Well, this is Keith and this is Ben, and this is Main Street Lutherans. We're going to start with an announcement here real quick. We're going to adjust the order of things every once in a while. And so today we're going to put an announcement at the front and see how this goes. So our plan is to be at the festival of Homoletics May 13 through the 16th in Pittsburgh. If you want to learn more about that, it's festivalofhomeletics.com. The they have both live in person tickets and they have a virtual ticket. If you're in seminary, they've got an instant discount for you. I think you have to email them to get a code. If you can make it to Pittsburgh, we'll be glad to see you there. Let us know through our email or social media and we'll be there. If you've never heard of it before, take a look, look at some of the videos about it. It is a four day festival of preaching and so there are lots of things going on there. I am most looking forward to the trade show floor. I am in search of an ALB and I did not know just how expensive they can get, especially for somebody who's six foot three and a little bit wider than a normal person, right? Yeah, I might have to trade in a car or something, but we'll get there today. As you probably saw from the title, we're going to talk about Luther's small catechism. Moving into that, I was thinking about what christian education meant, Lutheran style, as we're growing up and what we're doing now in our churches. I'll start. I went to a Lutheran school in Marysville, Ohio. Trinity Lutheran Church has a school that's pre kindergarten through 6th grade. And I went there for that whole, know, shout out to Mrs. Berger and Mrs. Scheider and all those folks. After that, we went almost directly into confirmation and we did a rote confirmation. So we did Luther's small catechism, memorized both the things in it, and we'll talk about those here in a little bit and the explanations. So we memorized the Ten Commandments, the apostles creed, the Lord's prayer, and had to recite them back. And then I went to Capitol from high school and got a lot of college. We had core religion class we had to take, but I also majored in a little bit of religion. And then most of the churches I've been members of have had adult education along with their children's programs.

Yeah, I had almost the exact opposite experience with a little bit of overlap in the middle. So the story that I hear from my mom and eventually from the woman who was the Sunday school teacher was that I went to the children's Sunday school class in my home church in Glenrock, Pa. Zion Lutheran Church, that I went to their Sunday school class the first day that I was old enough to go. I don't know if I was like four, five years old, whatever. And I kind of sat and quietly cried through the entire class, and I never went back, just. And I literally never went to Sunday school again until I was in college, I think, when Ben and I met at Calvary, I mean, other than occasionally dropping in here and there.

Wow.

My grandmother's church or something in the life of the congregation. So I did do first communion, though, and confirmation in my home church. I think I've shared some stories about some of that. But we did not memorize the small catechism we did practice. I can't say that we memorized it, and we certainly did not stand up in front of the congregation and recite it in the confirmation service. But we did spend time learning, by memory, the Lord's Prayer and the apostles Creed, I think because they're commonly used in worship, and the pastor just thought that would be sort of helpful from a hospital.

And they're kind of easy, aren't they? I mean, if you say them, every.

Of the. I have very few memories of my confirmation experience in classes, but I do remember one day Pastor Tom had us sitting around the table. There was like six or eight of us in my confirmation class. We practiced the small cat or the apostles creed by going around the table and reciting it one word per person at a time as we went around. So first person would say I and the next person believe and the next person in. And it was actually a fun little exercise and really tricky, but we got through it. That may be the only thing that I recall from my confirmation classes as a child. So it worked, apparently, yeah. So I did participate in adult classes in my college church, and then, of course, as a pastor in various places I've been, I'm frequently either teaching or kind of dropping in on or guest speaking in adult classes here and there.

No, I forget. What was your major at capital?

English lit.

So what did you think of the required religion class? Did it do anything that was Lutheran?

No, they did not. And it wasn't like a comparative religion class. Like, the core religion class was like sort of the nuts and bolts of Christianity. But what I remember of it was that it was mostly Bible focused, but from a very Lutheran perspective, I would say.

But I don't think you would have known that if you weren't Lutheran.

No, I didn't know that until kind of conversations alongside and afterwards.

Right.

Yeah. It wasn't overt. It was just. You were immersed in that worldview, I guess. Yeah.

How does St. Matthew's do education?

So, you know, like a lot of things, the pandemic has changed us a lot. And I don't want to belabor the changes, but to say what it is now we have a fairly typical menu of classes. It's a more concentrated program, I guess you could say, than it used to be. We have a single children's class that is for grades K or one. I forget if kindergarten is included in this or not through fifth grade. So my daughter Gretchen, who is in fifth grade, is attending that most Sundays. And then our youth group doesn't officially start until 9th grade, but our youth group advisor is a wonderful guy, has a really broadly welcoming way of bringing people, of drawing people into youth ministry. And so as young as 6th grade, he encourages people to come and try youth ministry programming that meets Sunday mornings and sort of takes the place of Sunday school for that age group certain weeks of the month. And then we have some adult classes as well. What do you guys do at unity?

Unity. It's sort of part of my internship. Right. Since we have a half time pastor, there's not really a lot of excess time in that schedule to do extra stuff. So I am taking on a couple of things. So I'll be teaching a class here pretty soon on. Pastor Carmen is calling it Lutheranism 101. And so we're going to use the book. We're going to talk about a little bit here, Luther, small catechism, but a particular version with african descent reflections. Talk about why I think that's a good book for us to use. The second one is I'm going to teach a Bible study and sort of open for folks who can't attend the evening Bible study, which is our Wednesday night service. It's less a service and more a Bible study, but it has communion and confession and that built into it. So it's sort of a hybrid Bible study service, which is kind of fun. People who can't make to that we're going to do an afternoon thing because they don't want to drive in the dark. We're coming up on the time where dark doesn't happen till 10:00 but we're still a few months away from that so we'll do something there. I'm going to probably lean heavily on the bible project videos, and so we'll actually do bible text study using that as our focus point.

We have a Wednesday morning Bible study. I didn't mention that. We frequently use those videos as reference points. Yeah, they're a great free resource. Do we have a link to that in the show notes?

We'll certainly have a link to bible Price.

That is a really great free resource.

Absolutely. And they've covered so much, and I haven't found any problems with it so far. But moving on to the Luther small catechism. You want to summarize why we have Luther's small catechism?

Luther actually tells us why we have a small catechism, and it's a pretty funny reason, and I don't have it in front of me, the text of this particular piece. But in his original edition, there was an introduction that Luther had written that explained why he was writing this catechism. And it uses words like, I have finished a tour of the country and discovered the deplorable state of the knowledge of most of the people in these country congregations, and even priests who don't know the first thing about the Bible, about theology, about the traditions of the church, the sacraments, the Ten Commandments, the prayer, et cetera. And so Luther wrote the small catechism in response to this kind of state of things in his time. He actually intended it for use not in Sunday school classes or even confirmation classes, but in the home. He wrote it for parents to use in teaching their children about the basics of the faith. There's roughly a half dozen or ten different subjects that he covers in the catechism, and each bit presents whatever it is, like, say, the Ten Commandments, and then each of the Ten Commandments has Luther's explanation of it. And those are fairly brief. When you get to communion and baptism, the explanations are a little longer, but you're still talking a page out of in a very small book, like a pamphlet sized book. It's thicker than a pamphlet, but it's like that size of pages. Yeah. So it's really a primer, or primer, depending on which side of the pond you're from about. Not really Lutheran theology, except that it is. But it's really Luther's understanding of the sacraments, the Ten Commandments, the know, we've.

Talked a few times already about the use of the means of grace. I keep getting the name of that wrong. This is sort of Luther's version of that. At the very beginning. But it has theological explanations. But Luther probably didn't differentiate the pragmatic side from the theological side in many cases.

I don't know if we've ever mentioned Luther's works before in these segments. Luther was an obnoxiously prolific writer. Luther's works, which really is a set of volumes of everything that Luther wrote, because, you remember this guy was just getting into action right around the same time as the printing press. And so we actually have copies of the things that he wrote, everything from sermons to lecture notes to the small.

Catechism letters to the pope.

Yeah. The documents that he wrote alongside the other reformers. Yeah. And some of his know. So Luther's works, if you've got, like, the typical library bookshelf, it literally takes up like three an. It's like the size. Know if you're old enough, like I am, to remember them. The Encyclopedia of Britannica sitting on a shelf. That's what Luther's works looks like, right?

Indeed.

So the small catechism, thank the Lord, is not that it's a single booklet that really was intended for teaching young people as they're kind of coming of age, about the basics of the faith in conversation with their parents. With that in mind, just one thing that I'll mention that we do at St. Matt's that's. That's kind of new for us. We've been doing it for a few years and it's really been fun, is we invite, really, we expect, but we invite parents to attend confirmation classes with their child. That has so deepened the conversation. Frankly, it probably won't surprise you. Most of the adults are even more engaged in the kids. But what that also allows for is that we know those conversations are continuing in the home, in the car, afterwards, wherever. And even if they're not happening in the moment, these same thoughts are on parents minds, and you know that they're being more deliberately faith oriented as they're helping their kids grow up in the church. And so that's been really cool for us. We found that beneficial. So what about the fact that now the catechism is 500 plus years old? Actually, no, the catechism itself is not.

Just yet, but we're probably 500 years old.

Yeah. The reformation is 500 years past. Is this stuff still relevant? Is it still worth looking at?

That's the funny thing, is that when looking through the small catechism, there really is nothing that Luther wrote in there that has been taken out. We talk about modernity. So the modern movement in religion, in Christianity, happens early 20th century, and a lot of stuff sort of goes by the wayside. Things that we actually see pop back up. But when we talk about Bible things and theology things, a lot of times the look at the historical Jesus in particular causes a lot of problems with theology. And Luther's theology is really not affected by that, because Luther is good enough in his Bible, and that's why he starts the reformation, is that he's read his Bible and he knows it inside and out, that Jesus is Lord and savior, no matter what kind of historical approach we take to it. That the way that Luther read the scripture was very similar to how we read it today. So we understand it for its time and we understand it for its purpose. And one of the fundamental pieces for Luther is that he believes that humanity is flawed, and so anything humanity creates is also flawed. And so the Bible itself has problems. It is still inspired by God, but it is not inerrant. He understands that, and that's how we understand it through this system. So it holds up quite well as far as versions. Now, of course, we don't read it in the German. I'm sure my parents probably might have had to. Their churches were English speaking, but some churches around them were german, and so they would have probably read it in German. But the translations are fairly straightforward. The German is not affected by the age quite the same way other languages are. So we get a good translation of it in English. But when it comes to versions, as far as what to do, you can buy a pretty plain booklet style that just has Luther's writings in it. I got one with confirmation that we memorized out of the one I'm going to use for my class is called Luther small catechism with african descent reflections. Now, the first time I heard about that, I expected something that was like a liberation theology thing or a black theology thing. And while there are elements of that, there are elements of that in all of our theology these days. But the reflections in this are just contemporary reflections on what Luther wrote. And what I most appreciate about this is that it only pretty much doubles the size of the book. No more than that. It's not long explanations of Luther's explanation as I was looking through it. In particular, the first article on creation from Luther's apostles creed explanations. I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. And then Luther answers, what is this? What does this mean? And then two paragraphs.

Right.

I believe that God has created me together with all that exists. God has given me and still preserves my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all limbs and senses, reason and all mental faculties. In addition, God daily and abundantly provides shoes and clothing, food and drink, house and farm, spouse and children, fields, livestock and all property, along with all the necessities and nourishment for this body and life. God protects me against all danger and shields and preserves me from all evil. And all this is done out of pure, fatherly, and divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness of mine at all. For all this, I owe it to God to thank and praise, serve and obey him. And, of course, Luther's sign off. This is most certainly true. And the first article, reflection, is actually shorter than that. And it says, I believe I am somebody who has dignity and worth and who receives all I need for my earthly existence. I believe God sits high and looks low and is worthy of praise and glory. I believe God liberates me from all evil and provides a shield around me and does this without me doing anything except believing in the preserving power of the creator, having faith and praising and serving a mighty and wonderful God. This is most certainly true. So that's just an example of what's in that book. And I think it adds some depth that if we just read Luther's work, it doesn't have the meat on it. Luther wrote the small catechism with the purpose of having the family read it and discuss it.

Right.

And then go to church and answer questions at church, perhaps. Right. If we pick this up now, we expect our kids to read it and then come in and ask questions, and then whether they have questions or not, they'll be quiet.

Right. Right.

So people are more likely to pick up a book like this and read it on their own. This adds a little bit of discussion to it already.

And it does bring in that sense of a modern perspective, not in an academic sense, but in a real world. These people are reflecting on these words from the same time in which we live now. That does add a little bit of. I don't know if relevance is quite the right word, but it gives us a touchstone that is a little more contemporary to our own sense of what these words. Yeah. Yeah. I really think it's a great resource. I was glad when Ben pointed me to it.

Yeah. I pretty much had to force Keith to steal one from, so he did.

Which I enjoyed very much, which we'll.

Have to read that commandment here.

Right.

So what do you think? Can it still be used for catechism?

I think absolutely. Not only does the contents still the contents of the small catechism still pretty much outline the exact same topics that we discuss in catechism classes as know the apostles'creed, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, et cetera. I still think it approaches it from a way know, one of the most brilliant things about Luther's theology is also one of the most frustrating things. He won't tell you what to think. We live in a world where we like to be told what to think, or we at least like people trying to tell us what to think so that we can tell them, no, you should think this instead. And Luther just doesn't do that. And so he just sort of names what is and then says, what do you think? And I think that's especially given that we do this typically around age like 13 1415 and maybe even a little bit older. And as I said, we have adults in our confirmation classes who are older than that. And it really stirs a response. It really makes you think and ponder and reflect on the power of just the first sentence in the Lord's prayer, for example. Because Luther breaks down each one of these tenets of faith and looks at them bit by bit, and I do. I think it's absolutely still the heart of what we're trying to teach young people and really what we're trying to teach about our faith to anybody of any age.

Yeah. Part of what spurned this episode into being was that I was addressing a question about what the essence of Lutheran theology is and whether somebody felt like or thought they would be comfortable coming into a random elca church. And I added a side note that I thought that if someone wanted to take a look at the core of Lutheran theology, that they should pick up the small catechism, and in particular this version, because of what it has. Because they're not going to be in dialogue with other Lutherans in reading this. They're going to be doing this on their own. And so I suggested this, and it got me thinking about it, because my son, his confirmation class was all Bible stories, right? They just did a tour of Bible studies, of Bible stories. And I thought that didn't have the depth of what I appreciated most of my Lutheran education anyway, my catechism classes. The thing that also brings this as a topic is, I think we need to explain why we use the confirmation, the catechism questions as our sign off for each episode. It starts with, really, that it's something that hopefully, Lutherans will commonly understand, that they have the ability to answer the question, for one. Right. And it's something that we all have in common. At least that's our hope. And I think that makes it something we can all sort of get around.

Yeah, I think that it also gives us a chance to kind of take a snippet of our faith and make it approachable in conversation with others. Right. And make it a little bit interactive. And again, help people to be thinking about this stuff themselves. Not that we're telling them what to think, but offering them the opportunity to think for themselves.

Right. And I started with this idea. This was part of the original pitch I had for anyone who listened about this podcast. So we started out with some questions that I found on some silly quiz thing online, and then we moved to writing some of our own questions. But now we're using actual questions out of some sort of catechism curriculum.

Right. Well, it's the catechism curriculum that exists in my head.

Okay.

So I've been teaching confirmation classes for so long at this point that I've used lots of different resources over the years, and over time, they've become sort of oatmeal in my hard drive, and there's a little bit from here and a little bit from there. And one of the stronger influences, when I was first teaching in ministry, it was sort of a trend at the time, and really solid pedagogy, honestly, was a guy named Rich Melheim, a curriculum called Faith incubators, and it was a Lutheran based catechism curriculum. And one of its teaching tools that it relied on heavenly were these quizzes. They were all multiple choice. They were generally in the format of one or two sort of silly, throw off answers that you knew weren't right, one or two that you thought could be. The idea was that you're teasing out that people tend to know more than they realize. And so he would have one of these in every single episode of his large group time. And so some of the questions have come from there. Some of them have come from the same technique that I've used myself. Do I know which ones are which anymore? Not a clue. But what we've been working through, slowly are 20 years worth of me teaching confirmation classes. And it's been fun, and we've actually been. And I just before we started recording this episode, we had to start thinking to ourselves, which ones of these have we used before? So that we don't repeat, and so that we get a little bit of variety of the content. So they're not all about the ten commandments or all about the Lord's Prayer or something. Yeah. So. Or d the reason he never left the house again, ever. So, Ben, what do you think is the answer?

Oh, man. I think if I remember right, we sort of, like, choose multiples. Right? Because wasn't he going to have a travel channel show where he didn't ever eat?

Could be, yeah. And yet it was going to be a travel show from his home, which you could do. Now that we went through a pandemic, we know what that would look like.

That's right. But it was disillusionment with the church, for sure.

It was indeed. Yeah.

So our new question for this week, in nailing his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg's castle now, realize churches these days, their front doors have glass in them. And so this wouldn't work anymore. It'd have to be 95 postits. But in mailing the 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg's Castle church on October 31, 1517, Luther hoped to, one, start the Protestant Reformation, two, create a debate on the college campus where he taught, and three, create a name for himself and a fat publishing contract, perhaps even a brand new podcast. Or four, create a new religion entirely. So, as always, answer that question for us. Please be interactive. Send us an email, send us something on social media, and we will hopefully announce a winner on our next episode. For this question, it only takes one of you to get started.

That's right.

So Main Street Lutherans is hosted by Keith Fair and Ben Foat. You can reach us by email at [email protected]. Our website, which has episodes of the podcast and soon will have some links that you might want to reference. That website is mainstreetruthrins.com. We're on the socials as mainstreet Lutherans right now. That's Facebook, Instagram threads, and YouTube. The show is produced by Folk media Productions. The other part is, if you can join us at the the festival of Homiletics in May, we'd love to see you. Let us know through any of those methods. All right, until next time, go in peace. Serve the Lord.

Thanks be to God. Bye.