Credo (Dorothee Soelle)

I believe in God

who created the world not ready made

like a thing that must forever stay what it is

who does not govern according to eternal laws

that have perpetual validity

nor according to natural orders of poor and rich,

expert and ignoramuses,

people who dominate and people subjugated.

I believe in God

who desires the counter-argument of the living

and the alteration of every condition

through our work,

through our politics.

I believe in Jesus Christ

Who was right when he

“as an individual who can’t do anything” just like us

Worked to alter every condition

and came to grief in so doing.

Looking to him I discern

how our intelligence is crippled,

our imagination suffocates

and our exertion is in vain

because we do not live as he did.

Every day I am afraid that he died for nothing

because he is buried in our churches,

because we have betrayed his revolution

in our obedience to fear and authorities.

I believe in Jesus Christ

who is resurrected into our life

so that we shall be free

from prejudice and presumptuousness

from fear and hate

and push this revolution onward

toward his reign.

I believe in the Spirit

who came into the world with Jesus,

in the communion of all peoples

and our responsibility for what will become of the earth:

a valley of tears, hunger, and violence – or the city of God.

I believe in the just peace that can be created,

in the possibility of meaningful life for all humankind

in the future of this world of God.

Amen