Saturday Reflection – 06 June 2020
Saturday Reflection – 06 June 2020
“How great are God’s signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation.” Daniel 4:3
Tomorrow is Trinity Sunday, where we acknowledge our Triune God, having now revealed himself to humanity as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. How fitting then, as we approach that special day in our church’s calendar, is our watchword for today, where King Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges the power and greatness of God and therein commands the people to respect and honour God. For Nebuchadnezzar, (as recorded in Daniel 3), having experienced the faith of the three Hebrew boys and how God protected them in the midst of the fiery furnace, he is led to make this profession of faith.
Many times, when we share our faith with others, we are immediately asked, what do we believe? Or what is that your church believes or stands for? When confronted with this question, some time ago, in later reflection, it became clear that we profess our faith every Sunday, by the Apostles or Nicene Creed or the Affirmation of Faith, which is the foundation of what we believe. Every statement that is made in our creed we affirm with the words “I believe.” It’s like Nebuchadnezzar who comes to this recognition, that as salvation is made known to us, as we experience God and celebrate these events on our Church’s Calendar, it becomes more and more real to us. Even as Nebuchadnezzar experienced it before his very eyes.
The problem, my brothers and sisters, is that we may soon forget the solemnity and meaning of our profession of faith, and it is evident in the Daniel 4, where in a short space of time, after the experience with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and twelve months after Daniel interprets the dream and implores Nebuchadnezzar to repent, that he goes back to square one and proclaims in verse 30 “Is this not magnificent Babylon, which I have built as a royal capital by my mighty power and for my glorious majesty?” It’s almost as everything he had seen, heard and experienced meant nothing to him or in more familiar terms “all that went through the window” Because he forgot Jehovah, he was made to eat grass, losing his power and his sanity so that he could be reminded and humbled. Again, having survived, he ends with his profession of faith.
For me, the reason we say these creeds each week, is that we would, in understanding and in reflection and later committing to memory, it becomes a reminder, of God’s omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence and we experience God’s grace as we say “I believe.” In a world, where so many things are going wrong, where the challenges of life, seem to be coming just one after the other, our “I believe” keeps us connected to God, and our faith is grounded. So, brothers and sisters, we cannot allow anything to shake our belief, nor can we get to the point where our affirmation of this faith, becomes ritualistic and meaningless.
We celebrate and experience, the majesty of our creator God, who said “Let there be, and there was”, where after the fall of humanity, his unending love led him, through Christ to be born in this world, to teach us of the kingdom and how to live godly lives, then to offer himself a ransom for our sin. We see the risen Lord, who conquered sin, death and the grave, who ascended to heaven and sent us a comforter, the Holy Spirit, as our guide and friend. We experience the community of faith, known as the church, made up of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we are apart of the family of God. We cling to the hope of the resurrection, where the Lord will return as King and Judge. Together, we worship and serve him, and we continually feel his presence, and experience his grace. And we believe that one day, the church militant will become the church triumphant and then shall we evermore be with the Lord. When we stand on these promises, proclaiming and living the truth, then we can be all that God intends his church to be.
Until next week, we cannot be fickle, that we allow anything that we face to shake our belief and our resolve and would take away God’s Holy Spirit from us. From now on, every time, we profess, let it be a solemn and true profession, as it is the foundation of our faith. And in turn, we must be the church that spreads this hope and confidence to others, so that they too, might know and believe, until the day when our faith becomes sight. Amen.
Dominic J. Blair