Notes from an Off-Season Beach

We are at the beach in a slightly off season, here in mid-May.  It's warm enough to work up a summer-like sweat in the late afternoon.  But my morning walk today had a chilly enough wind that it was almost unpleasant.  Let me record a few other observations.

--Being here in mid-May means that the only children who are here are younger than elementary school age, which translates into lots of cute toddlers.

--We are also here with lots of older people, the ones with either very flexible vacation times or retired people.

--I am likely in the same age category as many of these older women, yet I am working from a different jewelry sensibility:  a nice way of saying that I love colorful glass beads that aren't very valuable, and I'm surrounded by precious gems and metals that are.  I am not wearing jewelry on vacation, and I'm in the minority.

--I have started judging restaurants by their playlists.  High marks go to Poseidon for having 3 Queen songs, including the more obscure "Hammer to Fall," which I am listening to in my earbuds right now.  What a great song--and it still feels very relevant.

--I do realize that "Hammer to Fall" was released as a single and went up the charts.  When I say it's more obscure, I mean that it no longer gets much airplay.  We're much more likely to hear "Somebody to Love," when we're out and about.

--A different musician performs by the pool each day.  Yesterday the musician could play steel pan drums, guitar, and saxaphone, but he didn't always know the song lyrics.  Strange to hear his version of Sting's "Englishman in New York," which didn't sound very English-y, and we're far, far away from both England and New York.

--Yesterday was my last Lutheran Confessions class.  It was a good class, and I learned a lot, although I'm not sure that much of it will be useful in my future life.  I love the idea that the creeds are not like a pledge of allegiance, but more like a love song of the early Church, more like a hymn than a confession of faith.  It seems counterintuitive--we say we confess our faith using the words of the _____Creed.

--It's been a good week, both bittersweet and tiring and inspiring.

A Creed Is Not a Pledge of Allegiance

Yesterday in my Lutheran Foundations class, we had a great discussion about the 3 creeds that are so important to the Church:  the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.  We talked about how they've been used, and they've been used as part of worship, primarily.  In Luther's time, and perhaps ours, most people had at least one creed memorized, along with the Lord's Prayer.

We talked about how the creeds can be a stumbling block for 21st century believers.  Is it lying to say a creed in worship if we don't believe in certain concepts?  My professor said that it's an interesting starting point for a conversation, but it's not a reason to reject a believer or a seeker.

My professor said, "A creed is not a pledge of allegiance."  I loved this way of conceptualizing a creed, so I wanted to make sure that I noted it here.  My professor said that a creed is one of our anchors that keeps us connected to the ancient church.  It's more about church history and what we've agreed is important as a Church.  It's not about what we say that we must believe to be part of the congregation or to make it to Heaven, the way many people use both the creeds and scripture.

My professor is president of one of our Lutheran seminaries, United Lutheran Seminary, so I'm glad to be reassured of this Lutheran approach to the creeds.  As we closed our class, he referenced our former bishop, Elizabeth Eaton, who said we didn't need new creeds, that our old creeds give us plenty to work with, without adding anything new.

I love this perspective on the creeds that I got from the class, which is a different one from the church history classes that I took.  I feel lucky to have had this opportunity.