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Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Partners of the Presbytery of San José
The Iona Abbey in the Scottish Isles has this as an Affirmation of Faith for worshipping communities:
We believe that God is present in the darkness before dawn; in the waiting and uncertainty where fear and courage join hands, conflict and caring link arms, and the sun rises over barbed wire. We believe in a with-us God who sits down in our midst to share our humanity. We affirm a faith that takes us beyond the safe place: into action, into vulnerability, and into the streets. We commit ourselves to work for change and put ourselves on the line; to bear responsibility, take risks, live powerfully and face humiliation; to stand with those on the edge; to choose life and be used by the Spirit for God’s new community of hope. Amen.
This affirmation of faith reads more like a call to action, an affirming faith. It’s different from statements of faith like the Nicene Creed (btw, this year is the 1700th birthday of the original Nicene Creed! Yay, Nicaea!) or the Scots Confession or my favorite, the Heidelberg Catechism. All these affirmations of faith cogently state what Christians believe, the contents of faith. In Christian theology, this is what’s called fides quae (the faith which). Thus, those creeds, confessions, catechisms, and declarations state what Christians believe about the triune God, the person and work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and all those points of doctrine which guide and connect Christian communities across the ages as we seek to make sense of God’s movement in our lives and what it means to be children of God, loved in Jesus Christ, and called to be a community called “church.”
The Iona Abbey affirmation of faith reads more as an “affirming faith.” It’s less of confessing the contents of faith (fides quae, the faith which) and more along the order of actually believing, fides qua (the faith which believes). It’s the qua believing in the quae. It’s the act of believing in something.
But I’m going to go one step further and share one more Latin phrase just to get you ready for the weekend. Fides ad quo (faith for what, faith towards what). This is about the purpose of faith. The Iona Abbey affirmation speaks about why we believe, why it matters that Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead. Fides ad quo is concerned about an affirmative faith. It’s what faith does, it’s the purpose and goal of why faith is gift, and as gift, it is for us to do good works (Ephesians 2:8-10; Micah 6:8). Taken together -- the act of believing (fides qua), the content of faith (fides quae), and the purpose of faith (fides ad quo) – our Christian life and our life together of faith has a subject, verb, object. This full-orbed view of our calling is anchored in the living person of Christ, empowered by the living person of the Holy Spirit, as we care for and love living human beings, as we steward and care for planet Earth, all to the glory of the living God. What we confess, the fact that we can confess, and the purpose of our confessing are what provides the warp-and-woof of our living days.
Here's the Iona Abbey Affirmation of Faith sharing what our faith’s purpose is:
We commit ourselves to work for change and put ourselves on the line; to bear responsibility, take risks, live powerfully and face humiliation; to stand with those on the edge; to choose life and be used by the Spirit for God’s new community of hope.
So the next time you pray, the next time you sing a hymn or a song, the next time you confess the faith (“I believe. . .”, “We believe. . .”), the next time you break bread and drink the Cup (like this coming Sunday), the next time you gather with God’s precious children, the next time you receive and share God’s love, the next time you work for God’s justice in your communities and the world – all these are sacred dimensions of faith. These are points and places of giving flesh and life to what we believe, the act of believing itself, and the purpose of our belief.
In Joy and Justice,
The Rev. Dr. Neal D. Presa, Executive Presbyter
(408) 763-5004 | Neal@sanjosepby.org
#CalledToCommunity
#CommittedToJustice
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