I and the Father Are One

I And The Father Are One.  Among the geekiest category of theologians, there is a special groan over their Christmastime spoofs (to say “jokes” would be too generous a word). Memes like, “St. Nick says, ‘Ho, Ho, Homoousios,’” and “He’s making a list, checking it twice, going to find out whose denying the full deity of the Son,” and one that assumes a retro Batman and Robin comic vibe where Robin begins to say: “Christ was not divine but was created by…” but is interrupted with a slap by Batman with the superimposed face of St. Nicholas stating, “Heresy!” (Just for fun, google: “St. Nicholas memes eternal procession of the Son.”)

No one laughs at these parodies except for a few dweebs who giggle for ten minutes. I must be ultra-silly since I have been smirking about it for over an hour. The beginning of the story, which the theologians take for granted, is required to land the punchline.

St. Nicholas, long before his memory was unfortunately merged with Christmas folklore, was the bishop of Myra (Turkey) in the late 200s, which was the same time that a heretic, Arius, was openly preaching a false gospel. Arius, from reports by his contemporary Athanasius, was known for shouting on street corners, “There was a time when he was not,” referring to Christ, whom Arius claimed was made into God’s Son later as a reward for his goodness, but “he was not equal, no, nor one in essence with the Father” (Athanasius, De Synodis, 15; On the Incarnation, 54). Christians had always affirmed that Jesus was someone distinct from the Father, in his personhood, which the Scriptures teach. Arius argued that Jesus was something distinct from the Father, in his essence, which the Scriptures do not allow. Arius, therefore, levied the use of the word, homoiousios, meaning: “of a similar substance” to describe Jesus’ essence, which is decidedly less than divine. Athanasius contended for the word homoousios, meaning: “of the same substance.” Ah, what a difference one letter makes!

Despite widespread persecution, the church was far more upset with the Arian Heresy. To put it to rest once and for all, the church fathers called for a meeting at Nicea (325 A.D.). At the Council of Nicea, Ambrose of Milan summed up sound biblical theology in his explanation of John 10:30. By combining the personal pronoun, “I,” with the definite and singular name, “the Father,” as the compound subject of the verb, “are” (present, active, first-person plural form of the verb “to be,” which denotes one’s very essence and existential state of being), Jesus’ conclusion is astounding: “I and the Father, [we] are one” (i.e., one and the same essence, yet distinct in person). The unverifiable story of the Council of Nicea was that when Arius showed up and began to spout his heresy, Nicholas slapped him full in the face.

“I believe in . . . one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”