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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Today we're beginning a series of catechetical sermons on the Apostles' Creed.

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If you looked at the daily announcements, you would have seen that this is supposed to be launching a series,

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I'm going to take that seriously and say a little bit about catechesis, catechism, and the Creed itself,

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before turning them to the first article.

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So catechesis is just instructing, teaching. To catechize is to instruct or to teach.

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And a catechism then is the instruction or the teaching.

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For a long time, this is even before the Reformation in many churches,

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the catechism consisted of the commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer.

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And Lutheran catechesis has just maintained that.

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Now, the approach to catechesis, that's something else.

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In other words, the catechism is not just to be identified, oh I know what the catechism consists of,

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it's not to be only memorized, oh you should know what it says,

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but it's to form you, inform you, shape you.

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The instruction, you might say, is not just for the head, but for the whole body and the whole life.

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Now there are different ways to go about this, and so Luther in his catechisms does right by just trying to go in one direction.

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As doctors Arand and Kolb like to emphasize, for Luther the catechisms are handbooks.

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They are instructional manuals. They are manuals for how to live the Christian life.

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And so you can see then the organization of the catechism.

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It starts with the Ten Commandments, how you should live, what you should do.

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It's followed by the Creed, what you should believe, in order that you might do what you're supposed to do.

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And it goes on then to the Lord's Prayer, how to pray in all your trouble and difficulty and need.

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It's a handbook for Christian living. Luther's catechisms are organized that way.

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And so you can see then it goes on to the sacraments, and what are those about?

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How one becomes a child of God, how one lives like a child of God.

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It gives you directions for how to pray. It lays out a table of duties.

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There are booklets for baptism and for marriage. Luther's catechisms are handbooks for Christian living.

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That's not the only way, though, to approach catechesis.

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Catechesis, of course, goes back all the way to Jesus. It goes back even earlier for Israel.

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But Lutheran catechesis takes a certain direction in terms of life.

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But another way to do it is one that I know is familiar to all of you.

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It's to consider what it means to be baptized.

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What happens at baptism? One is asked,

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Do you believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth?

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The answer is supposed to be, you bet I do.

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I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

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And what about Jesus Christ? I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.

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Alright, that's enough. No, it's not. I don't know.

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I actually have never witnessed a baptism where someone was that excited, and I realized when I was thinking about this,

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that's actually not a good thing.

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How about the Holy Spirit? I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion saints, the forgiveness sins,

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the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Yes.

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I'm ready to be baptized.

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So, we're invited here to pick up catechesis in terms of the Apostles' Creed.

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And let's do that.

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Let's start with first things first, the first article.

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I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

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In a certain respect, that's all you need to say.

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Articles are like joints.

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The Christian faith, what we believe, why we believe, what it means, gets articulated.

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And the first thing to articulate, a comprehensive thing to articulate, is believing in God as the creator of all things.

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To be religious, someone has said, is to live according to a certain kind of account.

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It's very helpful to do that because not all religions have gods, not all religions believe in life after death.

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But those things, those communities we call religious, all think that there's a certain way to account for everything.

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Their accounts are comprehensive. Their accounts are the truth. Their accounts give meaning to life.

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So, for instance, Vedantic Hindus would say, reality is one.

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It is immaterial, invisible, eternal, spiritual.

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The world of ordinary experience of you and me, of time and space, of life and death, of change and decay, is an illusion.

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That is an account of everything.

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The Christian account is, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

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The Nicene Creed, actually, just in case someone is wondering, goes on a little bit more and says,

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and of all things visible and invisible.

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Comprehensive enough for you?

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No. It's an account of everything. It's the first thing to say.

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And everything else happens within it.

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What about all the trouble, all the dying? What about all the uncertainty?

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What about sin and evil?

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That's the second article. And the third article, which God deals with that.

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Through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, and in the presence and power of His Holy Spirit,

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who makes holy, who brings life and eternal life.

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And from there, then, you could go on and speak about, okay, if this is how the world is,

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if there is one God and I am to believe in Him, what does it mean to live?

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Have no other gods. Keep His name holy.

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Hear His word. Honor His authorities. Do right by your neighbors.

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And what if I want to talk to Him? How should I do that?

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Say, Our Father who art in heaven.

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And Luther's explanation of that is just wonderful.

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Guided by these words, tenderly invite us to believe that He is our true Father and we are His true children.

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So that we may, with all boldness and confidence, ask Him as dear children, ask their dear Father.

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And the point of this is to know, believe, and live as if God is the maker of heaven and earth.

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And your God.

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So let's turn to the first article itself about creation.

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There are two ways to look at creation, well there are many ways to look at creation,

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but the first chapters of Genesis give us two different ways.

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One is, you might say, from God's point of view.

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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

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God does everything. God makes it all.

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It's cosmological. Time, space, things, whatever.

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Once upon a time, at the beginning of time, it all came into being.

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By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made. By the breath of His mouth, all their hosts.

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A second way to look at it, though, comes from the second chapter of Genesis, and it's anthropological.

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It has to do with the man, and the garden, and the animals, and the wife, and their life together.

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Luther's catechisms take the anthropological view, as we just recited.

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I believe that God has made me, together with all creatures.

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This point was stressed to me by Dr. Arand several times, but about six years ago it finally sank in,

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when he said, God created me! Oh yeah, that's right Chuck.

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Actually, I do have it now. No, God made me.

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God gave me my body and soul. He made my body.

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He takes care of me. Clothing and shoes, and all the rest.

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He protects me. And how? Why?

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Like everything else, just because.

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Why did God make the heavens and the earth? Because He felt like it.

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It is. God was under no compulsion to make anything.

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God wasn't lonely. God wasn't trying to prove anything.

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After all God is God. No.

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But He did it out of His freedom, and out of His love.

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All this He does, only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.

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Now, that the Creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, has not only made you, but takes care of you, of course, is a wonderful thing.

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Why are you here? Because it pleased Almighty God.

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Why do you live? Because it pleases Almighty God.

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Why will you continue? Because it pleases Almighty God.

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Of course, that's the good side of it.

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But there is a confusing or disturbing or troubling side of it all.

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Actually, in two dimensions.

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You can see one with the psalmist. This is Psalm 8.

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When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

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That's a good question.

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For God, the creation of the universe, is fine, detailed work.

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It's like sewing something, stitching something together.

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It's like tying flies. It's like putting that little nut on that really small screw.

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That's what creating the universe is for Almighty God.

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And all that, what are you?

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And then the fact is, although we trust that God will take care of us, He doesn't always, or it doesn't seem that way.

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God has given my body and soul, eyes, ears and all my members, but not everyone is born that way.

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And now everybody keeps them.

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Clothing, shoes, food, drink, house, home.

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Not everybody has them.

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Not everybody is protected from harm and danger.

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Not everybody is secure from evil and wickedness.

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There's way too much violence, poverty, oppression, and sheer evil.

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Maybe it hasn't touched you, but maybe it has, but the very possibility and the very existence of them is confusing, disturbing.

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So what about you?

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Is God your creator? Is He your Heavenly Father?

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And the answer is yes.

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Not because it makes sense, but because He actually did it.

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In baptism, to go back to it, God made you one of His children.

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In baptism, God was adopting you, bringing you into His family.

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In baptism, God was making you not only an heir of Him, but a co-heir with His Son, Jesus Christ.

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What belongs to Christ, belongs to you.

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Now of course, in this life, Jesus came into the world as the Son of God, Israel's Messiah, as the Lord of all.

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And He was rejected and He was crucified, but God raised Him from the dead.

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And Jesus did say that all who would follow Him should deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Him.

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And that could be unto death.

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And yet the good news is like, God raised Jesus, God will raise you.

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And even now, God the Creator, no matter your circumstances, does know you, does love you, and will care for you.

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Not only in this creation, but in the life of the world to come.

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May this news, may this promise, may this God, our Almighty God and Father,

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sustain you in all faith, faithfulness and hope.

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.