Bible, Catechism and Hymnal - Pastoral Fun

Bible, Catechism and Hymnal - they go together to make Lutherans.

The catechization of the children has made it to the 2nd Article of the Creed here in Hamel, and I realized again today how enjoyable it is to instruct the chief parts of Christian doctrine when the children have had their hymnals in their hands to start each day of school and of course on the Lord’s Day.

Today, we were studying the incarnation of the Son of God, and because the children learn the hymns and liturgy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church it makes teaching the Bible and the Catechism so much fun. This week’s learn by heart Bible passage is St. John 1:14, and when we read the first chapter of John, to discuss the eternal divinity of the Son of God and His incarnation, we could naturally start singing “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” without our hymnals. We turned to St. Luke 1 and 2 to learn of our Lord’s conception by the Holy Spirit and birth of the Virgin Mary, and I intoned the Gloria in Excelsis and the children could continue on, plus they sang a bit of it in Latin for kicks (classical school and all). And of course they are learning by heart and singing Luther’s We All Believe in One True God. The doctrine they learn from the Bible, the doctrine taught and confessed in the Catechism - it is believed and sung. That is what Lutherans do, believe and sing - the Bible, the Catechism and the Hymnal.

Putting the teaching of the Bible, the Catechism and the Hymnal all together and using them all together in the instruction of the children is not only fun for the Pastor - it makes Lutherans out of the children. Isn’t that what we should be doing?