels through the Galillean, Samarian and Judean countryside, would teach about the kingdom he was sent to herald, represent and embody through the well-known agricultural and cultural event of the grain harvest.  He called his followers to join his kingdom by seeing themselves as workers in the harvest.

Prepare for this series by reflecting and meditating on Jesus' "Kingdom Parables" in Matthew 13, beginning with the parable of the "Sower."

The Parable of the Sower (13:1-9) shows the announcement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ breaking into the world as seed scattered by a sower.  Jesus prepares his disciples for the fact that their proclamation will have a variety of responses and impacts on people, and the Kingdom does not exert its  power by forcing every knee to bow.

The Parable of the Weeds (13:24-30) reveals that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ will not seek to dominate or overthrow all other kingdoms on earth.  The present order of things remains undisrupted.  Wheat and weeds will exist together until Jesus’ return to earth.  God’s reasons for this present a significant challenge for citizens of Jesus’ kingdom – will they grow or be choked out?

For those who think a movement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ has to be big, splashy and well-attended to be legitimate, the Parable of the Mustard Seed (13:31-32) reminds Jesus Followers that the Kingdom starts in small and seemingly hidden ways, and everyone can play a part in it!

And for those who aren’t convinced of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ’s presence unless they see it in outward actions, the Parable of the Leaven (13:33) teaches that the Kingdom’s greatest impact begins inwardly, in the heart.  But a transformed heart can bring great healing and hope to the world.

The Kingdom of Jesus Christ becomes the ultimate value and most precious possession for the Jesus Follower, as the man with the field and the merchant with the pearl demonstrate in the Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl.   (13: 44-46)  Receiving the Kingdom merits any cost or sacrifice, and demonstrating the kingdom is worth any effort or suffering on its behalf.

And finally, Jesus gives the Parable of the Net, ( 13:47-50) a challenging vision of the return of Jesus when those who belong to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ our gathered up and considered clean and good, while those considered unclean are thrown out.   But in the meantime the Kingdom is a movement which gathers up the holy and the hypocrite, the pure and the imposter, the righteous and the religious while still being the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in all its perfection and glory. 

REFLECT...

What does each parable reveal about the nature of Jesus' kingdom?

What does each parable reveal about the role of Jesus' followers in demonstrating, announcing and living within Jesus' kingdom?

How does the church, the body of Christ, live out Jesus' call to his kingdom in today's culture and our own community?

Check out USA Today's Graphic of the data collected over 20 years from the American Religious Identification Survey.  It compares changes in religious affiliation for Catholics, "Other Christians," "Other Religions," "Not Religious," and "Don't Know."  The changes for "not religious" were particularly interesting, even for down here in the South.  Christianity is still prominent, but the last 20 years signal a definite shifting in the cultural landscape.

I smell a mission field.

Pastor Craig

Holy Week has always been the most spiritually intense times of year for me, so I always look forward to it and look to it as an opportunity for renewal and reset.  I don't know about you, but springtime is always a time when I struggle spiritually...so Holy Week always seems to come at the perfect time to get back on track.