Every Combination

Have you (like me) ever been locked out? With the frigid cold, winter weather that’s befallen Iowa right now, this is not to get locked out in the cold. My office is on the far east side of our church building, and conveniently there is an exterior door with a keypad that’s just one short step from outside temps to inside my office with my warm space heater. That is–as long as I remember the right combination. 

Sometimes I slip up. Sometimes I punch the wrong number in. Sometimes I realize that I don’t actually know the code, I just remember the pattern. I become acutely aware of this when my wife asks me to remind her of the code. My access code has become muscle memory, and it seems like I’ve forgotten the specific. But the specifics are important. 

That’s why the Athanasian Creed is such a valuable part of our confessional tradition. It cares deeply about the specifics, aiding the people of God who all too often get mixed up. The opening lines of the Creed its purpose: “Whoever desires to be saved should above all hold to the catholic (universal) faith…That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity, neither blending their persons nor dividing their essence. For the person of the Father is a distinct person, the person of the Son is another, and that of the Holy Spirit still another. But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal.”

I’ll be the first to admit that the Trinity can be a confusing doctrine: God as three Persons in One, such that there are not three gods but One in “tri-unity.” We’ve all heard illustrations and metaphors that have tried to liken the Trinity to something in our experience–a three-leafed clover, water (as liquid, solid and vapor), and egg (with its yoke, white and shell)--but all of these ultimately fall short. We get mixed up. We know the Persons, we know the pattern through catechesis, but occasionally, we need a reminder. 

This is why the Athanasian Creed is a gift. At length and with great specificity, Athanasius in responding to the heretical teaching of Arius, details the relationship between Father, Son and Spirit, such that there is nothing left to wonder, no confusion, and no misunderstandings. If you’re struggling to understand the doctrine yourself, or struggling to teach it to the next generation, instead of turning to analogies that will always fall short, what if we were to turn to an ancient creed that’s stood the test of time?