Sermon – Romans 1:18-20 – Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Sermon – Romans 1:18-20 – Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth

Lent 3

March 3, 2013

As we move through the season of Lent on our march toward the events of Holy Week we have been closely looking at the faith that saves us. Our faith is summarized in what we call the Apostles Creed. This creed is the church's statement of faith that has been used for two thousand years to prepare new Christians for baptism. It contains an explanation of who God is as defined by Jesus when he told us to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Last week we looked at what it means to believe in God the Father. Today we will consider the second phrase, “Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.” But first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature-- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

The Apostles Creed has as its original source the Old Roman Symbol, a baptismal training tool of the Church in Rome in it's earliest years. Initiates were taught to believe in God the Father. But the second phrase, “Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth”, was not there. It was added sometime in the second century to deal with false teachings that had come into the church. And it has remained in the creed ever since so that we are very clear on who the God is that we worship. Here is what happened.

In the second century there were people called Gnostics who claimed to have special knowledge. From this knowledge they believed that the world was divided into things physical, like me and you and this building and weather outside, and into things spiritual. They believed that everything physical was bad, inferior and evil, and everything spiritual was good, perfect and desirable. The goal of the Gnostics was to flee this physical world by becoming more and more spiritual.

There was a teacher in Rome who held similar views. His name was Marcion. Marcion was the son of a bishop of the church from somewhere near the Black Sea. He taught that God the Father of Jesus Christ was a different god from Yahweh, the god of the ancient Hebrews. His reasoning went like this: Since the God of the Old Testament created the physical world he must be an inferior God. But God, the Father of Jesus Christ was the true God because he created the spiritual world. So according to Marcion the God of the Old Testament was a different God than God the Father as worshiped by Christians. The faith of Abraham and the faith of Christians were quite different.

The church rejected this teaching because Jesus had always taught that the God he called “my Father” was also the creator God of the Hebrew Scriptures. This God had created the physical world and called it good. And this God became incarnate as a physical man to redeem the physical world from sin. Christians did not see the physical world as bad with a desire to flee. Christians saw a physical world corrupted by sin needing a redeemer to come to save it.

The difference here is crucial for us. If we were to believe that the physical world is bad then it would not matter what we do here. We can lie and cheat and defraud all we want to. All we would have to do is come to church on Sunday to become more and more spiritual so that one day we can flee the evil world and go to heaven. But if we believe that God has come to redeem the physical world from sin, and will created a new physical world then our mission is not to flee it, but to participate in God's plan to transform it.

The second century church needed to change their method of Christian education in preparation of baptism in light of the fact that teachings of Marcion and other Gnostics that had come into the church. They needed to emphasize that the creator God of the Old Testament was then same God who Jesus called “my Father”. To do this they added a single Greek word to the creed, pantokrator, which means “authority and power over all things”, and is translated as “Almighty” in English. By adding this word the creed taught the God is in control of both the physical and spiritual worlds.

The earliest churches in Rome and surrounding areas originally worshiped in Greek because that was the language of commerce at that time and people from many different nations could speak it. But over time these churches began to worship in Latin, their native tongue. And so the Old Roman Symbol had to be translated into Latin. The Greek word pantokrator which means “authority and power over all thing” became the Latin word omnipotent, which comes into English as “omnipotence”. This Latin word omnipotent means “all powerful”. Saying that God is “all powerful” is quite different that saying that God has “authority and power over all things.” The church wanted to preserve the original meaning of the Greek pantokrator so they added the phrase, “Maker of Heaven and Earth” This ensured that Christians would believe not that God is all powerful, but that God exercises power over both the spiritual and physical worlds. With this understanding Christians do not believe that spiritual is good and physical is bad like the Gnostics. We believe that there is nothing inherently wrong with the physical world, just that it needs redemption. And so God came into the physical as one of us, a man named Jesus, to save it.

Philosophers in the Middle Ages misunderstood all this. And they began to ask absurd questions. Could an all powerful God make a four sided triangle? Could an omnipotent God make a rock he could not move? These questions are ridiculous and demonstrate a misunderstanding of the creed. We believe not in an all powerful God, but in a God who has all power and authority over both the physical and spiritual worlds.

Today we see the opposite of Gnosticism. Many in the world today see the physical word as good while the spiritual world can be safely ignored. In fact many people are not so sure there is a spiritual world. People set their own goals to motivate themselves to acquire as many things and as much power as they possibly can. They will use any means necessary to achieve these goals. Their faith, if they have any at all, is compartmentalized and limited to an hour on Sunday morning, if that. But we, as Christians, cannot confine our faith to the spiritual world we enter on Sunday mornings. We are called to take our faith back out into the physical with us. And we are to use this faith to work towards God's purpose of redeeming this world. So the Christian faith is at work 24/7.

God has authority and power over all things. That means that God has authority and power over your school, all authority and power over your farm, all authority where you work, all authority over your family. You have been placed where you are to manage your piece of the physical word for God as part of his plan for redemption. This is the calling of your faith.

We are left with one last objection from the Gnostics. And we must take this one seriously. They would say that if we believe in a God who has authority and power over both the physical and spiritual worlds then why is the physical world so messed up? Why would a shooter be killing kids in a school if God is in control of things? Why are good Christians abusing children? Why are faithful people killing each other in war? Surely if God created the physical world, called it good, and is still around to care for it, as Christians say, then why is their such evil here? These are all good questions which we must address, but not today. Today we are focusing on our belief in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth. Next Sunday we will look at the Son, God incarnate in the physical world beginning the process of the destruction of evil and the transformation of creation.

So when we say the words of the Apostles Creed we are affirming our faith in the God who Jesus calls “father” and invites us to call “our father” This God loves us as a parent loves a child. But this God is also the creator and sustainer of all things, the physical and the spiritual. Therefore our faith is not that we hope to leave this world and fly off to someplace better. Rather we are called to align ourselves with God to work in God's mission of transformation of this world. But we must never loose sight of the spiritual world that we enter in prayer, Bible study and worship. Our spiritual disciplines equip us for our Christian work in the physical world. So this Lent enter into the spiritual world each day in prayer and meditation on scripture. And under the authority and power of God go out into the world each day to transform it. “I believe in God, the Father, Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.” Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the blessing of worship where we can enter your spiritual world each Sunday. And we thank you for the blessing of being able to pray throughout the week. We ask that you now use us in your work of transformation recreating the world after being damaged by sin. Guide us and protect us as we do your work in this world. This we pray in the name of your Son who came into our world to redeem it. Amen.