Catechesis is not a class. . .

The older I get the more uncomfortable I have become with the way we routinely equate knowledge with faith.  Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to catechesis.  It has become a largely cerebral activity rather than one located in heart and life.  We think in terms of how much or how little people need to know to become members of this congregation instead of rooting and planting them where the means of grace nurtures the growth and brings the fruit to bear through them.  This is profoundly revealed in the way we teach the faith to youth and adults -- as if we were imparting merely a set of answers or a body of knowledge.  Catechesis not simply passing on a body of knowledge but it is infusing their lives with the Holy Spirit through their life together around God's Word and Sacraments.  Apart from this, teaching the faith by teaching a body of knowledge accords with the rampant individualism that marks us Christians today and makes it easier to believe by making it about how much you believe instead of who.  We are not saved by what we know but by whom we know and who is known to us as He has promised.  Finally, it encourages the hidden faith that lives in sincerity or words or feelings instead of by the revealed Lord present among us by the means of grace.

For us Lutherans this has resulted in an ever growing small catechism that seems to expand with every edition and along with it the body of knowledge that must be conveyed.  It has become a book to memorize rather than a devotional entrance into the faith and a life long pattern of learning and growth.  It is manifest in the question of how much we must convey to adults who seek to join our fellowship.  It ends up with a decision instead of a confession.  The reality is, of course, that catechesis is not the domain of the classroom but within the Divine Service.  It is less instruction than it is entrance into the holy mystery of God's saving love and mighty work of redemption imparted to us by His Word and Sacraments.  Within the liturgy we find our home and the vagabond people of God rest.  Through the ordo the Lord bestows upon us our identity as His own baptized people and beckons us to follow Him along His way.  Our life together in song does exactly this.  Our prayers raised together do this.  Our ears hear the Word preached and taught into our hearts not as an idea but the God and man Jesus Christ who accomplished all things for our salvation and for the salvation of the whole world.  Our communion upon the Body and Blood of Christ is not a private moment or act but the family meal gathered around the family table.  Catechesis is not a class but our life together in worship.

New member instruction is less about what information needs to be supplied to them than it is a faith introduced and a new life together with the people of God begun.  Sadly the fruits of our desire to impart knowledge without connecting the catechumen to a life of worship and prayer have betrayed us.  It ends up that people do not stay nor do they find the need or desire to be present with us around the Word and Supper of the Lord.  Participation in the Divine Service becomes optional while embracing the knowledge ends up taking center stage.  Membership becomes a name on a piece of paper rather than a people confessing, praying, and receiving Eucharistically within the fellowship and life of the body of Christ.

If the appeal is only to the mind, the heart and life will suffer and the people will be swallowed up by the promises that appeal to them instead of seeing how they fit into those promises.  If the appeal is to the mind, the heart and life will suffer.  If it is only to the heart it will not take root.  I am not saying that doctrine and instruction do not matter or that we should stop such classes.  What I am insisting is that this must be accompanied by a devotional heart fixed upon the Word and Sacraments of our Lord.  The Jesus whom we follow is not an idea but the real Son of God in flesh within His sacramental gifts.  Those who follow Jesus do not admire Him nor do they seek to understand Him.  They believe Him.  The followers of Jesus are not His groupies but a people seeking to live faithfully as a steward of God's creation and as a receiver of His sufficient grace.  They are not admirers of Jesus but hearers, believers, and followers who have been wooed and won by His loving Spirit into a life together that not even death can overcome.  If we give those who join us information without rooting their lives around the Word and Table of the Lord, we give them a small glance and a skewed image of our life and faith.  As true as this is for those new to the faith, it is no less true for those who have been around for a while.

Could it be that we never had those we lose?  Could it be that we imparted faithfully information but did not incorporate them into the life of the Church in the living fellowship of His Word and gifts?  Could it be that we were too worried about making sure that we told them everything that we told them nothing?  Could it be that we gave them tacit approval for the idea that Jesus is an idea to be held rather than a living Lord to be known and from whom the grace of life proceeds?   Could it be that we tried to nail down every possible contingency without dealing with the elephant in the room -- why we worship, how we worship, and what happens there?  Pastors, we must do better.  Not for our sake only but for theirs and for the sake of the Kingdom in which we have been given stewardship of the mysteries.