From my daughter’s “My First Hymnal” by CPH.

I was in the check out lane at the local grocery store a couple of days ago when my two year old happily blurted out, “I like to drink beer sometimes!”

“No, no you don’t sweetie.” I said with a smile, making sure the clerk and all the patrons in line behind us could hear. “Little girls don’t drink beer. Only mommies and daddies do.”

My daughter has been in this “parroting” stage for some time now. She repeats anything and everything Mommy and Daddy say, even when she doesn’t quite understand what she is saying.

When we confess together the historic creeds of the Church in the Divine Service, we too are engaging in a sort of “baby talk.” The Greek word for confess is homolegein (homo, “the same,” plus legein, “to speak words”). Homolegein: “ to speak with the same words.” When we confess the words of the Apostles’, Nicene and Athanasian creeds, the Church is saying back to our Father in Heaven what He has said to us in His Word. [1]

We don’t always quite understand the profundity of the words we speak, but, much like my two year old, we can’t help but to speak them with joy!

Like a champagne bottle ready to pop its cork, faith cannot be silent. We believe that we know something profound about God. […] We know who He is – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We know what He has done for us and for our salvation as our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. We believe there is good news to tell the world, that God has reconciled the world to Himself in Christ and invites all people everywhere to believe it, trust it, confess it. [2]

[1] Cwirla, William M. Preaching is Worship: the Sermon in Context, 129.

[2] Cwirla, 141 .