Notes on “We Believe: God”

This week we begin a new sermon series on the Apostle’s Creed called “We Believe.” During this time, we will explore one of the most common affirmations of faith, originating from some of the earliest Christians.

Our first week focuses appropriately on God, named in the Apostle’s Creed as The Father Almighty and as the creator of Heaven and Earth. In these few words, we encompass not just the Christian almighty, but the same God of our Jewish and Muslim siblings. We remember the stories of power and might from the ancient Hebrew texts and the parental figure who gave us a humble Messiah in the New Testament.

Our understanding of God as Father/Parent and as Creator may be distinct from that of God in trinity, and yet these informed explorations are essential to our understanding of our faith and the world.

Psalm 90:1-8, 12 (CEB)

¹ Lord, you have been our help,
    generation after generation.
² Before the mountains were born,
    before you birthed the earth and the inhabited world—
    from forever in the past
    to forever in the future, you are God.

³ You return people to dust,
    saying, “Go back, humans,”
⁴     because in your perspective a thousand years
    are like yesterday past,
    like a short period during the night watch.
⁵ You sweep humans away like a dream,
    like grass that is renewed in the morning.
⁶ True, in the morning it thrives, renewed,
    but come evening it withers, all dried up.
⁷ Yes, we are wasting away because of your wrath;
    we are paralyzed with fear on account of your rage.
⁸ You put our sins right in front of you,
    set our hidden faults in the light from your face.

¹² Teach us to number our days
    so we can have a wise heart.

Consider these questions:

1. Have you ever said, “I believe in God?” How do you envision God? What does God look like, sound like? How does God speak?
2. This Psalm (designated as a Prayer of Moses) uses the title of Lord. What do you think this means?
3. This Psalm also references wrath. Does wrath fit your understanding of God? Why or why not?
4. In the United Methodist tradition, we talk about Experience as a vital part of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. Have you ever had an experience of God? What was it like?