Coin of the Realm

 COIN OF THE REALM – SUNDAY MAY 18, 2025


THE NICENE CREED:  “. . . We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, 
eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made . . .”

➖

This Tuesday, May 20, 2025, is the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed. Among all the things that might be said about this creed, we should acknowledge that it marked the first major DEI failure of the Christian Church. The Council of Nicaea may be the first time Christians allowed conformity to be forced upon them by a supreme, political leader.

Okay, let me back up a little. I am a Lutheran Christian. Lutherans embrace the three “ecumenical creeds” of the Christian faith. (The Nicene Creed being one of them.) We understand them to be true and useful articulations of the faith. I understand that faith claims such as the "virgin birth," and "Lordship," don't always work for our 21st century minds, but this is not what I want to talk about today. You can unpack that with your own pastor and faith community some other time. What I want to reflect on today is the political context from which the Nicene Creed emerged.

So, early Christians were persecuted by the Roman Empire, right? - fed to the lions and all of that. Had I been an early Christian being lion fodder might have been something I'd want to avoid. Others apparently felt the same. So, the reality of early Christianity was that as it spread – and spread it did – it also pixilated and regionalized. It’s hard to bring everybody together when the powers that be are out to get you!

Around 313 CE things changed. For some 300 years Christianity had existed as a free-flowing underground movement. In 313 however, Roman Emperor Constantine in something called the ‘Edict of Milan’ decreed that Christianity was to be “tolerated” throughout the Roman Empire. This effectively made Christianity a state sponsored religion, turning both Christianity and the secular world (oh by the way) upside down. Constantine now had a problem. What up to that time had been relatively quiet, regional, theological disputes between Christians entered the public realm - and this began to ferment social upheaval. Eventually Emperor Constantine as the Roman “pontifex maximus,” (Latin for “supreme pontiff” or chief priest,) called all the Christian bishops throughout the Empire together – and that was some 200-300 of them! He wanted them to get themselves on the same page. This meeting was called the “Council of Nicaea” held May-June 325. (And yes, the Council was held at a very nice lakeside resort in Nicaea. Read “Constantine invited them all over to Mar-a-largo, gave them Emperor meme coins, then told them what he wanted!”)

If you are a creedal Christian, you may have noticed that the “*I* believe in . . .” of the earlier Apostles Creed became a “*WE* believe in . . .” for the Nicene Creed. That’s the point. What Constantine needed was a common statement, one that would quiet social dissent, one that would allow him, as Emperor, to have certainty about what was going on. "Get it right, get it straight, and then I the “pontifex maximus” will tell you what to do with it!" And, a little told part of the story, those bishops who would NOT sign off on the Nicene Creed actually received death threats. Those never materialized, but the bishops who wouldn't come on board were summarily excommunicated for non-conformity.

DEI eat dirt!

Okay again, in closing, as a Lutheran Christian I do embrace historical, ecumenical creeds – including the Nicene Creed. Roman Catholics, Episcopalians and many others do as well. Creeds are a good thing. Christians being able to articulate our faith all together is helpful and wholesome.  Honoring historical processes and foundations is something I deeply value. But today, especially in the age of Trump, we need to be aware of the price we paid – as Christians – because of the way some of our creeds have come about.

Church and political power climbed into the same chariot in 325 with the Council of Nicaea. That was not a good thing! As a result Christians today are used to having political leaders support and protect the faith. There is a very dark side to this! In addition, historically we have seen Christian mission and the colonizing of innocent, indigenous peoples operate hand in hand. That has been devastating! And today we are fighting what some like to call “Christian Nationalism” – as if we did not ourselves invent this thing so long ago. We are now reaping the Nicene whirlwind what with President Trump and the MAGA movement. That just seems to apparent to me.

So, in the midst of all this I seek to be critically discerning. It takes courage and hard work to move back through time and acknowledge where we lost partial sight of ourselves. It also takes courage to articulate, re-work and re-imagine what it is we as Christians actually believe. Our time has come. This 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed begs the question. "Has our faith been bought and paid for, or can we fix our errors and still stand for those things Jesus taught us?"

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