Creed for Doubters

As we wrap up our two weeks on disorientation, doubt and deconstruction, it seemed appropriate to end with a poem about faith. In some ways, you get the sense that this is the poet’s attempt to put together what she can and still believes in during a season of deconstruction. Perhaps you can relate.

One way or the other, see if there is a line or two that stands out… and take that before the Spirit as an invitation to pray for your day.

Creed
Dorothee Solle (Berlin, 1969):

I believe in God

who created the world not ready made

like a thing that must forever stay what it is

who does not govern according to eternal laws

that have perpetual validity

nor according to natural orders

of poor and rich,

experts and ignoramuses,

people who dominate and people subjected.

I believe in God

who desires the counter-argument of the living

and the alteration of every condition

through our work

through our politics.

I believe in Jesus Christ

who was right when he

“as an individual who can’t do anything”

just like us

worked to alter every condition

and came to grief in so doing

Looking to him I discern

how our intelligence is crippled,

our imagination suffocates,

and our exertion is in vain

because we do not live as he did

Every day I am afraid

that he died for nothing

because he is buried in our churches,

because we have betrayed his revolution

in our obedience to and fear

of the authorities.

I believe in Jesus Christ

who is resurrected into *our* life

so that we shall be free

from prejudice and presumptuousness

from fear and hate

and push his revolution onward

and toward his reign

I believe in the Spirit

who came into the world with Jesus,

in the communion of all peoples

and our responsibility for what will become of our earth:

a valley of tears, hunger, and violence

or the city of God.

I believe in the just peace

that can be created,

in the possibility of meaningful life

for all humankind,

in the future of this world of God.

Amen