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An Offering from the Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships Team

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place this year from January 18-25. The theme is “Do You Believe?” and is based on Jesus’ conversation with Martha in John 11: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

The theme was chosen in recognition of the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea (325), at which the words “I believe” were chosen to anchor the Creed as an instrument of universal Christian unity. For each day during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the members of the Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships (CUIR) committee will share a series of devotions based on the statements in the Nicene Creed.

You can sign up to receive these devotions each morning in your email or view them on our website.

Day 5: For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day, he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

Have you ever recited a creed and felt that the words seemed routine rather than meaningful? That happened to me one Sunday morning. As the phrase “under Pontius Pilate” rolled off my tongue, I had to pause. Why do I often name this Roman governor in passing—this hand of imperial power that played a role in the death of Jesus? How can I miss its weight?

Then, I had to ask myself: Where am I? Suffering against the power of empire? Or unknowingly serving it?

Naming Pontius Pilate in the Nicene Creed ties Christ’s crucifixion to a particular moment in history. It reminds us that Jesus was executed by the evil of an empire built on domination and control—an empire that sought to silence the message of God’s kingdom: a kingdom where love is poured out, mercy is boundless, and justice is upheld, as revealed on Jesus’ cross.

For our sake, Jesus willingly entered into this suffering “under Pontius Pilate.” In doing so, he stood in solidarity with the oppressed, the outcast, and the marginalized. Through this act in Jesus, God calls us, the Church, to embody Christ’s faithfulness by resisting evil and proclaiming God’s justice in unity.

When we confess the death of Christ “under Pontius Pilate,” let us remember that the power of empire continues to persist today. It takes many forms—economic inequity driven by greed, systemic racism, environmental destruction, and indifference to human suffering. Where do we notice the brokenness of empire in our lives or communities? What’s one way we can respond with Christ’s courage and compassion in solidarity?

Christ calls us to resist these forces, to choose love and justice even when it costs us something. Yet here’s the good news: the story doesn’t end with empire or suffering.“On the third day, he rose again.” The scars that Jesus carried with him in Ascension remind us that God’s heavenly reign does not ignore the brokenness of this world. Instead, it bears its weight and transforms it. This shared hope binds us together as one body of Christ: God’s love is greater than any human failure, frailty, or fear.

May the words of the creed—“under Pontius Pilate”—inspire us, paradoxically, to live boldly: stepping out in love, standing together for justice, and walking as one body. May our shared lives declare: Life conquers death! Hope endures suffering! And love casts out fear. Amen.

Seyun Hwang is the Associate Pastor of Genesis UMC (Cary) and a member of CUIR.

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Photo by Albin Hillert, 4 October 2019, Geneva, Switzerland: Ecumenical Centre, Geneva.

An Offering from the Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships Team

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place this year from January 18-25. The theme is “Do You Believe?” and is based on Jesus’ conversation with Martha in John 11: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

The theme was chosen in recognition of the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea (325), at which the words “I believe” were chosen to anchor the Creed as an instrument of universal Christian unity. For each day during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the members of the Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships (CUIR) committee will share a series of devotions based on the statements in the Nicene Creed.

You can sign up to receive these devotions each morning in your email or view them on our website.

Day 4: For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.

The words of the wonderful Christmas hymn, “Once in Royal David’s City,” echo in my mind as I write this meditation. What does it mean to say with the hymn, “he came down to earth from heaven?” When we picture the babe in a manger, “little, weak and helpless,” it is hard for us to believe at the same time that he is “God and Lord of all.” Indeed, despite the many legends circulating in the Greek and Roman world about gods appearing in human form, the earliest generations of Christians seemed to be at great pains to show that the Messiah, the anointed one, God’s only son, had been born in a manger in Bethlehem. It took some three hundred years for the point to sink in that the Messiah, born in the flesh, was Jesus.

The son of God became incarnate or, as the gospel of John tells us, “the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (1:14). The Greek word that we translate as “dwelt” literally means to pitch a tent. The language harks back to the age of Abraham and Sarah, when Israel’s ancestors lived a nomadic life. That God should choose that same life in order to dwell among his people was an amazing thing for John and for those who put together the Nicene Creed. It should be an amazing thing for us too, that the Biblical language describes God choosing to dwell among us, not as in a palace or mansion, but as in a tent, sharing the ups and downs of ordinary life. Or, to come back to John’s words, “the word became flesh.”

God accomplished this by the work of his Holy Spirit and with the willing cooperation of Mary, who said, “my soul magnifies the Lord” (Luke 1:46). Mary’s life here reflects what every Christian’s life should be, a means of giving glory to God and lifting up God’s holy name. We do not know what special skills Mary had, or what her education may have been, if any, but we do know that she gave herself over to God’s plan for her life and gave birth to a son. “Nurtured,” as we say in the baptismal liturgy, “in the water of a womb,” he was born flesh and blood—he was incarnate.

All that is to say that God, the Word, became “truly human,” not just in flesh, but in spirit, knowing and doing all that we know and do. Jesus Christ knew the laughter of wedding celebrations. He knew the joy of having children close to him. He knew the puzzlement of his family when he chose to follow a path they found strange. He knew the pain of losing one of his closest friends to death. He knew what it was to be betrayed by another he had called a friend. He knew what it was to put his trust in God above all. All these things and more are a part of our common humanity, and all of these things Jesus knew, not at second hand, or in appearance only, but “in the flesh.” The writer of Hebrews tells us that he knew all those things so that he could offer himself for our salvation. And that is good news for us all!

Roderic L. Mullen is a member of CUIR and serves as pastor at Allensville UMC (Roxboro) and Mt. Tirzah UMC (Timberlake).

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Photo by Albin Hillert, 4 October 2019, Geneva, Switzerland: Ecumenical Centre, Geneva.

An Offering from the Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships Team

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place this year from January 18-25. The theme is “Do You Believe?” and is based on Jesus’ conversation with Martha in John 11: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

The theme was chosen in recognition of the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea (325), at which the words “I believe” were chosen to anchor the Creed as an instrument of universal Christian unity. For each day during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the members of the Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships (CUIR) committee will share a series of devotions based on the statements in the Nicene Creed.

You can sign up to receive these devotions each morning in your email or view them on our website.

Day 3: We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made.

“Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.”
Psalm 146:3

As the Council of Nicaea sought to bring about unity in the Church, the primary obstacle was the existence of differing beliefs about the nature of Christ. Was it homoiousios, as Arius argued, that the Father and the Son were of a similar nature and essence, or was it the belief asserted by Athanasius, that it was homoousius, that the Father and Son were of the same nature and essence? This was (and in some corners of the Church, continues to be) the most controversial question.

However, the boldest and most provocative statement in the Nicene Creed might be the words that begin this portion: “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ….” In the days of Christianity’s formation, the people were living in the Pax Romana, or the Peace of Rome. It was a long period of relative peace and prosperity in the empire, and the achievement of this time of peace was said by some to be a miracle, and the emperors were worshiped as if they were demi-gods. When they were born, missives were put forth to tell the “Good News” (or gospel) that they had been born. While they ruled, the coins of the empire bore their image and read, “Caesar is Lord.”  In other places the words even read, “Caesar is Lord and Savior.”

The early Christians did not come up with the language, but they coopted it to make their own claims about the Good News and about who is Lord and Savior; and in doing so, our ancestors merely passed on to us a very challenging political reality: no matter who is in charge and no matter what is going on, there is only one Lord and King – Jesus the Christ, who God placed “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” (Ephesians 1:21). As the psalmist describes how our Lord uses his power, we see a stark contrast to earthly leaders (Psalm 146:8-9):

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
    the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
    the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the strangers;
    the upholds the orphan and the widow,
    but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

To state the obvious, this is far removed from how we see power employed by our political leaders, who cast their lot with for-profit prisons, demonize the strangers, and beat down those who are already cast down. For those who claim the name of Christ, our faith calls for all other allegiances and loyalties fall in a very distant second place. We may love our country, but if we are going to be faithful to Christ, that love comes as the fruit of loving God with all of our hearts and loving our neighbors as ourselves. We owe our loyalty first and foremost to the Kingdom of Heaven; and because of that, we exist in a way as aliens and sojourners.  It is not an either-or existence, though. We have a kind of dual citizenship, which means we simply need to be able to keep our heads (and hearts) about us as we stand in the tension.

Prayer: O God, who exists eternally in the divine unity of the Trinity, we pray for an end to the divisions among Christians: that we may work together in bringing about healing and promote reconciliation as signs of the reign of Christ our Lord. Amen.

Shawn Blackwelder is the Lead Pastor of Genesis UMC in Cary and the Chair of CUIR.

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Photo by Albin Hillert, 4 October 2019, Geneva, Switzerland: Ecumenical Centre, Geneva.

An Offering from the Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships Team

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place this year from January 18-25. The theme is “Do You Believe?” and is based on Jesus’ conversation with Martha in John 11: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

The theme was chosen in recognition of the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea (325), at which the words “I believe” were chosen to anchor the Creed as an instrument of universal Christian unity. For each day during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the members of the Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships (CUIR) committee will share a series of devotions based on the statements in the Nicene Creed.

You can sign up to receive these devotions each morning in your email or view them on our website.

Day 2: Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen…

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”
Genesis 1:1-5

According to the Book of Genesis, the creation of heaven and earth begins in darkness, the kind of darkness that defies being named. It is the darkness before darkness, a darkness without form or substance, a fathomless deep, a cavernous void that doesn’t know whether it is or it isn’t. The historic doctrines of the Church insist that God created the universe out of nothing. In good Latin fashion, we call it creatio ex nihilo. Far be it from me to argue with the theological luminaries who formulated the belief, but the opening verses of Genesis give me pause. In reading the text, I do not see “nothing,” but nor do I see “something” (at least in the usual, material, sense of the word). There is a chaos, a defiance of definition, a crashing of tides, as reality attempts to become real, as the incoherent attempts to cohere.

In our daily living, we do not so much fear the primordial darkness or even the physical darkness. After all, we imagine ourselves too enlightened to fear the first, while a good light bulb vanishes the latter. What we truly fear is non-order and disorder. We live under the creeping suspicion that the forces of chaos, both seen and unseen, lurk just on the edge of our carefully constructed lives, awaiting an opportunity to unmake us. Like the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, writing at the conclusion of the First World War, we fear the “center will not hold.” We fear that we will not hold or be held. Yet, in the wind sweeping rapturously over the face of the waters, in the defining word of “Let there be light,” we encounter a God not subject to chaos, but a God who gives order, meaning, and function. We encounter a God who is in control, orchestrating the vast symphony of the universe, ensuring that discordant cacophony resolves into magnificent harmony. To profess, as the Nicene Creed states, that God is “maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen,” is to say that all being (or at least, all that we know of what it means to be), including the chaos that more than occasionally creeps in, is within God’s good order.

Prayer: Maker of heaven and earth, composer of all that is, tamer of tumbling chaos, we praise and thank you for giving order to our existence and helping us make sense of our lives. By your defining word, guard us from that which would unmake us, allow our centers to hold even in these unsettled times. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.

Rob Licht is the Pastor of First UMC of Sneads Ferry and a member of CUIR.

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Photo by Albin Hillert, 4 October 2019, Geneva, Switzerland: Ecumenical Centre, Geneva.

An Offering from the Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships Team

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place this year from January 18-25. The theme is “Do You Believe?” and is based on Jesus’ conversation with Martha in John 11: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

The theme was chosen in recognition of the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea (325), at which the words “I believe” were chosen to anchor the Creed as an instrument of universal Christian unity. For each day during this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the members of the Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships (CUIR) committee will share a series of devotions based on the statements in the Nicene Creed.

You can sign up to receive these devotions each morning in your email or view them on our website.

Day 1: We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty….

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
Deuteronomy 6:4

The Shema, a daily prayer and affirmation of faith for our Jewish siblings that has been shared with us, gives an important reminder in a polytheistic world. Depending on the translation you read, it may say, “The LORD is our God, the LORD alone,” or “Our God is the LORD! Only the LORD!” or as it reads above, “The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Read one way, it seems to call for loyalty and obedience only to God. Read another way, it is a statement about God’s unique nature, God’s one-ness.

I tend to take more of a “both-and” approach, integrating all of the translations in order to understand the fuller meaning. However, as we reflect this week on the beliefs that bind us together as Christians, the first statement in the Nicene Creed (UMH 880) affirms that we believe in one God. The LORD is one. As the creed expands upon the nature of God as Trinity, we find that this one God exists eternally in divine community, bound together by the power of love.

Reuven Kimelman, a professor of rabbinic literature, says that the Shema summons God’s people to feel “an all-consuming love of God.” It’s a love that is unreserved, all-demanding, at all times, in all places and in all circumstances. Nothing is excluded. Thoughts are to be focused, words are to be spoken, and deeds are to be done.

As those created in the image of the One God revealed to us in the Trinity, we are also called to this unique one-ness, which is made possible by this “all-consuming love of God.”

Prayer: O God, our God, forgive us when we focus on those things that make us different rather than focusing on you and your one-ness. May your all-consuming love bind us together in unity with all our siblings in Christ. Amen.

Shawn Blackwelder is the Lead Pastor of Genesis UMC in Cary and the Chair of CUIR.

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Photo by Albin Hillert, 4 October 2019, Geneva, Switzerland: Ecumenical Centre, Geneva.