We have come to the end of the Apostle’s Creed, with the phrases “I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life afterlasting.”  On Sunday we talked at some length about what it means to be part of the “Holy, catholic church.”  We are not holy because of anything we have done, or could ever do.  But we ARE holy, because of what Christ has done, and what Christ can do, with any human person anywhere, no matter who they are or what they have been up to!

We’re not holy so we can brag to our friends, or feel superior to the unholy folks we encounter out in the world.  Quite the contrary:  we are holy because God has made us holy for a mission – the mission to carry the news of Christ’s love to those in the world who have not yet heard that they are loved and can be forgiven.

And we are to be a community of forgiveness:  a community where sin is readily and regularly acknowledged as a reality of life; and where the forgiveness made real in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection is proclaimed. We are to be a community in which that forgiveness is shared with others:  where we forgive because we have first been forgiven, even when it is hard to do.  And it is hard to forgive.

As I said on Sunday, the rest is just gravy:  we believe we are connected to all others who have ever given their life to Christ, because they and we are eternally “in Christ.”  We believe that beyond this life is another life in the presence of Christ our Lord and Savior; a life that is so glorious and beautiful and amazing that the saints before the throne never get done singing “Holy, holy, holy,” because they never exhaust the goodness, grace, mercy, holiness, possibility, and hope of our glorious God.

I believe.  And I believe it makes a difference – all the difference in the world.

Blessings,

Pastor Deborah