Nerd Heaven

Pastor Esget from Alexandria, VA posted recently on Luther’s Small Catechism and how it should be the structure for our lives as Christians.

He says:

The Ten Commandments preach repentance, i.e., they show us our sin (2nd use of the Law, as a mirror), revealing to us that we are idolaters, misusers of God’s name, Sabbath breakers, people who dishonor parents, murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, and covet.

The Apostles’ Creed is just the opposite of the Commandments; the Commandments show us what God demands, while the Creed shows us what God does, gives, promises. So the Creed preaches faith, trust in God and His salvation.

The Lord’s Prayer, then, is our response to the faith preached to us in the Creed. In the Lord’s Prayer, we ask, in essence, that God would keep us in the pure teaching of His Word and help us to lead holy lives according to it (see the explanations to the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism).

This brings up a major problem in catechesis today. Many choose to split the catechism in half and cover one half one year and the other half the next. To break up the catechism removes the flow that Dr. Luther designed. To simply cover the sacraments one year without the 1st half does a disservice to our catechumens by removing the emphasis on the Christian life. In the same way, covering the Christian life and not moving through the Sacraments is dangerous as well.

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This entry was posted by admin on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 11:39 am and is filed under Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.