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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201c\u2026he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father\u201d<\/p>\n
There is a school of thought that argues the church is unnecessarily obsessed with dogma.\u00a0 Christianity is a way of life, not a body of beliefs \u2013 so the argument goes.\u00a0 And, for that reason, there are those who think that the Nicene Creed should be cut from our liturgy.\u00a0 Emphasize the experience, set aside the unnecessary, distracting theology.<\/p>\n
There are countless problems with this kind of reasoning.\u00a0 But it is enough here to point out that spiritual experiences presuppose a dogma, a body of beliefs. \u00a0No matter what you do to sever the connection between the two, just to answer two, basic questions, \u201cWhat are we doing when we celebrate the liturgy?\u201d and \u201cWhy should we celebrate it at all?\u201d requires dogma \u2013 beliefs, convictions.\u00a0 To offer an answer to those questions, even the simplest of answers, requires beliefs.<\/p>\n
The architects of our liturgy understood this, and they knew that if the liturgy was separated from that basic information, the worship of the church would drift and become incomprehensible to subsequent generations of believers.\u00a0 So, the Nicene Creed appears in middle of our liturgy, between the proclamation of the word and the celebration of the Eucharist, not as an effort to foist a set of propositions off on the congregation, but to remind the baptized what it is we are celebrating and why.\u00a0 As such, the Nicene Creed isn\u2019t just dogma, it is an outline of what is necessary for salvation.<\/p>\n
But there is probably no more obscure line in that creed than the words, \u201c\u2026he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father\u201d.\u00a0 Like most of us, I once assumed that the language the Creed uses was just a bit of simple stage directions.\u00a0 After all, in a play the actor always \u201cexits stage left\u201d or \u201cstage right\u201d after completing his or her lines.\u00a0 Jesus couldn\u2019t do that very well.\u00a0 So, I thought, \u201cstage up\u201d is really the only place he could go, and that made it possible for the creed to get on with telling the rest of the story.<\/p>\n
That, however, is not why the Ascension appears in the creed.\u00a0 Along with the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and the Resurrection, the Ascension is part and parcel of what the early church described as the \u201csaving work of God in Jesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0 It took time for me to discover this, in part because some of the preachers that I heard when I was young, were people who thought that dogma was a bad thing.\u00a0 But the other reason was that those who thought dogma was a good thing, often got some of it wrong.<\/p>\n
Most of us, I think, are reared on bad dogma.\u00a0 We know that the world is broken.\u00a0 We know that it needs healing.\u00a0 But the way in which God\u2019s effort on our behalf has been \u00a0described leads us to believe that Jesus takes on human flesh, suffers punishment that God the Father would really like to inflict on us, and then he is raised from the dead to let us know that now that the Father has decided not to punish us, and \u2013 oh, by the way \u2013 we also get to live forever.<\/p>\n
But according to the Creed that isn\u2019t it at all.\u00a0 From the vantage point of the Creed, God made us for glory and loves us more than we love ourselves.\u00a0 But our choices have jeopardized God\u2019s hope for us, giving death power over us and everything we touch.\u00a0 So, in Christ, God becomes \u201cincarnate from the Virgin Mary\u201d, by taking on our existence.\u00a0 In human flesh he lives the life of glory that God wants for us: a life lived out of an immediate apprehension of God\u2019s will \u2013 filled with compassion, truth, beauty, love, and mercy.\u00a0 That life leads him into a confrontation which appears to end in his crucifixion, but \u2013 in the greatest reversal of fortunes ever \u2013 God uses his death to conquer death and his victory is celebrated in the Resurrection.\u00a0 But even that isn\u2019t enough, according to the Creed.\u00a0 Don\u2019t take this language too literally, but the idea is this: If God \u201ccame down\u201d and took on human flesh, the process of rescuing us from the power of death is not complete until our flesh is taken \u201cback up\u201d into the life of God.<\/p>\n
As I\u2019ve said before, think of Jesus as \u201cthe ultimate first-responder\u201d.\u00a0 He enters our lives, with the house burning down around us.\u00a0 He risks everything, including death to retrieve us, and he emerges from the flames to live again.\u00a0 But that task is not complete if he does not carry us out of the house into the light and safety of a new day.<\/p>\n
What does this mean for us?\u00a0 It means that Christ\u2019s ascent is our ascent.\u00a0 His path back to God is our path to God.\u00a0 His return to glory is the beginning of our glorification.\u00a0 That is good dogma and, like all good dogma, it is about hope, life, and vocation:<\/p>\n
It is word of hope<\/em> because the Ascension reveals that we do not face the darkness of this world alone.\u00a0 There is a way out \u2013 and contrary to popular belief \u2013 you can<\/em> go home again.<\/p>\nIt is a word of life<\/em> because the Ascension reassures us that we are not without redemptive hope.\u00a0 We can live into the glory that God intends for us.\u00a0 Our failings and shortcomings do not foreclose on that possibility, and Jesus shows us the way, clothed in our humanity.<\/p>\nIt is also a word of responsibility<\/em> because we have been blessed that we might be a blessing.\u00a0 The life and the message of the church is meant to point through the flames and smoke of our lives and our world to Jesus.<\/p>\nIt is the end of a long week, a hard week.\u00a0 A hard week for the people of Ukraine.\u00a0 A hard week for the people of Uvalde, Texas.<\/p>\n
I am thankful for this:<\/em><\/p>\nThat the Gospel is not a word of optimism \u2013 the empty reassurance that things will get better.\u00a0 Plainly \u2013 they may not.<\/p>\n
I am thankful for this:<\/em><\/p>\nThat the Gospel is not the false promise that good things happen to good people and bad things only happen to those who do bad things.\u00a0 Plainly \u2013 they do not.<\/p>\n
I am thankful for this:<\/em><\/p>\nThat there is a way through, out, and back to God\u2019s hopes for us and that we have been called to point the way.\u00a0 For \u2013 plainly \u2013 that is the church\u2019s dogma and vocation.<\/p>\n
Let us live out of that conviction and calling.\u00a0 Let us open ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Let us live in ways that conform to the promise, \u201cYou can go home again\u201d in all of the transformative and hopeful senses that promise is offered.<\/p>\n
Lord Jesus Christ, victor over the grave, author of our salvation, risen, resurrected, and ascended Savior, speak a word of hope and life into our existence, and lead us through the chaos of our lives that we might be clothed in your glory and witness to your way.\u00a0 Now and forever more, world without end.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201c\u2026he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father\u201d There is a school of thought that argues the church is unnecessarily obsessed with dogma.\u00a0 Christianity is a way of life, not a body of beliefs \u2013 so the argument goes.\u00a0 And, for that reason, there are those who think that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3825,5,2743,3827,3822,127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ascension","category-church","category-nicene-creed","category-saving-work-of-god","category-the-ascension","category-vocation"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Dogma & Vocation of the Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201c\u2026he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father\u201d There is a school of thought that argues the church is unnecessarily obsessed\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2022\/05\/the-dogma-vocation-of-the-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dogma & Vocation of the Church\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201c\u2026he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father\u201d There is a school of thought that argues the church is unnecessarily obsessed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2022\/05\/the-dogma-vocation-of-the-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"What God Wants for Your Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-27T11:28:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/174\/2022\/05\/daa7f06d20e19c835e51c45a80645cbd-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frederick Schmidt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frederick Schmidt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2022\/05\/the-dogma-vocation-of-the-church\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2022\/05\/the-dogma-vocation-of-the-church\/\",\"name\":\"The Dogma & Vocation of the Church\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-27T11:28:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-27T11:28:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/ddfdcfcb384439499b89f4fc91aa3f21\"},\"description\":\"\u201c\u2026he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father\u201d There is a school of thought that argues the church is unnecessarily obsessed\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2022\/05\/the-dogma-vocation-of-the-church\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2022\/05\/the-dogma-vocation-of-the-church\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2022\/05\/the-dogma-vocation-of-the-church\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Dogma & Vocation of the Church\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/\",\"name\":\"What God Wants for Your Life\",\"description\":\"Thoughts on the perennial demands and changing shape of Christian spirituality.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/ddfdcfcb384439499b89f4fc91aa3f21\",\"name\":\"Frederick Schmidt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/683afd03c0a0abb940f8fe5cb3183269?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/683afd03c0a0abb940f8fe5cb3183269?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Frederick Schmidt\"},\"description\":\"The Reverend Dr. Frederick W. 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