At the Novitas Sunday gatherings we have been doing corporate readings the last couple months. It connects us to the liturgy of the church and all the followers of Jesus who have come before us and built on His foundation to bring us to this point in history and it connects us to all those who will build on long after we are gone. There have been many creeds written throughout church history. The creed we read yesterday was the newest one we have found and it was originally adopted in 1968 by the United Church of Canada’s 23rd General Council. I want to share it with you because it is the one that has spoken to me the most deeply.

A NEW CREED

We are not alone,
    we live in God's world.

We believe in God:
    who has created and is creating,
    who has come in Jesus,
       the Word made flesh,
       to reconcile and make new,
    who works in us and others
       by the Spirit.

We trust in God.

We are called to be the Church:
    to celebrate God's presence,
    to live with respect in Creation,
    to love and serve others,
    to seek justice and resist evil,
    to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
       our judge and our hope. In life, in death, in life beyond death,
    God is with us.
We are not alone.    Thanks be to God.

At Novitas, we like to say we are a community of people dedicated to loving God and caring for people ALL people. Vital to this is the knowledge that we are not alone. Isn’t that what most of us need? There was a line in the movie Shall We Dance? where Susan Sarandon‘s character says, ”We need a witness to our lives.  There’s a billion people on the planet, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything.  The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things, all of it, all of the time, every day.  You’re saying ‘Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it.  Your life will not go unwitnessed because I will be your witness’.” This has always stuck with me. I think it is true in marriage and true in the body of Christ. What most of us want is someone who will be there with us through it all. To love no matter what.

We also sang a son called Hold My Heart by Tenth Avenue North. The chorus goes like this:

One tear in the driving rain,
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breaking heart?
One life, that’s all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If You’re everything You say You are
Would You come close and hold my heart

The good news is God has not left us alone. He didn’t come to condemn the world but to save it. He didn’t stay far away, he came near. He became one of us so we could be part of him. All of us. He loves all. He loves you. Susan’s character asks, “what does any one life mean? Jesus says, everything. Today he says, your tears will not go unnoticed because I will notice them. I will hold your heart while it breaks. I will be with you forever until ALL things are made right.  Make no mistake, love transforms people.  Love changes the world. Love wins.