"Why should I take you seriously?"

In my mind, this would be one of the worst questions that someone could ask especially if it was about something that I took very seriously in my life.  The reason that this would upset me so much is that, if I took something seriously in my life, but it wasn't readily noticeable to others, then it means that I really should question whether or not I'm really taking it seriously.

I think this question is really pertinent when it comes to matters of our faith.  In this regard, I don't think it really matters what sort of faith you have, or who you put your faith in.  If you hold firmly to your faith, and yet it isn't being reflected in your life, how serious are you really being about it?

Now, I understand that there is a distinction that needs to be made in this.  We can whole-heartedly agree with something from the standpoint that we think it is a good, relevant matter.  For example, I can think that it's a good idea to exercise if I want to keep my blood pressure under control, or to reduce the likelihood of some major heart condition.  It may make perfect sense in my mind, and I see the wisdom and logic of it.  I take it seriously.

But this brings me to the second distinction that needs to be made.  I can completely agree with it, and yet, do nothing about it.  I may read the research about how exercise reduces the risk for major heart conditions, and completely agree with it.  Yet, I may never get up off my couch and actually engage in the activity of exercise.  That doesn't mean that I don't take the matter seriously.  It may simply mean that I don't want to do anything about it.

The problem with taking this approach in the second distinction is that it seems to undermine my logical assent to the issue.  I may have a discussion with someone who sees me sitting on my couch day after day, and we start to talk about the benefits of exercise, and I can say I agree completely that it helps reduce heart risks.  And yet, to that person, the appearance is such that it doesn't seem that way.  After all, I'm not doing anything to show that I agree with it.

Which brings me to this major point.  People will take you most seriously when your thoughts and your actions are found in alignment.  If you say that you believe in God, and that you take your faith in Jesus seriously, and yet, there is relatively scant evidence of this in your life, then it will inevitably cause people to wonder if they really should take you seriously.  A failure to live out your faith makes it seem as though you don't take it seriously, even if you have a strong, firm faith.

That also brings me to another point.  We don't engage in the practice of our faith for our own personal benefit.  If, as a Christian, I believe that Jesus has fully forgiven me, and that I believe I should strive to live in such a way that reflects my faith and belief.  If I don't, then it appears hypocritical to those who may see the disconnect between what I say I believe and what I actually do.  So I don't do the things that are reflections of my faith for myself.  Rather, I take my faith seriously in its practice as a demonstration to others of the importance it has in my life.  And that's why it is so important that the two distinctions line up.  In that way, we live lives, as St. Paul says, "worthy of the Gospel," with an eye toward doing it for the benefit and good of our neighbor.

Planning and Preparation for a Project

Many of you may know that the past few years have found me pursuing a degree known as the Doctor of Ministry.  I have been taking classes and am now approaching the last one, to be taken next summer.  Outside of that class, all that remains is the conducting of my project, the write-up of which serves as the basic elements of my dissertation.

Part of my plan for the project will begin to be enacted in the life of the congregation I serve.  My tentative plans are to begin some major parts of it this fall.  For those who may be curious, there are a couple of interesting facets to what I want to do with the project, and the impact that I want to see lived out in the life of the congregation.

A big component of the project has to do with utilizing Martin Luther's Small and Large Catechisms.  One of the basic assumptions I am making as I begin the project is that many people simply do not fully know or understand even the most basic teachings of the Christian faith.  As I have pointed out in previous posts, Martin Luther wrote the Small Catechism in a time which seems to be a fair comparison to this day and age, especially in terms of knowing even the basics of the Christian faith.  It seems that making use of such a resource may be completely appropriate.

Additionally, my focus area for my studies has been in the field of "Missional Leadership."  What exactly does this mean?  It means that my focus is on how I can lead and equip God's people in growing in their understanding of the teachings of the faith, and then guiding them in the living out of God's will in their lives.  A significant part of this involves teaching the different doctrines, as well as demonstrating how they apply to God's people as they live their lives.

I am currently in the process of putting together the different resources that I plan to utilize for enacting the project.  It will require some fairly significant commitments on my part, and I'm hoping that a decent number of people in the congregation will also commit to following through with it.  In future posts, you will be hearing about some of the components, as I plan to make use of my blog to help me clarify my thoughts and plans, as well as to seek feedback and input.

"I could never do anything like that..."

Much of the news over the weekend revolved around the tragic shooting, deaths, and injuries that took place in Colorado late last week.  Our hearts and prayer go out and up for the people involved, for healing for those who survived, and for healing for the many families affected by these tragedies.

There is always a sense of dark intrigue when something like this happens.  As the details keep trickling out, it seems like this young man was planning his attack for months in advance, stockpiling weapons and ammunition, and then carrying out his plan on an unsuspecting theater filled with people simply out to enjoy some entertainment.

As you read and hear about this story, it's likely that you have wondered what could cause someone to do something like this.  And the thought has probably gone through your head at some point: "I could never do anything like that."  And to some degree, I will agree.  Most of us never will be able to bring ourselves to the level of action that this young man raised himself up to.

And yet, I would also dispute that you and I could "never" do anything like this.  Why do I believe I can say this?  Because I'm confident that every single one of us can think about a time where something happened that outraged us enough that we contemplated doing the unthinkable.  Someone cut us off in traffic, and we gave a momentary thought to running him or her off the road.  Someone said something that we really didn't like, and we momentarily wanted to hit them.

Sure, most of us may not take months planning out how to do something like this, but we HAVE found ourselves ready to react without thinking about things first.  When the surge of anger hits, we often have a tough time restraining ourselves (and in some cases, we may not have restrained ourselves). 

This brings to mind a word that Jesus said in Matthew 5 in talking about murder.  He said that anyone who is angry with his brother (and we can take brother to mean every other person in this world) is liable to judgment, and anyone who basically thinks of another as a fool (or an idiot or whatever your preferred term may be) is liable to hell. 

Admittedly, we're talking about two different things here.  God sees our sin as equally damning, no matter the depth or width.  Anything less than perfection is damning to the God who calls for us to be perfect as He is.  That's why Jesus can equate murder with anger, or with thinking less than charitably about your brother.

But the second thing is that God also has guidelines for our lives as we live in this world.  God's will still applies to our lives.  Murder will always be much more damaging to the human community than anger at another.  From our human standpoint, one is worse than the other when it comes to our relationships with our neighbor.  From that standpoint, the punishments for each should be adjusted accordingly.

The thing that I most hope that you take away from this post today is that, while you may not plan ahead to do something like this (though we do plan how to carry out our anger at others for long lengths of time), each of us has such a nature that can be driven by anger to do unspeakable things.

Are you a Convenience Christian?

Today was an interesting day in many ways.  Overnight, my three month old daughter slept for most of the night, about 7 1/2 hours.  Once we got her fed, I had to head off to the church building for our regular Sunday morning worship.  Usually, my wife and daughter show up for our later worship service, which begins at 10:30.  However, today proved to be a somewhat interesting day for them.  It seems the little one wasn't having a good morning.  Between poor feedings and short naps, she wasn't in a very good mood.  Nevertheless, my wife, like a trooper, loaded herself and the little one up for worship.  Even though the little one didn't make it through the whole worship service, they were undeniably there.

It would have been far more convenient for my wife to stay home with the little one today rather than come to worship with a combustible infant.  And the truth is, I wouldn't have blamed her one bit.  But that's where my wife really came through and showed how much her faith life means to her.  Even though it would have been far easier to stay home, she made the intentional effort to be with God's people and to hear God's Word.

I realize that I have to walk somewhat carefully when talking about this subject.  It's very easy to point fingers at people who spend the whole summer camping or boating or vacationing, basically seeming to put God on hold until it becomes more convenient.  Yes, I find myself wanting to point out to them that it doesn't seem that they take their faith very seriously when they so casually seem to dismiss the fact that God's will is for His people to gather together regularly.  And the truth is, I'm not even all that Nazi-ish about this topic.  I would hardly blame people for taking a little time to get away, especially since I know that the weekend is people's prime time to get away.

However, it really does seem like more and more people are what I'm calling Convenience Christians.  They will be in worship, or participate in the congregation's ministries, or contribute their time and talents when it's convenient for them, but not otherwise.  And the more I read through the Bible, the more I see that God has some pretty challenging things to say about that.  It seems that when His people neglect Him or take Him for granted, well, that's usually the time when He serves up a reminder about what's important.

Maybe some of you have dealt with Convenience Christians before.  Shoot, maybe some of you reading this are Convenience Christians, at least according to my definition.  My goal in writing this isn't so much to point fingers, but to serve up the reminder that one part of God's will is not to cast aside the gathering of God's people so casually, but to take it seriously.  Yes, it may not always be convenient, and you may feel that you will get more from doing some other activity.  But I also think that you would be hard pressed to show God how that is living faithfully according to His will. 

As always, I welcome responses, and realize that I may touch a few nerves with this.  I won't apologize if I did, but really want you to think a bit about what it means to take your faith life seriously.

God's Will in the Big Picture

How many of you were awake this morning to see God's will being done?  Which will is that?  The one where the earth rotates so that it seems as though the sun comes up in the east.  God's will is such that the earth rotates on its axis as it moves around the sun, and as the light of the sun touches the earth in its revolution, we have sunrise.  God's will at work right there!

I've also been aware of another part of God's will as I've sat in my office today.  It's summer, so the temperature keeps climbing as the sun races across the sky.  God's will is that the sun bring its light upon the world, and that, in turn, warms the world.  Sure, I might wish that God's will was such that the temperature wouldn't get quite as warm as it does, but in the warming of the earth, God's will is done.

Oh, and I should also mention that I took a little time to water my grass last night.  It was looking a little greener than it had been the few days prior.  Once again, that is seeing God's will at work.  When we water the living plants of this world, they grow.  That's God's will.

God's will is done on a much larger scale than what we can ever conceive.  Every day, as I drive in to work, I get to see the mountains that surround our little valley and city.  Those mountains are there by God's will.  And the earth rotates in a 24 hour cycle, not by random chance, but because it is God's will.

The seasons that I get to enjoy in this mountain valley also occur because it is God's will.  As the earth moves around the sun in its yearly journey, different parts of the earth get more or less sunlight.  This leads to beautiful falls here, as well as cold winters.  As our part of the earth starts to get more sunlight, the snow melts and the plants begin to grow.  All part of God's will.

I could go on and on, pointing out how God's will is active and working on a large scale in our world.  And part of the reason that I point this out is because it seems that we take this large scale work of God's will for granted so much.  We may get so caught up in our own little lives that we forget that God's will extends far beyond us.  And so it's good for us to have the reminder that God's will is being done in the world, even when we may not be able to discern some of the immediate ramifications that it has for us as we live our lives.  But for today, I hope that this reminder helps you look at the sunshine or the rain, the plains or the mountains, the sunrise and the sunset, and see God's will in action.

God's Will and What I Do

I have to admit that the thought has never really crossed my mind.  "What would God have me to wear this morning?"  Another thought that hasn't really ever entered my mind is "What does God want me to eat for this meal?"  Yet, I have read stories over the years about people who take the time to pray about these things, looking to God to seek His will about what clothes to wear, what food to eat, and other such things.

Let me get this clear right up front.  I am not intending to demean anyone who seeks God's will in regard to these things.  As I stated in yesterday's post, I really do believe that God's will is happening throughout this world, but that we won't always see what that will looks like (more on this thought in future posts).  And I don't want to say that God doesn't care about what we eat, or what we wear, since there are some food restrictions that God has put upon His people at various times, as well as some fairly specific detail given regarding some of the clothing options for His people, especially His priests.  Yet, I have to also express my belief that God probably doesn't have His will thwarted if I choose a colorful button-up shirt rather than a blue polo shirt.

Now, does God have a will regarding my life on any particular day?  I am absolutely positive of that.  Sometimes it may mean that what I wear will have a particular significance, and at other times, it won't.  I may never know how much my clothing impacts others, and if God is working His will through my clothing, I give Him all the credit, since He truly is doing it without any conscious effort on my part.  (And God does have a tendency to work in such a way, it seems.)

Yet, there is a lot that God has to say about my life each day.  I am reminded of that every morning when I awaken next to my wife, usually because I hear my young daughter moving around in her crib.  It's a reminder that God does will for me to be a good, faithful husband to my wife, and a good, loving father to my daughter.  God does indeed have a will for what I do in regard to them.

Likewise, as I leave for work, I find that God does have a will regarding that, too.  As a pastor, I have a God-given responsibility toward the people entrusted into my care.  God's will often leads me to pray for them, to be in contact with them, and to think about the plans that I make, the words that I speak, and the various activities I engage in as a pastor.  These all have a great deal of impact on the people that I have been entrusted to care for in God's stead, and God does indeed have a few things to say about that in the Bible.

In the same way, I also find that God has a will regarding the people I come into contact with each day.  Do I demonstrate a godly care and compassion toward them?  Am I truly loving my neighbor as I love myself?  After all, these are things that God makes clear in the Bible that I should be about on a daily basis.  Not just when I feel up to it, but as I come across those people in my life. 

You see, I find that there is a great deal of my daily life where God's will is lived out.  I'm going to have enough on my hands simply trying to keep up with all of this, much less trying to add the stress of seeking His will in what I wear or what I eat.  The reality is, God does have a will regarding much of what we do each day, which gives us more than enough to occupy our thoughts and time.

Teaching the Christian Faith Simply

Yesterday, I described some of the situation that Martin Luther faced when he wrote the Small Catechism and the Large Catechism back in the 1520's.  Many people couldn't read at that time, and from the visitations to the churches throughout Germany, Luther and the German reformers had discovered a great deal of ignorance about the Christian faith.  This led Luther to write the two catechisms that still bear his name as simple means of teaching the Christian faith to those who didn't really know its content.

It's kind of ironic that this same type of description could be used to describe our society today here in North America.  I say it's ironic because we live in an era of unprecedented access.  Just last week, I was playing around with my new Kindle and discovered that I could download the ESV Bible for free, along with at least one or two other versions.  For anyone with internet access, you can find pretty much any translation online.  And then, if you were so inclined, you could probably pick one up at any hotel that you stay at, just look in the nightstand drawers.

However, even though access isn't really a problem, it seems that most people don't really know what the Bible says.  Over the years, I've heard a number of comments that people would make and then confidently say that the Bible said it, or that it was God's own truth.  The truth is, most of what I've heard in those cases isn't in there.  Despite great access, it seems that most people don't really know much about the basics of the Christian faith.

This is where I see a great opportunity to make use of Luther's catechisms.  They aren't long dissertations that people will have to wade and muck their way through.  They are brief, to the point, and they describe the basics of the Christian faith to such a degree that anyone who believes what they teach can confidently claim to be a Christian.

Even though we live in an age of unprecedented access, teaching the contents of the faith simply seems to be a good approach.  It seems that we can no longer take it for granted that people know what the Christian faith really is.  I was reminded of this several years ago when I had a group of college students come to me, saying that they wanted to learn a little bit about the Christian faith.  I had some Bibles at our table for our first meeting, and asked them to open up to the Gospel of Matthew.  After watching them fumble around to figure out what Matthew was, and where it was in the Bible, I realized that I cannot take it for granted that people really know the Bible anymore.

That's where simplicity seems to come into the picture.  People tend not to spend a lot of time reading about something that may only hold their interest marginally. 

Discerning God's Will and Design

One question that Christians may face as they live their lives is the question of what God would have them do at particular times in life.  Many Christians face that question when it comes to things such as finding out who their spouse will be, or what to study in college, or whether God wants this particular job for me.  We want to know what God's will is when it comes to such things, and may even be tempted to believe that God has one perfect piece of the puzzle for each of these that we "should" choose.

One of the things we are trying to do when we ask that type of question is to discern what God's will is.  God is the one who has created this world, and everything happens in this world according to His will.  (Yes, I know there are those who will disagree with that statement, but anything less means God is not all-knowing, all-powerful, and that all authority has NOT been given to Jesus, which would make Jesus out to be a liar.)  So part of what Christians mean when they ask this question is, what is God's will in this situation?

I find this to be an intriguing question, not so much because I think there are black and white answers, but because it shows us that much of what God does in this world is "hidden" from our view.  What I mean by that is, the answers are not just plainly obvious in front of us.  If they were, then none of us would ever marry the "wrong" person, or take the "wrong" job, or study the "wrong" field.  We wouldn't find ourselves asking what the "right" thing is to do in any given situation. 

God's will and design covers so much more than I can talk about in one single post, so over the next few days, you'll probably be reading some of my thoughts on this matter.  But more than anything, I hope that even this preliminary set of thoughts gets you to thinking about those parts of your life where you try to discern God's will.  How do you go about doing that?  My hope would be that you are driven back to God's Word, the Bible, to see what He might have to say.  No, you aren't going to find the name of your future spouse in there, or what career He would have you take.  But what you will find is that He has a lot to say about how He designed you to live, and how He wills you to live your life.  Then, with that background, you can start looking at the various options put before you in life to see which opportunities allow you to best live according to that will and design. 

The Lesser Known Catechism

Quite a few people who were raised Lutheran know a great deal about the Small Catechism.  It may bring back memories of doing memory work, reciting commandments and explanations.  If you're like most people, you probably did that cramming on your way to confirmation for that day, and it may have leaked out almost as soon as you finished speaking it.

However, in general, I have discovered that most people aren't familiar with the Large Catechism.  Earlier this year, I started taking the elders of the congregation through it, and one of them mentioned that he didn't even know there was a Large Catechism, and he has been Lutheran all his life.  I really do wonder how little the Large Catechism is know.

In some ways, it makes sense that it's not as well known as its little brother.  The Large Catechism was written primarily for parish priests, giving them a guide to help explain the Small Catechism in their congregations.  While it's not written at a much higher level than was most people today could understand, it does go into a little more depth than the Small Catechism. 

Also, the Large Catechism spends most of its pages talking about the proper understanding of the commandments.  Over half of the book deals with the Ten Commandments, leaving the Apostles' Creed, Lord's Prayer, Confession and Absolution, and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper with relatively little press each.  For some, this may seem to give too much credence to the role of the Ten Commandments, though in future posts, I hope to supply some rather helpful ways of understanding why this is a good thing.

As a final thing, part of the reason that the Large Catechism may never have really caught on is because the Small Catechism is so brief and covers the basics.  Sure, there will always be points that theologians, pastors, and Christians can discuss and argue about ad nauseum, but the content of the Small Catechism is relatively straight forward, thus making it an easier resource to utilize in teaching.  But maybe, just maybe, the day will arise when the Large Catechism will begin to get its due credit as well.

Catechisms and Simplicity

In the mid to late 1520's, Martin Luther had already posted his controversial 95 theses.  There were already some sharp words being exchanged between those who followed Luther and those who held fast to the "Catholic" church of the day, led by the Pope.  And even though those events were fairly significant, there was also something going on in Germany which led to the formation of the Small and Large Catechisms that so many Lutherans continue to make use of today.

During the 1520's, the German reformers ventured throughout Germany to see what the state of the Church looked like throughout their nation.  To put it mildly, they were greatly disappointed in what they found.  (Now remember, this is a pre-literate society, and the printing press was just becoming a fashionable thing about this time.)  The people of the various parishes were rather ignorant about their Christian faith.  To make matters even worse, the priests at the local congregations didn't seem to know all that much more about the faith. 

This made the reformers rather uneasy.  So Martin Luther decided to do something about the sorry situation.  He undertook the task to create a small book of instruction, a catechism, that the head of each household could use to teach the people of his household.  Luther strove to keep the catechism simple, laying out simple explanations for the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, what Confession and Absolution (forgiveness) really is, and then describing the two Sacraments (sacraments as the German reformers had come to define) of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.  Using simple explanations that were pretty easy to memorize, Luther then made use of the printing press to distribute these throughout Germany.

For the priests, Luther decided to give a little bit more of an explanation, to aid them in the task of teaching the people.  For that purpose, he wrote the Large Catechism.  This catechism takes the same elements and describes them in a bit more detail.  By making use of such a resource, the local priests/pastors could then faithfully teach the message of God to the local congregation, who would then be reinforced by what they were (supposedly) learning at home.

Since there was such little knowledge of the Christian faith, Luther kept the catechisms brief, simple, and memorable.  Even on the smaller pages of the Small Catechism I have, Luther's contribution takes up less than 30 pages, and that's with well-spaced out words and sentences.  As an example, here is the first commandment and explanation.

You shall have no other gods.  What does this mean?  We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

Short.  Simple.  Easy.  Memorable.  It's the kind of thing that a father could teach his children in relatively short time.  And tomorrow, I'll go into a bit more depth about why I see this as important in our current day and age.

Catechisms and Their Need

Over the past few years, I have become more and more convinced that teaching the elements of the Christian faith need to be kept simple, especially when it comes to teaching people that are not all that well acquainted with the faith.  I shouldn't be surprised to know that I am not the first to make this discovery, nor is it surprising to find that there are already those kind of resources available, especially to Christians who are of my common Lutheran thread.

Those resources?  Luther's Small Catechism and Large Catechism.  Over the years, I have typically led my instruction classes from the Small Catechism and the Bible, and not found it necessary to include much more.  This is even more especially profound when you realize that Luther's Small Catechism is barely 30 small pages long.  I'll go more into why he wrote these books and why they take the form that they do in future posts.

The thing I have really come to appreciate about the Catechisms, though, is their simplicity.  Life is way too complex at times, and if we can keep things simple, that makes it much easier to understand and take in.  In the Small Catechism, you get six major points of Christian teaching (doctrine) that are simply, yet deeply explained, and all in a way that can be easily memorized.

As a doctoral student, the Catechisms are going to figure prominently in my final paper.  I truly believe that churches can do far worse than simply teaching people the Catechism and what it means for their Christian lives.  So for a while, we'll be focusing on some of the things that we can learn, as well as looking at how we can go about teaching some of these things.  As always, I will welcome your feedback, and may even follow up if I find it more helpful.  Who knows, you could also be included in my major project!