At the beginning of the month, I accepted a position as a hospice chaplain.  This seems to be a good fit for me, since I have the education and 15 years of experience in pastoral ministry.  It does not have all the stressors of pastoring a church, and for someone who burned out on church work, it fits well.

If you know me personally, or you read my blog, then you know that I struggle with very severe depression and anxiety.  This has caused some to wonder if I am going to be ok constantly dealing with death.

It is true that my work week is always surrounding death.  I visit people who are not expected to live longer than 6 months.  I also have the responsibility of visiting everyone for whom death is imminent.  I attend as many as 3 funerals per week.  I make phone calls to grieving families, and I am getting ready to begin a grief support group.  It is true that I am surrounded by death.

People mean well when they ask me if this job is going to be ok.  I know a lot of people worry about my depression and how I am doing as I deal with it.  However, what I am finding is that being around sad things does not magnify depression.  Granted, I need to keep it all in check.  Being around sad things can make me feel sad, but that is different from depression.

There is a temptation to think that the best way to deal with depression is to avoid any sad or difficult aspect of life.  This might be necessary in a crisis situation, but it is not a good way to approach depression.  It is impossible to live life and not have to deal with anything sad or difficult.  Thus, the only way to avoid such things is to withdraw from life, and that kind of thinking leads to addiction.

To truly overcome depression, I have to learn to deal with the things in life that are sad or difficult.  In this regard, my new job has been a tremendous help to me.  Every day, I have to face the fact that death and grief are real parts of life.  There are healthy ways to grieve and there are unhealthy ways to grieve, but we will all grieve at some time or another.

This morning, my pastor spoke about a story in the gospel of John, chapter 6.  The disciples had set out across the sea of Galilea.  Halfway across, they encounter a severe storm.  Then, in the midst of such fear and trial, they see what they believe is a ghost.  It is not a ghost, however, it is Jesus, walking on the water.  He tells them, “Do not be afraid, I am here.”  However, the most literal translation from the original language is “Do not be afraid, the I am is here.”

Jesus refers to himself as ‘I am’ in other parts of scripture.  The ‘I Am’ is not a reference to self, but to God.  When Jesus called himself the I AM, he was using the name that God introduced himself to Moses with.  

There is something else interesting about John’s telling of this story.  He leaves out the part where Jesus calms the storm.  It seems that the point John wants to make is this: To know Jesus and to know who He is antithetical to fear.  I have no need to fear because Jesus is the great I am and He is with me.

Thinking back about how a person might struggle with depression but face everyday difficulties, it is important to note that Jesus need not calm every storm in my life.  It is enough to know Him and to know that He is near.  There is no need to hide, no need to withdraw.  There is endless glory in facing the day with Jesus.

This is part of a series of reflections on the Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Maker of Heaven and Earth
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary;
suffered under Pontius Pilate
was crucified, dead, and buried.
He descended into hell,
The third day, He rose from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
And sitting on the right hand of God the Father almighty
from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The holy catholic Church
The communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body
and the life everlasting.  Amen.

There are two lines in the Apostles’ Creed that deal with the Virgin Birth.  This is an aspect of the Christian faith that causes many to be embarrassed, after all, how can someone in modern times believe in a virgin birth?

However, it is important that we remember that in this creed we have already affirmed that God is the maker of all things.  (the Nicene creed will go even further, following the first chapter of John in the claim that all things were made through Jesus).  If God exists, and if he is the maker of all things, including humanity, then it is logical that such a God may create a human being apart from sexual reproduction.  This is exactly the claim that is made when Christians affirm that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

The virgin birth was part of the prophesy of a coming messiah, or Christ.  Isaiah made the prophesy to King Ahaz:

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14 ESV)

The prophecy given to Ahaz is vast.  It includes his own undoing, but then reaches far out into the future and proclaims that a virgin will give birth to a son, and that son may be called “God With Us” (translation of Immanuel)

There are some that point to the vagueness of the Hebrew ‘almah as perhaps only meaning a young woman and thus reducing this claim to perhaps any child.  However, where the Hebrew may mean “virgin” or “young woman” it is clear from he Septuagint (parthenos) that the understanding here was of a miraculous, virgin birth.

However, all of the linguistic and theological wrangling over the notion of a virgin birth can cause us to miss the even greater miracle foreseen here:  God with us!

The promise of messiah is more than just a righteous ruler, but rather God joining his creation in order to reconcile and restore it.  The coming of the Christ would not just be miraculous for the sake of proof, but miraculous for the sake of His mission.

In the birth of Jesus something was set in motion: a plan to reconcile God’s people to himself.  It is a miracle wider than the very division stuck between God and Humanity.  Now the end of the division is in sight, for the promised one is born!

This is part of a series of reflections on the Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Maker of Heaven and Earth
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary;
suffered under Pontius Pilate
was crucified, dead, and buried.
He descended into hell,
The third day, He rose from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
And sitting on the right hand of God the Father almighty
from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The holy catholic Church
The communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body
and the life everlasting.  Amen.

Having accepted Jesus as the only begotten of the Father and as such the Christ, we now come to another fact about the Jesus:  the virgin birth, and more precisely, that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

I will not get bogged down at this point by questioning miracles in general.  The assumption that a God exists that created the world is an assumption that God can work miracles.  It is however important to fully understand what exactly this miracle was and what it was not.

 There are many myths in which gods have sex with humans.  This is not that kind of story.  Attempts to paint it as such will completely misunderstand the significance of what happened.  In fact, none of the words used to describe the event are references to sexual reproduction.

Instead, the notion of being conceived by the Holy Spirit is more akin to the creation of Adam with God breathing life into this new creation.

This is what must be, for Jesus did not come just to show us a new way, but rather to be a way.  As such, He must be a new creation, uncorrupted by sin.  He is the second Adam.

Some are tempted to dismiss the virgin birth, embarrassed by such a story in modern times.  Yet, the ancient Christians devoted two lines of the Apostles’ Creed to it.  They did so because it points to the very nature of what Christ would do.

It is not enough that a person could come along and obey the Old Testament law.  This would not make a person righteous or sinless.  Sin existed before the law, and the law does not exist to show righteousness, but rather to expose sin.  The law exists for sinners.  Consider what Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome:

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4 ESV)

Jesus came to do what we could not:  fulfill the law.  He came to do what the law could not: restore righteousness.  In sending Jesus, God gave humanity a do-over.  This time, however, sin is defeated in Christ, and new creation that we may also become new creations.

This is part 4 of Reflections on the Apostles' Creed.  You can find previous parts here: part 1, part 2, part 3.

Even though it takes an active faith to believe that God exists, let alone who He then is in relation to ourselves, it is not enough.  It is said that even demons believe in God and they tremble.  So the choice cannot simply be, “Am I a theist or an atheist?”  Now comes the moment that pulls the Christian out of the vast world of theism.  For the Christian is not just a believer in God but also a believer in Jesus, with some very particular beliefs about who Jesus is.
In the Apostles’ Creed, we state three things right off as to who Jesus is.

1. He is Christ
2. He is God’s only son.
3. He is our Lord

​It is important to understand the uniqueness of these claims.  First, to claim that Jesus is the Christ is to say that He is the Messiah, that long awaited promised one of the Old Testament.  The Old Testament prophesies are so numerous regarding the Messiah that it quickly dispatches what the Messiah is not.  He must be a priest, but not only a priest.  He must be a prophet, but not only a prophet.  He must be a King, but not only a King.

It is common to think of Jesus as just a teacher, much like Buddha is to Buddhists or Muhammad is to Islam.  It is true that he taught, but Jesus cannot just be a teacher and fill the role of Christ.  Jesus claimed to be God.  Such a claim fits within the role of Christ.  C.S. Lewis famously points out that such a claim makes him one of three things:  a liar, a lunatic, or Lord.

If He is the Christ, then He is certainly different from any key figure of other religions, for He is God’s only son.  It is common to think of all people as God’s children but such a claim is not biblical.  There is a difference between being God’s creation and being God’s begotten.  Just like the claims of a Christ, the claims of being God’s begotten separates Jesus from other religious leaders.  In most world religions, the key figure is someone who knows much about God.  In Christianity, the key figure is someone who is God.

Which brings about the next claim, He is our Lord.  He is the one to whom we submit our will.  To call Jesus lord is to claim his authority over our lives, an authority that is only matched by God the Father.

There was a moment in Jesus’ earthly ministry when the multitudes quit following.  They enjoyed the miracles.  They enjoyed the teachings of mercy.  Perhaps they even enjoyed seeing the religious leaders of the day scolded for their heavy burden of laws and offerings.  However, when Jesus began to make peculiar claims about being God, specifically being the actual bread of heaven on which they may live, the crowds left.

We reach this moment in the Apostles’ Creed.  Is it enough to believe in God?  Is it enough to acknowledge God as an Almighty father, who has created all things, myself included.  Why take this next step from theism to Christianity?

Consider the words of Simon Peter as the multitudes walked away:

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:68-69 ESV

Peter knew that no one else had answers like Jesus.  For many claimed to know the way, but Jesus claimed to be the way.  This profound difference led Peter to believe that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah.

Once again, we are at a point where active faith must be employed.  We must choose to believe and we do this because no other choice offers all that Jesus offers.  There is no other choice offered that claims to be the way.  No other choice can justify us completely before God.

We actively choose that Jesus is the Holy One of God, and we submit ourselves to His Lordship.