by Michiana Covenant | Apr 14, 2013 | Hermeneutics, Pastoral Notes, Patristics, Westminster Shorter Catechism
“Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand them as he ought.” (Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, 1.36.40)
If your interpretation of scripture does not result in love of God and love of neighbor, then you have not understood scripture correctly. Augustine is arguing that love is our primary hermeneutic. That may sound odd at first — but when you consider what Jesus says in Matthew 22:34-40, you are forced to agree with Augustine!
This Sunday we will be looking at the relationship between the moral law and the Ten Commandments.
Last Sunday we saw from Romans 1-2 how Paul tells us that the moral law includes two things:
1) everyone knows who God is — and that they are supposed to worship him;
2) everyone knows what God requires — and that disobedience deserves death.
Not surprisingly, Jesus says that the two great commandments of the law covers the same ground:
1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength
2) Love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus says, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” The Law includes the whole of the first five books of Moses. The Prophets include all the historical books. So when Jesus says that the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands, he is saying that the whole Old Testament can only be rightly interpreted by seeing what it means to love God and neighbor. If your reading of scripture does not bring you to love God and neighbor, then you need to keep reading until you get there!
by Michiana Covenant | Apr 7, 2013 | Pastoral Notes, Westminster Shorter Catechism
This week we will begin the second part of our catechetical sermon series. In part one (questions 1-38), we focused on “what man is to believe concerning God”; now in part two (questions 39-107), we will focus on “what duty God requires of man.”
We start with the law. This week we’ll think about the moral law — what does God require of everyone?
Then we’ll turn next week to Jesus’ summary of the law — “Love the Lord your God with all your heart… and love your neighbor as yourself” — and we’ll talk about how that relates to the Ten Commandments. Why does Paul sometimes speak so highly of the law and yet also insist that we are not under law?
Then we’ll go through the Ten Commandments and look at how they apply to the Christian life.
The last part of the catechism then works through the Way of Salvation: faith and repentance, together with the word, the sacraments, and prayer.
It’s worth pointing out that the Christian life is firmly grounded in the story that was told in part 1 of the catechism. I like J. Gresham Machen’s way of putting it in Christianity and Liberalism. The modernists wanted to say that “Christianity is a life, not a doctrine.” Machen replied:
“From the beginning, Christianity was certainly a way of life; the salvation that it offered was a salvation from sin, and salvation from sin appeared not merely in a blessed hope but also in an immediate moral change. The early Christians, to the astonishment of their neighbors, lived a strange new kind of life — a life of honesty, of purity and of unselfishness. And from the Christian community all other types of life were excluded in the strictest way. From the beginning Christianity was certainly a life.
But how was the life produced? It might conceivably have been produced by exhortation. That method had often been tried in the ancient world; in the Hellenistic age there were many wandering preachers who told men how they ought to live. But such exhortation proved to be powerless. Although the ideals of the Cynic and Stoic preachers were high, these preachers never succeeded in transforming society. The strange thing about Christianity was that it adopted an entirely different method. It transformed the lives of men not by appealing to the human will, but by telling a story; not by exhortation, but by the narration of an event. It is no wonder that such a method seemed strange. Could anything be more impractical than the attempt to influence conduct by rehearsing events concerning the death of a religious teacher? That is what Paul called ‘the foolishness of the message.’ It seemed foolish to the ancient world, and it seems foolish to liberal preachers to-day. But the strange thing is that it works. The effects of it appear even in this world. Where the most eloquent exhortation fails, the simple story of an event succeeds; the lives of men are transformed by a piece of news.” (pages 47-48)
by Michiana Covenant | Feb 17, 2013 | Catechesis, Pastor Peter Wallace, Pastoral Notes, Pastoral Practice, Psalmody, Sabbath
Jamie Stoltzfus linked to this article on Facebook (though it was Jacob’s comment, “Trying to picture Peter Wallace in plaid and skinny jeans” that called my attention to it and convinced me to read it!):
http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/
It is a good reminder of why we are doing what we do — and a challenge to work on doing it even better!
1) Why do the catechism quiz every week (10:10 a.m.)? Because we are working on instilling within ourselves (and our children) the basic grammar of Christian doctrine. Don’t assume that this is only for children. I never memorized the catechism until we started doing it at MCPC, but I find that the repetition is really helping me to get it stuck in my head and heart (especially as we have added the scripture memory verses). And for those who may say, “Yeah, I did that once,” — I would ask, “Do you still know it?” If not, come back, let’s do it again — and again — and again! Is it perfect? No, but if we wait for perfection we’ll never do anything!
2) Sing. Paul says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3:16). Notice that in Colossians 3, Paul isn’t talking about what we do in public worship — he’s talking about what we do in daily life! Do you know these songs well enough to sing them in your daily life? Do you incorporate them into your daily life? These are the sorts of customs and practices that sink deep into a person’s soul. If the only place you ever encounter this is on Sunday morning, then don’t expect it to get any further than one day a week in your life!
But Sunday morning is still a good place to start. Come and sing at 10 a.m. We generally sing through the most challenging piece of music that we’ll be singing in the morning service and work on it part by part. And as your children get older, bring them along to work on parts as well (and for those without kids, find a kid — or an adult who wants to learn how to sing — and take them under your wing to help them along). If you want to know how to sing better, stand next to [or in front of] someone who sings well.
And yes, we are planning on making sure that we have enough copies of the new psalter that you can have copies at home!
3) Talk with others about the sermon. Go deeper. Think together about what the scripture says about who Jesus is and what he has done. Let his story become the center of your conversation (it is, after all, the center of everything else!). Use the order of service throughout the week to encourage your daily prayers at home and with others. I include it here in the pastoral notes so that you can make use of it. Obviously, if you already have a thriving family worship time, then there is no need to alter it for this — but if you are looking for a place to start, it may help.
4) Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The point of the Sabbath has to do with how we think about time. God said to work for six days and rest on the seventh. Do we set aside our labors for a whole day? God did. This was the pattern of creation. No, we don’t keep the same Sabbath as Israel (and we shouldn’t think about the Sabbath in terms of the whole Mosaic code — any more than we should think about theft in the same way as the whole Mosaic code!), but how do we use time? In the same way that we give to God the first of our produce, we should give to God the first of our time. Are we calling the Sabbath a delight? Or are we so focused on our own agendas that we squeeze God’s time out? Again — these sorts of practices and customs are crucial for shaping our life together before God.
Obviously, if these practices and customs do not really touch the core of our lives, then the children will see it — and will decry it as the hypocrisy that it is. But if they see the joy of the Spirit in us — if they see our thankful obedience reflected in our grace-filled walk, then perhaps by God’s grace they, too, will walk with us in the way of Christ.
by Michiana Covenant | Apr 15, 2012 | Catechesis, Pastoral Notes, Westminster Shorter Catechism
At 10:00 a.m. every Sunday morning we have a our weekly singing practice and catechism quiz. This week I would like to suggest some reasons why you should participate.
I should start by providing some background: around eight years ago, the elders decided to have a weekly catechism quiz, working through the Shorter Catechism together. We decided that if we were going to have the children memorize the catechism, then we should do it together with them. Since then we have worked through the Shorter Catechism four times (next fall we will start on our fifth time around!). In this last cycle, we have added a really helpful practice of memorizing a couple of scripture verses each week that show where the scriptures teach the doctrines of the catechism.
I would especially like to address fathers and mothers in the congregation (though others may take note as well). If you are like me, then you did not grow up with the catechism. I was a latecomer to Reformed theology and only started memorizing the catechism eight years ago with my children. Since I didn’t grow up with the catechism, I didn’t think of it as something that was very important — but there are a number of observations that I have noticed over the years:
- The catechism provides a vocabulary that overflows into other conversations as well. I cannot count the number of times that we have talked about “the estate of sin and misery”! When dealing with sin, the catechism’s exposition of the Ten Commandments encourages both the memorization of the Ten Commandments, and the application of the commandments in daily life. Likewise, I frequently use the language of the catechism now in talking with my children about repentance and faith. And because they have worked through it many times, they are beginning to understand what it means.
- Parents often wonder, “if they don’t understand the words, what’s the point?” Well, they probably don’t understand the words “hallowed,” “debtors,” “substance,” or “apostolic” — but we still teach them the Lord’s Prayer and the Nicene Creed. And over time, as we continue praying, confessing, and reciting, we learn more and more about them. If you wait until they understand the vocabulary before you use it, some other vocabulary will have already taken root in their hearts. Language plays a powerful role in shaping the way we think.
- Catechism memorization works best when it is connected with regular family worship. We have also included it in the children’s home-school work, but when Daddy is also working with the kids on their catechism, it makes a big difference. And when you show up for the catechism quiz on Sunday morning, you send a major signal to your children (and for those without children — you send perhaps an even louder signal!) that this is important.
- The discipline required to keep the practice going in our home for eight years has been useful in other areas of life as well. Family worship, catechism memorization, elder visits — all these things are part of an “older” way of doing things that our culture has rejected — a way of living that embodies the principles of the scriptures and seeks to exhibit them publicly in the life of the church.
And particularly as fathers we are often so busy with our careers — with “providing” for our families — that when we have time for our children, we just want to “have fun” with them. But what do we communicate to our children that way? That “fun” is the meaning of life? If we are to teach our children the great works of God — if we are to lead them in loving God with all our heart, all our soul, and and all our strength — then leading them in the study of the scriptures is our first priority. And the catechism provides a really useful summary of the biblical teaching on “what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.”
