I’m really thankful for my parents slogging us kids off to church every Sunday. My memories are vague of the many years ago, but I remember sitting pretty much up front (or actually, as an altar boy, being up front). I can only imagine what it was like herding upwards of six kids off to St Mary’s.
Growing up Catholic, I was familiar with the word “catechism.” It’s what we used to do in the church basement before the main event upstairs. I can’t remember much of it of course (except for maybe the smell of the church kitchen and fresh-brewed coffee), but I know it set some foundations for me. I think it taught me a lot about who I am in relation to others and how I should treat them.
It seems in today’s (American) society this is being replaced by a more secular narrative, and I’ve kind of railed against that on this blog. It seems obvious to me that without God, we’re really actually free to do with others as we wish, at heart, to do. As much as the non-believer might want to think that his own definition is all that’s needed to assign value to others, they really can’t give me the “why?” Their golden rule is vague to me – more like the variation “don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you.” Yeah. “Please don’t kill me and I won’t kill you.” But that doesn’t really work for me. History is filled with examples of entire societies assigning “value” to certain groups of humans, and it really didn’t go well for those groups.
But it’s all they have, because the golden rule as given by Jesus means positive action. It means taking a look at yourself and saying “I’ve actually got to give of myself if I want to fulfill what Jesus is saying here.” And I should expect that, considering Jesus gave of himself entirely. But in today’s world (and throughout the course of humanity’s history actually), it’s more about “what’s in it for me?” Well. I don’t want to get killed, so I’ll treat the rest of society likewise. And, more often than not, the rest of society reciprocates.
I guess I go all this way to say my Catholic upbringing gave me a good sense of the basics of God’s demands of how we treat others in his context. But I think it fell short in other respects. And I’m not blaming just the Catholic faith in that. Most contemporary Protestant “Sunday School” curricula do the same. Cute little Bible stories. Morality plays. Examples of how to live your life just like David, out there slaying giants and all (but let’s not mention the adultery and murder stuff). We’re teaching kids that “Father Abraham, had many sons,” and “I am one of them, and so are you, so let’s all praise the Lord!” But what in the world does that mean?
It wasn’t until I’d been a Christian for quite some time that I discovered something deeper – the Catechism and its real meaning and purpose. I guess it was hiding in plain sight behind my Catholic understanding of it. Early catechisms in the Protestant church were designed to flesh out the faith in detail. They did that – and still do – using a question-and-answer format, generally covering things like the doctrines of God, the ten commandments, and prayer. The Catechism of the Catholic Church left that format for a straight up narrative of doctrine and beliefs. It’s an incredibly useful book, but it’s not really meant to be a volume for the instruction of the church’s laypeople – it’s over 800 pages long (688 without appendices and indexes) and would take years to get through with any thoroughness.
By contrast, the New City Catechism – a teaching tool put together by a group spearheaded by Tim Keller – is a list of 52 questions with answers that can be covered in-depth over the course of a year (and then again the next year, and so-on). It covers the basics of the Christian faith in 3 parts – God, Creation & Fall, Law (Q 1-20); Christ, Redemption, Grace (Q 21-35); and Spirit, Restoration, Growing in Grace (Q 36-52).
And it asks questions that matter. Questions that we take for granted. Like – “What is God?” You get the answer to that one down, you’re on your way. Or how about “How and why did God create us?” “What is sin?” “How can we be saved?” “What is faith in Jesus Christ?” and “What hope does everlasting life hold for us?”
I myself prefer a little more, so I’ve been through the Westminster Shorter (a couple of times) and Heidelberg Catechisms. They both come in over 100 questions, and so they’re more thorough. But they still cover the same general material. The Heidelberg’s three parts are “Our Misery,” “Our Redemption,” and “Our Thankfulness.”
I’ve long been a fan of these catechisms since discovering them some years back, and I’m really quite puzzled by their lack of use in today’s church. I see small groups, Sunday schools, and church programs covering just about everything from finance to divorce to porn addiction. But I seldom see someone saying “hey, let’s spend a year learning about the very purpose of your even being here.” I think this is one of the problems with the church today. It makes the mistaken assumption (and quite foolishly so) that the people in the pews know this stuff, when in fact far too few do. And this absolutely should be the assumption of church leaders. They should know better than anyone else that a lifetime of serious study barely makes one qualified in this stuff. It shouldn’t be hard to imagine what less than a lifetime of only getting it once a week will do for you.
Our church does a “family verse of the month.” You can never go wrong with good scripture, especially when you’re encouraging your people to memorize it. But what good is that when half the church doesn’t even have a good grasp on the author’s overall plan? I’m not saying you’ve got to have it down pat in order to be saved (and I’m also not saying that half of the church I attend doesn’t get it). But if you are saved, it would do you well to know the what, how, and why of that salvation. As I’ve mentioned recently, Peter tells us to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” That sounds like a scriptural command, and I don’t think it can be answered by a verse a month. That can be a start, but there’s something to be said for depth in getting that answer.
This all reminds me of the adage describing the difference between giving a fish and teaching to fish. If simply sitting in a pew and coming away with a good feeling every Sunday is your way of being fed (having someone “give you a fish”), you’re falling short. Knowing why the man up front is saying the things he is, getting into it once you walk out the doors and applying it to your own life, and then being able to tell others what it’s all about is knowing how to fish. A solid education in the fundamentals of the faith – through a catechism – will go much farther in getting you there than a few good moralistic stories.
You can explore most every catechism on line. The New City has a great app and website. Others like the Heidelberg and the Westminster are easily available and useable too. Catechisms are also wonderful Bible study tools, as they usually back up what they are teaching in great detail through multiple Bible verse references.
http://newcitycatechism.com/
https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/confessions/heidelberg-catechism