Here I raise my Ebenezer

"The Apostle's Creed cleans up everything the Pastor messes up."

This past Sunday in our third week discussing the Apostle's Creed this line stood out to me above the others in the sermon we heard. It made sense to me. It reminded me of the fact that no one in that room was flawless. No one had it all together, not even our great Pastor. So many people get this idea that we are called to look up to our Pastor, as our head, and do what he says, but our Pastor is like us. We, as Christians, are called into the priesthood of all believers. We are called to journey with our Pastor--who has been trained to equip us--as we do what God has called us to: To be his disciples. That's why I love liturgy, or the Work of the People, because it reminds us that worship is not all about songs we are led in or the Sermon we hear. It is so much more than that, but it involves active participation and involvement. It is about us, together, worshiping this one we call Savior.

I found this to be a fitting way to begin a sermon that was looking at the second part of the Apostle's Creed: The part about Jesus. He talked about how the Apostle's Creed connects us to what the first Apostles would have touched and experience during their time with Jesus. It in many ways connects us to Jesus and it is a constant reminder that what we, as a congregation, as Christians for centuries have believed is not made up. This is us as a body recounting historical events because we have a historic faith.

I love how our Pastor ended the sermon by talking about how we need to share our Ebenezer's--the ways that God has helped us and shown his love for us. It was a reminder that as the first Disciples shared their experiences with Jesus, as our Gospel writers recorded the love and time that Jesus invested in them we are called to share our experiences. God shows us His love in countless ways so that we could share that with others, not so that we could hoard it to ourselves.

Recounting the sermon later that night, I challenged the youth group with the same question. I asked them both how they have seen God this past week and ways that they would like to see God. As is typical many of them were quiet and did not appear to have answers. Now I acknowledge that much of this silence is due to teenage shyness and fear of humiliation. I myself was one of those teenagers who did not like to be the first or last to share my thoughts. But, I wonder how much of that response rings true to many of us? How many of us would be willing to share how God has shown us His love this week? How many of us would dare to share how we hope God shows his love this week. It would be foolish to try and act like we do not have our own expectations and hopes for Jesus. If we see Jesus work within our lives and the lives of others why does it seem so hard to share it? Why does it seem so easy for some people to share and not for others? Is it merely a personality difference or is it our understanding of why we received this love? How can we, as Christians, this Lenten season get better at sharing our experiences with the larger body?