Book of Harmony

Spirit and Service in the Lutheran Confessions

Martin J. Lohrmann

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781506400181
• eBook ISBN: 9781506401102
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

The Reformation-era writings that make up the Lutheran Confessions remain lively resources for Christian ministry and mission today. Because each of the documents within the Book of Concord was written with a specific context and rhetorical purpose in mind, each has its own compelling story and objectives. Luther's catechisms present the faith for daily life at the grass-roots level, with teaching elements that we might now view as typical of social media and multimedia. The Augsburg Confession and its Apology provide an adaptable foundation for preaching, teaching, church organization, and dialogue that is rooted in the promise of Christ, received through faith. Fifteen years after the Diet of Worms, the Smalcald Articles reveal yet another "Here I stand" moment for Luther. Finally, the Formula of Concord shows how the next generations of Lutherans used collaboration and consensus as they wrestled with important themes of faith and life. In summary, as these texts engage us with their stories, they invite us to consider what is most important about our journeys of faith and Christian witness in today's twenty-first-century contexts.

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Luther’s Catechisms: A Lifetime of Learning

If you want to teach the basics of Christian faith, where do you begin? When confronted with the need to give Christian instruction in down-to-earth ways, Martin Luther presented people with a catechism.

Although “catechism” is not itself a simple word, it describes what it is and what it does. The word catechism has “echo” inside of it. In the early church, new Christians would echo back what they were learning from experienced believers. For centuries before Luther in the medieval church, the content of this instruction revolved around the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments; sometimes other prayers like the Ave Maria were added.

The goal was for all people to claim the central ideas of the faith as their own: learn it, live it out, and let it echo in and around them. Catechisms teach the faith in such a way that it will resound and re-sound in people’s hearts for a lifetime. While learning by hearing and repeating can sometimes seem like a shallow kind of rote memorization, it is also an ancient and effective way to learn something deeply. If you doubt this, just think of how many people today can remember their favorite songs or lines from movies through listening and repetition.

This chapter will show how Luther viewed his Small Catechism as a lifelong resource for faith, preaching, prayer, and stewardship. Similarly, his Large Catechism explains Christian faith in a way that is still engaging, understandable, and useful for pastors and adult learners today. Though they are not explicitly named, Lutheran themes of law and gospel, theology of the cross, and Christian service fill the catechisms. Additionally, although one might not consider a catechism as biblical commentary, each part of the catechism comes from the Bible: the commandments appear in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5; the Lord’s Prayer is in Matthew 6 and Luke 11; the institution of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are described in the gospels and St. Paul’s letters; and the Apostles’ Creed was viewed by the Lutheran reformers as a summary of the Bible’s teachings about who God is and what God does. In short, Luther’s catechisms present a thoroughly Bible-based Christianity accessible to a wide variety of audiences. All these years later, Luther’s catechisms remain vibrant spiritual and practical resources, based on the Bible and emphasizing the connections between faith and daily life.

The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments reveal God’s will for human life and establish the Lord’s covenant with the people of Israel.^[1] Beyond the passages in Exodus and Deuteronomy in which they appear, the commandments also provide the basis of much reflection and commentary in the Psalms and the prophets, as well as the writings of the New Testament. As Luther wrote about the first commandment, “the whole Scriptures have proclaimed and presented this commandment everywhere, emphasizing these two things, fear of God and trust in God.”^[2]

Luther also noticed that the commandments begin with what is most important and proceed from there, starting with God’s relationship with us. Thus the first three commandments teach people to honor the Lord with our hearts, words, and bodies: love the Lord above all else, speak truly to God and about God, and physically assemble to worship the Lord who made heaven and earth. The next commandments then address the most central aspects of human life: honoring parents and elders, caring for the physical lives of others (do not murder), supporting intimate relationships (do not commit adultery), respecting other people’s belongings (do not steal), and upholding the reputation and good name of those around us (do not bear false witness).

Finally, the commandments end with words against coveting. To covet means to want other people’s relationships or belongings for oneself. Luther interpreted these last commandments as aiming especially at the hearts of people who most want to be seen as righteous. Why? Because it is precisely such people who are most likely to invent schemes that have “the appearance of legality” in order to “cunningly filch something out of another’s hand so that the victim is helpless to prevent it.”^[3] Therefore, these words against coveting are not simple repetitions of “do not steal” or “do not commit adultery,” but rather warn even the most pious hearts and upstanding citizens to beware of their own selfish motives. In short, the Ten Commandments get to the core of who we are and where we put our trust.

What Does It Mean to Have a God?

In the Large Catechism, Luther started his discussion of the first commandment by asking what it means to have a god. In a time like ours, when the existence of God is routinely questioned, Luther’s discussion goes right to the heart of the matter. Not interested in theoretical proofs for or against the existence of God, Luther began very concretely: “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.”^[4] In times of trouble and need, where do we turn for life, goodness, and help? Where do we find our deepest identity and meaning? In what or in whom do we trust? Whatever it is, that will be our god. In the face of so many other competing interests, the first commandment announces a relationship with the one Lord who created the heavens and the earth and has given us life.

As mentioned above, Luther believed that the commandments begin with the most important and go from there. “Thus the First Commandment is to illuminate and impart its splendor to all the others.”^[5] When trust in God comes first, then right prayer and worship follow. When trust in God rules our hearts, minds and bodies, then we are free to care for the lives and welfare of our neighbors with no strings attached. When trust in God is lacking, however, then whatever else we do comes from the wrong motives as we seek life from something other than our creator. For this reason, Luther wrote in his 1520 tract The Freedom of a Christian:

You see that the first commandment, “You shall worship one God,” is fulfilled by faith alone. Even if you were nothing but good works from the soles of your feet to the top of your head, you would not be righteous, worship God, or fulfill the first commandment . . . Therefore faith alone is the righteousness of a Christian and the fulfilling of the commandments. For the one who fulfills the first commandment easily fulfills the rest of them.^[6]

Faith alone lets God be God and looks to the Lord for all good and for all life. Comparing that statement from The Freedom of a Christian with the Large Catechism written almost a decade later, we find Luther just as convinced that nothing but faith fulfills the first commandment.

This is exactly the meaning and the right interpretation of the first and chief commandment, from which all the others proceed. This word, “You shall have no other gods,” means simply, “You shall fear, love, and trust me as your one true God.” For where your heart has such an attitude toward God, you have fulfilled this commandment and all the others.^[7]

Here is our first example of the radical “faith alone” emphasis of the early Luther very much alive and well in the Book of Concord. Considering that the Large Catechism began as sermons in Wittenberg, we also get an example of Luther’s ability to explain what it means to have a God to the townspeople gathered in his congregation.^[8] The difference between true faith in God and false belief is not an abstract distinction for theologians to work out. It is an intimate personal question for all people to consider daily: to whom do we turn for life, goodness, and help?

Following the commandments themselves, Luther’s teaching puts trust in God first. If faith is not present, then we have put things out of order, despite our outward obedience to the other commands. That does not mean people cannot do nice or helpful things for their neighbors but it means that our motives will be faulty, beginning with the desire to play god and fix the world based on our own ideas and worldviews. This commandment excels at showing the presence of false gods in our lives, especially the ones that live in our own hearts. At the same time, the first commandment teaches that faith in God means knowing and giving thanks that life and love have already come freely to us from the Lord, out of pure grace alone.

Honor Your Father and Your Mother

The strong emphasis on the first commandment helps us understand Lutheran views of freedom, authority, and service. Luther taught obedience to earthly rulers as a value connected to the fourth commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.”^[9] Although he did not cite it in the catechisms, he often supported this elsewhere with New Testament verses like Rom 13:1, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.”^[10] Luther’s emphasis on respecting parents and other authority figures has led to the critique that the Lutheran Reformation taught an almost blind obedience to secular authority, giving Lutherans no basis for resisting unjust rulers or laws.

Ironically, however, Lut...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Introduction to the Book of Concord
• Themes in the Early Lutheran Reformation
• Luther’s Catechisms: A Lifetime of Learning
• The Augsburg Confession: Faith for a Grounded, Flexible Church
• Personal Faith and Shared Mission in the Apology
• Freedom and Service in the Smalcald Articles
• A Model for Harmony: the Formula of Concord
• Epilogue: The Lifelong Adventure of Faith
• Bibliography
• Index of Names and Subjects
• Index of Scripture