Back to the basics: the amen

“Amen.”
~The Apostle’s Creed


We are in the final week of the Easter season, which concludes this Sunday with the celebration of Pentecost. This event marks the release of the Holy Spirit onto humanity in a new way after Jesus ascends back to God the Creator. Although the Easter season is over, it is far from the end of the story; just like the “amen” at the end of our prayers does not mark an end but rather an exclamation of hope and faith in what God will now do with the prayer we have spoken.     

This “amen” is how we conclude the Apostles’ Creed as well. It is the Hebrew word that means “it is true,” and it is our way of affirming that the words we speak in the Creed represent the truest understanding we have of the Triune God. It is the truth that remains after we have stripped away all the extras humanity has layered onto God—sanctifying our theology, as it were, in the same way sanctification strips us down to our truest selves. To borrow a modern term, it is a deconstruction of our faith back to its foundation. 

In essence, it is much like the work of Jesus Himself or Martin Luther, both of whom confronted the man-made, institutional accoutrements that distract from the core of God and God’s relationship with humanity, sometimes in extremely harmful ways. We opened this blog series with a discussion about how Christianity is in a season of winter when we are called back to the core tenets of our Christian faith. However, we must avoid the temptation to become dormant, our faith dying within us. Rather, we are called to bear witness to the truth of God laid bare like the stark branches in a winter forest, honoring the winter as a necessary reset before planting anew upon the empty garden beds of our hearts and churches. Spring is coming; and with it the breath of the Holy Spirit is breathing life anew into the seeds we plant. So scatter the seeds of faith far and wide and enjoy the colorful bloom!