From Pastor Johnson
Dear Peace family,
Every year on the Second Sunday of Easter (i.e., the Sunday after Easter Day), the gospel lesson is that beautiful story of Jesus meeting his disciples "behind closed doors" when he greets them, "Peace be with you." What a wonderful Easter greeting that is!
I’ve often thought that we should make that Sunday a special one here at Peace. Many congregations are named for one of the apostles—St. Matthew, St. Paul, etc.—and there are days on the church calendar that they can claim as their own particular "patron saint day." Our congregation is named "Peace"—and what better day to celebrate the congregation than one when "peace" is always the focus of the gospel lesson?
Add to that the fact that Peace’s "birthday"—the anniversary of the congregation’s founding—is in April, so the Second Sunday of Easter usually takes place in our "anniversary month." So it would be a fun time all around to celebrate our congregation and its history.
So the Council has declared Sunday, April 11, to be "Peace Sunday," and we’ve got some special things planned. We’ll be celebrating our 45th anniversary, and we’ll have a bit of a party that day. We’ll do it between services, beginning around 9:30 or so, so that everyone can conveniently come. We’ll have cake and special refreshments, a brief program about the history of our congregation, an opportunity to bid on a lovely painting of Martin Luther done by Joe Souza (money raised to go to the playground fund), and some time just to enjoy the day.
In worship that day, at the suggestion of the committee working on the celebration, we’ll use the liturgy from the Service Book and Hymnal, which was the hymnal in use at the time Peace was established. For those of you who are long-time Lutherans, that will be a stroll down memory lane. For the rest, much of that liturgy is close enough to one of the Lutheran Book of Worship settings that you shouldn’t have much trouble following along. Our composer-in-residence and current congregation president Darrell Crawford has composed a special anthem for that celebration.
So join us on Sunday, April 11, as we continue to celebrate our Lord’s resurrection, remembering the "peace" he bids his disciples; and as we celebrate in a special way the wonderful congregation into which he has called us, Peace Lutheran Church of Grass Valley.
Peace to you,
Pastor Richard O. Johnson
Classic Prayers
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
--attributed (probably wrongly) to St. Francis of Assisi, 13th century
Liturgy Notes: He Descended into Hell
The Lutheran liturgy generally includes the recitation of one of the ecumenical creeds of the church, either the Nicene Creed or the Apostles’ Creed. Here at Peace we generally use the Apostles’ Creed during the "green seasons" of the liturgical calendar, and the Nicene Creed during festival seasons (like Lent and Easter). The two creeds are similar, but with important differences. Recently someone asked why the Nicene Creed doesn’t contain the phrase "he descended into hell" that we find in the Apostles’ Creed. It’s complicated!
Let’s start with understanding that the two creeds arose at different times, and for quite different purposes. The Apostles’ Creed is technically the younger of the two, despite it’s name. The first time we find the text as it is today is not until the 8th century. That creed, which appeared in Spain or France. Charlemagne, the great French king and emperor, decreed that it be utilized in the liturgy in his domains, and from there it spread across Western Europe.
The roots of the Apostles’ Creed, however, are much deeper than that. The version that was "solidified" in the 8th century is actually a gradual expansion of what was probably used as early as the 2nd century in the church in Rome as a baptismal creed—in other words, it was the "confession of faith" offered by one who was about to be baptized. (This, incidentally, is why we always use the Apostles’ Creed at baptisms, and why it plays an important role in confirmation instruction.)
The Nicene Creed’s origin is clearer, and quite different. It was developed in the fourth century, first at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., and then revised somewhat at the Council of Constantinople is 381 A.D. It’s particular purpose was to combat a heretical teaching called Arianism which claimed that Jesus was not actually God , but a sort of "in between God and human" being. Thus in that creed we get all those phrases about Christ being "God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father." In one important sense it has a higher "status" in the church than the Apostles’ Creed, for two reasons: first, it is the only one of the two actually formally adopted by a Council of the whole church; and second, it is the only creed that is recognized by both the churches of the West and those of the East (i.e., the Eastern Orthodox churches). The Apostles’ Creed is recognized only by the western churches.
Now as to Christ "descending into hell": That phrase came into the Apostles’ Creed’s predecessors rather early, perhaps the fourth century. Historians do not know just why the phrase was added, and it is not at all clear what exactly what those who added it meant by it. There have been, through its history, two primary interpretations. (1) Some have seen it as simply a re-enforcement of the truth that Christ died. In this interpretation, "hell" isn’t a place of punishment so much as it is the Hebraic view of hell as the place of the dead. (2) Others—including Luther—have seen it more as part of Christ’s victory. Based on Scripture passages like the rather obscure 1 Peter 3.18, this argument understands that Christ—after his death but before his resurrection—visited hell and proclaimed the gospel to those who had died prior to his earthly coming. For Luther, the idea here was that Christ set free from hell all those who had been condemned.
Some modern translations of the Apostles’ Creed have rendered this article "he descended to the dead"—which may tend to "take sides" in the dispute over what the line means, leaning in favor of the first interpretation. Luther and Lutheran teaching clearly leans toward the second interpretation, however—that of an emphasis on Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the devil. That is one reason we here at Peace have continued to confess, when we recite the Apostles’ Creed, that "he descended into hell."