Lord, break my heart for what breaks Yours
“Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours.”
I don’t know who first prayed that prayer. I know it’s an old one. I believe it was an ache deep in the heart of Martin Luther and the push behind his writing a little book called The Small Catechism. As we begin a new season of discipling our kids, its good to remember a little piece of Lutheran history.
For Luther, what we know as the Small Catechism was developing for over 10 years. Why did it take so long?
Luther didn’t want to muddy the water with one more book. There were a number of “Catechism” books floating around. But Luther thought that many of them served to destroy faith rather than nourish it. Luther said of them: “Here was neither faith nor Christ, and the communicant could not be directed to the strength of the absolution, but was rather trained to count his sins and trust in the intensity of his [own] repentance.” In other words, people were taught that, if they worked hard enough, they could get what they wanted from God. Life would be good as long as you paid for your sins.
And there is the lie. We owe a debt far too great to repay. That is why Jesus went to the cross.
Luther saw the need for a simple catechism – a little book that would explain the whole Gospel – small enough that anyone could memorize – a work that pastors could learn from – a work that every parent could teach to their own children – brief enough that even those who could not read (of which there were many) could memorize it and take it to heart. But Luther was a busy man. His other responsibilities got in the way.
So what do you do when you don’t have the time? You ask those who do. During the passage of nearly 10 years Luther commissioned Justus Jonas and a man by the name of Agricola to prepare a catechism. They didn’t get the job done. Why? Between those two men and Phillip Melanchthon, they couldn’t agree about what should be in it! This is what happens when you entrust some things to a committee!
But the urgency to get this job done overwhelmed Luther. It hit him hard when he personally visited the churches around Saxony – in Germany – in 1528. He was shocked to find that people – even pastors – did not know so much as the Lord’s Prayer.
Luther sat down and penned a simple book that included the 10 Commandments, the Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer with simple meanings for each part. The Small Catechism has since become an amazing little book that has affected lives the world over. In Luther’s Day it was called, “The Layman’s Bible” because it was so small and could be easily memorized. And for such a small book, it contained the breadth of God’s Word – the whole story.
Keep the Live the Faith. - Pr. Dave
