My cousin and Haiti

To anyone (or everyone?) who reads this thing: Please keep my cousin Kat, and her boyfriend and friend, in your prayers as she goes down to Haiti this Friday to serve the people suffering there. I definitely admire this act of courage and mercy, and I wish I could go myself. Here is the link to her blog for those interested:

Helping Haiti Heal

Overheard in the Public Square...

...well, sort of a "square." It was definitely in public though! Today, as I do a couple times a week, I was reading for an hour or two over at the coffee house just off campus, Kaldi's. Kaldi's is your typical hipster style coffee shop, but man oh man do they have some good coffee! And they also have some really nice people working there, and a ton of customers.

Today as I was reading for Confessions II, a large group settled in behind me as I was sitting on a stool looking out the window to the street with Concordia Seminary's campus in the background. I'm not sure what this group was all about, usually groups will come in to meet about class projects or something since the area is also home to Fontbonne University and Washington University. But as they settled in my ears perked up because one of the girls asked what that place was across the street. The reply was, "Concordia. Concordia Seminary." End of conversation. That did not bother me as much as it does now until I heard another exchange a little bit later on.

Their conversation turned to a situation where one of the older women with them mentioned the popular Christian band/ministry Hillsong United. The woman found their "recruiting" tactics and soliciting of funds a bit offensive. Unfortunately since I'm really there to read and not eavesdrop on people's conversations I tend to miss how these things start. But then it went into a full table conversation about Christians and their evangelism methods. There were things said like, "I don't think you should actively recruit for your religion," and that Christians are "cult-like." As if that wasn't rough enough to hear one of the guys told a story about a friend who went from not a Christian to converting to Christianity. Upon his conversion he cut off all communication with former friends because they were "sinners." But he didn't stop there, he also broke up with his girlfriend.

Laughter ensued. Laughter. Christians are irrelevant.

The book I was reading for Confessions II was on Luther's Catechisms as a way for teaching even in a 21st century context. I'm buying into the idea because Kolb, who teaches the course, and Arand, who wrote the book, are the type of guys who get it. But this still poses a tough challenge.

How do we catechize a culture in which Christian's (1) portray a negative image of themselves? and (2) are laughed off, seen as out of touch, and irrelevant?

This is a huge problem. Christians themselves have by and large created the stumbling blocks. It could very well be argued that this is mostly the fault of American Evangelicalism and not evangelical and catholic Lutheran Christians. But LUTHERANS are largely irrelevant to society. "What's that place?" Yeah, maybe it was an innocent question, but it speaks to a larger issue. Why don't people know who we are? Lutherans have to give a faithfully confessional witness in the public square. No more secrets.

(Note: I was overzealous about posting the Commandments, I will return to that at some point in the near future)

"What's that place?" I want people to know.

The Ten

In the Lutheran tradition the Ten Commandments are used for Christian instruction and teaching. The reason they are used is because of their reflection of the natural law which is written upon the hearts of all people. Over the next few days I will post on the The first 3 commandments. These deal with issues in relation to God specifically. In Luther's Small Catechism there is a formula for how to instruct people in the Ten Commandments. Luther puts each commandment from the scripture out there and then answers, What does this mean? In that section Luther gives us an interpretation of what the commandments mean. This is very helpful for instructing those in the Christian faith why the commandments should matter even to us this day. We are not saved by keeping the commandments, yet Christians show their fruits by performing works of the Law. These works are given to us by God himself (Ephesians 2:10).

In my Confessions II course I have to memorize the Ten Commandments, and their explanations (this is the more difficult task). So mostly for my own edification, but maybe even for yours I am going to be making posts on the Ten Commandments. Today we start with Commandments 1. Luther also has some pretty cool insights from his Large Catechism (we're so creative aren't we?), which I will be posting as I see fit. The text of the commandments is from Exodus (the 2nd book of the Old Testament), Chapter 20, verses 7, 8, and 12-17. You may notice some commandment order differences, for our purposes the commandments are ordered the way that I am ordering them (according to the Small Catechism), but I wanted to let you know of the slightly different ordering found in Exodus 20 incase you wanted to play along from home.

Commandment 1:

You shall have no other gods

What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

My commentary: One thing that will be noticeable is Luther employs this "We should fear and love God" formula for all of his explanations. The explanations commandments 2-10 begin "We should fear and love God so that..." Commandment 1 is the only one that does not include "so that." What is Luther aiming at here by saying "We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things?"

Large Catechism: A "god" is the term for that to which we are to look for all good and in which we are to find refuge in all need. Therefore, to have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your whole heart. As I have often said, it is the trust and faith of the heart alone that make both God and an idol. If your faith and trust are right, then your God is the true one. Conversely, where your trust is false and wrong, there you do not have the true God. For these two belong together, faith and God. Anything on which your heart relies and depends, I say, that is really your God.

The intention of this commandment, therefore, is to require true faith and confidence of the heart, which fly straight to the one true God and cling to him alone. What this means is: "See to it that you let me alone be your God, and never search for another." In other words: "Whatever good thing you lack, look to me for it and seek it from me, and whenever you suffer misfortune and distress, crawl to me and cling to me. I, I myself, will give you what you need and help you out of every danger. Only do not let your heart cling or rest in anyone else."

Book of Concord (Kolb/Wengert), Large Catechism, pp.386-387