What Do We, As A Church, Say About Our Faith?

Lessons From the Confessions

Short of reading extended sections of the Bible, I fear there is no more effective way of putting people to sleep than by reading sections of the Book of Confessions. 

“Goodness Pastor, that is a very harsh thing to say!”  I have no doubts that would be the reaction of a lot of people reading this statement.  But this is my great fear for the church.

I fear for our willful ignorance of the content of our faith.  We talk about the Bible being the most important resource of our faith.  In the PCUSA, we claim the Book of Confessions as the SECOND most important resource of our faith.  This book gathers the wisdom of the church at various times and in various places of our history, moments when we felt the pressure to sit down and record “This is what we believe.”

So this past Sunday, we went back to Presbyterian basics, the Westminster Shorter Catechism.  This is one of the three pieces that make up the Westminster Standards-which were passed by the English Parliament and were the law of the land, at least for awhile.  The other pieces of the Westminster Standards are the Longer Catechism and the Confession of Faith.  The difference, as I have been taught, is that the Shorter Catechism is designed more as a primer of the faith.  The Longer has more detail and development. 

One of the difficulties of the historic confessions is that they are written with non-inclusive language.  So I am going to be arrogant enough to edit the Catechism for inclusivity and to comment on them for their significance today before posting it on our blog.  In the bulletin, the format is to keep the old language, but in brackets, so people can see the differences.  Please let me know if you are interested in seeing that.

Unlike the Heidelberg Catechism, which is split into Lord’s Days in order to be studied over a calendar year, the Westminster Catechisms are not.  So we shall use manageable pieces each week.

From August 25, 2019:

Q. 1. What is the chief end of humanity?

A. Humanity’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy God forever.

Why are we here?  That is what the writers are asking.  They cut to the heart of our existence.  The answer has two pieces, what is expected of us and what we can expect in return.  We are meant to glorify God and we are meant to enjoy God.  When was the last time that we really considered what it means to even “enjoy” the Almighty?  That should be a thought of great liberation.

Q. 2. What rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy God?

A. The Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy God.

This is what the Bible is for.  It is the ONLY rule for glorifying and enjoying God.  It should be read, challenged, questioned, struggled with, enjoyed; it should open our hearts and bend our minds.  It is what we got.

Q. 3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?

A. The Scriptures principally teach what humanity is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of humanity.

Here is where it becomes really interesting.  The Bible mainly teaches us what we should believe about God.  But the teaching of Scripture is through the filter of other human beings.  So there is a WHOLE lot of spin that can be put onto the teachings of the Bible.  And because of the authority of the Bible in the laws of the church, how do we know what is truly true?

The keystone however is our knowledge.  Where we need to begin as people of faith is knowing this book OURSELVES, so that we can ask the questions we have, so that we can seek the answers we need, and so that we are not dependent on other people to ask and answer for us.