“The deplorable, wretched deprivation that I recently encountered,” began Martin Luther. He had made official visits to congregations in Saxony and Meissen from late October, 1528, to early January, 1529. The “deprivation” was that people didn’t know the Christian faith. “Dear God, what misery I beheld! The ordinary person, especially in the villages, knows absolutely nothing about the Christian faith, and unfortunately many pastors are completely unskilled and incompetent teachers. Yet supposedly they all bear the name Christian.”
Is that also true today? Fewer Americans identify themselves as Christians while the “nones,” people who don’t identify with a faith, is steadily increasing. “I have my opinion; you have yours. Who are you to tell me I’m wrong?” But how many people today can quote, for example, the Ten Commandments? How many people today are biblically literate? You’ve heard people think they’re quoting the Bible, except what they quote is just some proverbial sentiment, not in the Bible. And it’s not just “out there.” Any pastor will tell you that this is also true for some in our congregations. In recent decades our country has drifted away from its traditional center, and one reason is that people don’t know basic biblical teachings. Maybe they don’t care. It is eroding our congregations.
So Luther wrote The Small Catechism as a way for pastors to teach the faith to their congregations. In the introduction he gave teaching advice, including this: “Once the people have learned the text well, then teach them to understand it, too, so that they may know what it means. After the people understand the First Commandment well, then take up the Second, and so on.”
The Small Catechism begins, “The First Commandment. You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? Answer: We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” What do Americans “fear, love, and trust” today? Who or what is really god for Americans? “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching” (2 Timothy 4:3). A heritage of the Reformation: Always be teaching the faith; always be learning the faith.
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