BE CHILDISH
It is no coincidence that the catechism we still use today was put together at the height of the Reformation. It is no coincidence because the Catechism contains the main teachings of Scripture that the Reformation was all about. It is a summary of what God says in his Word and that was what the Reformation was bringing people back to. And so as the leaders of this Great Return to God’s Word realized that more and more Christian people and entire congregations were beginning to come back to the clear and simple teachings of Scripture, they knew that their children would have to be taught these truths as well. And so in 1529, Martin Luther gathered up all of the sermons and treatises he had written on the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, confession and forgiveness, and he put these summaries of the Bible’s words into a book that we now call the Small Catechism. And from then on, for the next 480 years up to this present day, genuine Lutheran churches all over the world have used this summary of Scripture to train their children in the main and most important teachings of God’s Word. The Small Catechism is one of the greatest blessings that the Lord has preserved for us out of the Reformation of 16th century Germany. And it is a great blessing not because the Catechism is simply a nice historical document. And it is not a blessing because it is a book of Lutheran teachings, but because it is a book of Scriptural teachings.
Sadly, the majority of the people in this world do not believe the scriptural teachings that so many children have been taught over the last five centuries. Even the brightest individuals around us fail to see the truth. There are scholars in this life that know the Greek and Hebrew of Scripture inside and out. The have gained their doctorates in the languages of the Bible and are immersed in the words of God every day. But despite all of their learning, many of them refuse to believe a basic truth found in the Apostles’ Creed: that Jesus is the Savior of all their sins. They deny something that the smallest of children know is true. What Jesus said about those who lived in his day is still true in ours: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”
There are intelligent people in many different fields that are the best at what they do. They are the geniuses of our time. They are the ones looked to for answers and advice and solutions. But despite all of their knowledge, many of them fail to recognize the Lord as the only true God, the only true Creator, the only source of everything good. They ignore the very 1st Commandment - a command that little children across the world know by heart. What Jesus said about people in his day is certainly still true today: “You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”
There are people in our lives that are blessed with an extraordinary amount of natural wisdom. They are never surprised. They know exactly how things work. They know exactly what to do, exactly how to do it, exactly what to say, and exactly how to say it. But despite all of their talents, they scoff at the teachings of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. They dismiss as ridiculous the idea that God would forgive sins through water and bread and wine if they are combined with the right words of Scripture. They laugh at something that little children have no problem agreeing with. “You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” And it will always be that way. The supposed “intelligence” of people, their learning, their ability to reason deductively, their logic, their desire for scientific proof will always get in the way of believing the clear words of God in the Bible.
And so I encourage you today to be childish. Be childish when it comes to the teachings of Scripture. Don’t grow up! Don’t graduate from these truths that we find in the Catechism! Don’t think you know them so well that you can now leave them behind and move on to the bigger and more complicated things that God says! Because although these summaries of Scripture found in the Small Catechism were originally written for children, they were not written only for children. They were written to be learned at childhood and then to be studied for the rest of our lives. Even Martin Luther, the author of the Catechism, the one who gathered up these main teachings of Scripture and put them in book form, said, “I must still read and study the Catechism daily, yet I cannot master it as I would like, but must remain a child and student of the Catechism. This I do gladly.” If Martin Luther had to remain a child when it came to the basic teachings of the Bible, we probably should too. And so be childish. Study these teachings laid out for children. Review them. Memorize them. Cling to them just as a child would. Because less childish we become, the more our faith suffers.
When we are told as children that the 4th Commandment means that we should “honor serve and obey” parents and all those in authority, we don’t question that directive. We as children might not be able to carry that out perfectly, but we know and believe that we were supposed to honor and serve and obey anyone who is placed over us. There is no debate. But as we grow up, and as we begin to see the faults and sins of those who are placed over us, that Commandment to serve and obey all those in authority is a little tougher to swallow, isn’t it? My boss is an idiot, so why should I listen to him? My government is unfair, so why should I pay all of the taxes that I don’t agree with? My parents are getting older and more senile, so why do I have to honor them and respect them when they don’t even know what they are talking about anymore? The older we get and the less childish we become with the teachings of Scripture, the harder it is to accept the things we so firmly believed in when we were younger.
In the Apostles’ Creed we were taught and we still confess that “God still preserves me by richly and daily providing… all I need to keep my body and life. And God also preserves me by defending me against all danger, guarding and protecting me from all evil.” And when we were children, it was not a problem for us to believe that. If God said he would provide and protect and defend us, we knew he would, we didn’t worry about it at all! But as we grow older, and the more we run into sinful people and sinful disasters, the harder it is to trust that this promise of God is actually true. We start to worry about the bills - Is God really going to preserve me? because I can’t see how I’m going to get out of this mess! We start to become discouraged about our health - Is God really going to guard me against sickness? because this pain is unbearable and he won’t take it away! We start to stress out about the future - Is God really going to protect me and those I love? because this situation doesn’t look like it will turn out for the good! The older we get and the less childish we become with the clear teachings of Scripture, the harder it is to believe what we so firmly trusted in years ago.
As children, we heard that when every-day water was connected with specific words of Jesus, our sins were forgiven. And we were taught that when normal bread and wine were connected with Jesus’ words of institution, the bread and wine also became Christ’s true body and blood - and again for our forgiveness. And we were fine with that! We didn’t question the logistics of the sacraments as children. We didn’t try to figure out how something so impossible could be true. We simply took the Lord at his Word. But his words about baptism and the Lord’s Supper don’t make sense to a logical mind. They don’t fit any formula of scientific proof. In fact, what Scripture teaches about baptism and the Lord’s Supper seems to defy everything we have come to know about this world and how it works. And so the older we get and the less childish we become with the clear teachings of Scripture, the harder it is to believe what we so firmly trusted in when we were kids. There are many times that we fail to be childish with the Bible. We question, we doubt, we scrutinize, we waver, we even criticize the Lord’s Word and his will at times. That is not being a child of Scripture; that is being an enemy of Scripture.
And so thank the Lord that he still treats you like a child! He does not treat you like an adult: like one who can handle things and who is held responsible for problems when things go wrong. He treats you like a child who is completely dependant on his Father. He does not demand that you keep his commands and believe his Word perfectly in every respect. He does not ask you to earn your keep if you are to remain on his good side. He does not require you to be able to explain every teaching perfectly in order to get to heaven. He does not tell you to take the first few steps and he will carry you the rest of the way. Nor does he give you a jump start as long as you do your part in the end. Rather, instead of treating you like you can do it yourself, the Lord says, “You can’t keep my commandments perfectly? Then I will come down to this earth and keep them perfectly for you. You can’t take the punishment that your sins deserve and survive? Then I will take the punishment your sins deserve and be victorious. You can’t die and rise from the dead? Then I will die and rise from the dead so that you will be able to do that one day as well. You can’t fight off all of the temptations in this life, guard yourself against all of the evil, protect yourself from all of the pain, and deliver yourself from all of the dangers? Then I will fight of the temptations in this life. I will guard you from the evils. I will protect you from the pain. I will deliver you from the dangers. And I will do this for you because I am your Father and you are my child. I am your Father. You are special to me. I am your Father. You are precious in my sight. I am your Father and I will never let you down.”
In the Small Catechism there is an explanation for each part of the Lord’s Prayer. The explanation for the very first phrase, “Our Father who art in heaven,” says this: “With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true Father and that we are his true children, so that we may pray to him as boldly and confidently as dear children ask their dear father.” The Almighty God, Creator of the Universe and everything in it, is also my dear Father. And he has sent his Son who, the Catechism says, “has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death.” And not only that but he has sent his Holy Spirit who “has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith… [And] on the Last Day he will raise me and all the dead and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.” This is most certainly true! It is a fact! It will be done! It is what I believe. It is what you believe. And we believe these things because this is what God tells us in his Word. He does not say these things to the wise and intelligent. He does not whisper these things in the ears of the brilliant and the scholarly, but to you and to me - his children.
And so keep being childish. Never let go of these precious truths of Scripture that secure your salvation. Take that Catechism off the shelf and use it as part of your personal or family devotions. It is not necessary to do so, but it will be very beneficial to your faith. And if you do not own a catechism or if your catechism has long been placed in a box never to be found again, ask me, ask Pastor Haberkorn, ask Pastor Cornelius. We will find you one. We will be more than happy to order you a Small Catechism as well as the Large Catechism for you to use, for you to study, for you to soak in as often as possible. It would give us no greater joy than to see God’s children being childish. It is my prayer that none of you ever grow up when it comes to God’s Word. I hope I never do either.
Amen.
“May the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” - 2 Thess. 2:16-17
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