The Most Neglected Part of the Small Catechism

From the Steadfast Lutherans Blog

July 2nd, 2014 Post by Pastor Jordan McKinley

As is my custom, I was wasting time on Facebook one day, and I came across a post from a friend that posed this question: “What is the most neglected part of the Small Catechism?” I thought about it for a moment, and a few answers came to my mind very quickly: the table of duties and confession and absolution (even though it is right there in the 5th chief part!). After letting my mind think on these texts for a moment or two and my own experience growing up in the LCMS, I read the answer the original post gave: “As the head of the family should teach it.”

Boom. That hit me like a ton of bricks.

If you thumb through your 1986 Small Catechism (the actual catechism: Commandments, Creed, Our Father, Baptism, Confession/Keys, Lord’s Supper, Daily Prayers, Table of Duties, and Christian Questions with Their Answers), this phrase (or a form of it) appears seven times by my quick count.

“As the head of the family should teach it…” It appears at the beginning of five of the six Chief Parts and in two other places. If a man considers himself to be a confessional Lutheran, this phrase really ought to shape the way he practices his Christian faith. In the words of the Small Catechism, what does this mean?

First and foremost, this means that the Small Catechism is a book for the home. If the first time a young man sees the Small Catechism is at his congregation’s confirmation class informational meeting or at the first session of said class, this part of the Small Catechism has already been...

Read more at: http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=37079 | Steadfast Lutherans