On Theology and the Christian Life - Cultivating Catechesis, Part One

A 19th century Lutheran pastor by the name of Theodore Emmanuel Schmauk once wrote, “The Lutheran Church is bound to apply the grace of God to her members from the cradle to the grave.” At St. Paul and Zion the time of year has come when Sunday school, confirmation, and adult Bible study begin anew. In addition to our weekly Divine Service, each of the aforementioned classes aid in what can be called the Culture of Catechesis.

From the earliest part of a Christian’s life and up to the time that he dies, instruction in the Christian faith is to be ongoing. The Christian is to be cultivated and not left fallow. Though I am neither a farmer nor the son of a farmer, if I understand correctly, land left fallow is for the benefit of the soil. Allowing it time to rest is for the betterment of its fertileness. (If I’ve gotten this wrong, those members of mine who are farmers can correct me). In any case, the Christian is not farmland that can ever be without the seed of God’s holy Word, and so he is to be constantly cultivated by it.

In view of this, I would like to offer to you, dear Christian reader, encouragement and instruction toward your own cultivation by devotion to the Word of God and to prayer. To that end, I will write a series of articles titled “Cultivating Catechesis.” I haven’t a clue how many parts it will be. All the same, I pray it is of benefit to you.

“Culture” and “catechesis” are the two words we’re here concerned with. I claim no expertise with regard to the word “culture” and all that is bound up in it, so I offer the insight of a more intelligent man, Anthony Esolen. He is a professor of English literature at Thomas Moore College and was interviewed on a podcast where he discussed the restoration of Christian culture. He remarked, “Culture, properly speaking, has to do with cultivation, in the sense of tilling soil. So you’ve got the soil there and if you let it be, it is just going to grow weeds. But if you till it and care for it and enrich it with fertilizer, you harrow it, you give it air, you grow things in it, maybe you rotate crops, you care for that soil — for soil is precious — and then you hand along that tract of land to your heirs who will do the same thing in turn. Maybe you plant a fruit tree whose fruit you yourself will not get to enjoy, but your children will and your children’s children will get the full tree in all of its glory. That kind of careful handing on of precious things from one generation to the next to the next to the next, that’s culture.”

The effort here described is how you ought to think of your life as a Christian. I pray God you are the “land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop” and not one that “bears thorns and thistles” and so is worthless (Heb. 6:7-8).

Cultivating catechesis is the goal. Catechesis may be an unfamiliar term to you, but it is thoroughly biblical. It comes from a Greek word that simply means “to instruct, to teach.” St. Paul uses it in Galatians 6:6. There he writes, “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.” It could just as well read “Let the catechumen in the word share all good things with the catechist.” So, what we’re seeking to cultivate is instruction in the chief articles of our Christian faith. That it is cultivated, again, means it is to be ongoing.

Pastor and people are together to learn more and more always of the fullness of God’s holy Word and grow thereby. The Scriptures refer to pastors as “the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops” because it is their life’s work to cultivate, first, in themselves better knowledge of the Christian faith (II Tim. 2:6). But note that when Paul says theirs is the first share, this assumes a second share will redound to the benefit of those they have been called to serve. The second share isn’t inferior, of course. It is just given and appropriated at a different time. This means, the pastor prays and studies a given text (first share) in order to preach and teach it to his people (second share) so altogether benefit from and are cultivated by the Word of God. Of course, the Christian laity is also to set aside time to pray and to meditate daily upon God’s Word. This is cultivation of catechesis.

Next week will be discussed the first realm wherein this cultivation should occur and what it is to look like. Remember, because of sin, we suffer from spiritual amnesia. We often forget God’s holy Word and what we have learned from it. So, our hearts and minds must continually be cultivated by the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures so that we grow in our understanding. Of chief concern is the preservation of the holy Gospel; that Christ Jesus has suffered, died, and rose again to forgive your sin, without any merit or worthiness in you. It is He who says “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). Amen.

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Pastor Marcus Williams

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Havre

Zion Lutheran Church, Chinook