I
was reminded recently of this from John Updike (1932-2009) on the Apostles’ Creed:
I call myself a Christian by defining 'a
Christian' as 'a person willing to profess the Apostles' Creed.' I am willing,
unlike most of my friends – many more moral than myself – to profess it (which
does not mean understand it, or fill its every syllable with the breath of
sainthood), because I know of no other combination of words that gives such
life, that so seeks the crux. The creed asks us to believe not in Satan, but
only in the 'Hell' into which Christ descends. That hell, in the sense at least
of a profound and desolating absence, exists, I do not doubt; the newspaper
gives us its daily bulletins. And my sense of things, sentimental I fear, is
that wherever a church spire is raised, though dismal slums surround it, and a
single dazed widow kneels under it, this Hell is opposed by a rumor of good
news, by an irrational confirmation of the plenitude we feel is our birthright.
– ‘Picked Up Pieces’
One
might wish for something a bit more robust from Updike. I do. Still, I find his
almost wistful believing poignant. And there is something beautiful about the
idea that a lonely voice professing the creed opposes the powers of Hell with a
rumor of good news and “an irrational confirmation of the plenitude we feel is
our birthright”. Of course, that plenitude is our birthright. But we
traded it for the lentil stew of our sin and idolatry.
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