A new creed

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 A new creed 

“Nothing ever really picks up where it left off.” - GPS

We were at coffee, the first time in a long time because I’d been sick and Uncle Albert had been out of the country with Maynard [Mā-nä/rr] (See here.), likely the last trip to Paris for the 96-year-old fortunate traveler. Nils had been traveling this continent by bus and train, and Axel had been, first, off on study leave, reading about Melancthon’s disputes with Osiander and Stancari, then trying to catch up with everything he shouldn’t have missed while he was gone, even if he was supposed to have been “really gone,” keeping up with nothing at all. (“This is how it works,” he said, “‘leave’ in the church.”)

     Nils had a fold-over pamphlet on newsprint, not much bigger than a 3x5 card and printed in the usual red and black, he was passing around. “A New Creed,” it said on the front. On the inside-front an elaborated triangle; on the facing page, the words of the creed; and on the back at the bottom © copyright 2018 and underneath” The Ministry of the Minister of the Seen and Unseen Word.” (See the entire pamphlet by clicking the image below.)

He had gotten it, Nils said, at the bus station in Seeville, where he was waiting for Axel to pick him up at the end of his journey. “The Church,” the man who stood suddenly before him had said, had asked him to write a new creed.

     “I asked him,” Nils said, “‘Which church?’ And he said, ‘The Church.’

     “I gave him five dollars for it - he only had a few left, he said, and he needed something more than what he usually asked so he could print more.”

We looked at the creed: 

I believe in the One God

     Who before the beginning He was and He made the beginning and everything that came after, seen and unseen.

     Who the Air He was that blew across the waters and calmed them, that blew out of the prophets’ mouths into unhearing ears, that blew the seed that flew into Mary and grew there. He made the Church and all that was in it. He made forgiveness and for those that forgave he gave life, and for those that didn’t death.

     Who was born of the Air and the Virgin Mary, circumcized on the 8th day. He was killed on a cross. He died there. He was taken down and buried out of sight. But 3 days later he came to life again. People saw him eat fish and drink water. Then he went out of sight again of his own accord.

 

“How much did he usually ask?” Uncle Albert said.  

     “I don’t know,” Nils said. “It felt as if they were usually free.”

     “We should find him a sponsor,” Uncle Albert said.

08.05.19