Yesterday morning, Mark Osler and I spoke at the “Rector’s Forum” at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on the subject of creeds. This was a continuation of a conversation Mark and I had at a Mid-Day Reflection at UST Law School a month or so ago; Neil Willard, the rector at St. Stephen’s had attended that first program and invited us to present our thoughts to members of his community. Having engaged in this dialogue publicly once before, Mark and I were both fascinated by the ways in which yesterday’s discussion differed from our prior one; it is clear that each of us have continued to think about the subject, benefitting greatly from the other’s thoughts.

One of Mark’s observations was that he found the Apostles’ Creed unsatisfactory as a Christian creed because it does not speak of love. As he expressed it, love is Christ’s central command and thus, he could not be comfortable with a creed that did not contain the word love.

I have no disagreement of the centrality of love to Christianity. And it is true that the word “love” never appears in the creed. For me, however, love is written in every line of the Apostles’ Creed.

“I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” I acknowledgement my relationship with a God who created me in love – who breathed live in me and who sustains my existence with every breath I take. A God who fashioned me in love and through whom I find the meaning of my existence.

“I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord…” I live with the reality that God loved me so much that God was willing to become human. To walk among us – to model for us what it means to live a fully human life – to show us what it means to love.

“I believe in the Holy Spirit…” I live my life secure in the knowledge that God is with me, in me, always. That I cannot be separated from this God no matter what.

The Apostles’ Creed may not be a perfect statement of faith for many people. Indeed, if I were sitting down drafting a creed from scratch, it might look very different from this one, which, after all, was a response to particular events and heresies of the day.

But I don’t see the absence of love in the Apostles’ Creed. Instead, in its affirmation of the Trinity, I see a statement that is drenched with God’s love for us. And, if we truly internalize the message of the Creed, we cannot help but share that love with the world.

There are some other points that came out in our discussion that I need to think about some more, so I’ll doubtless speak on this subject again. The only other thing I’ll add here is my gratitude to Mark for helping me to reflect more deeply on some fundamental issues of faith.