Editorial
Why
all those catechism sermons, anyway?
By George van Popta
Recently I began again with
Lord's Day 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism in the afternoon services. This made
me reflect upon the custom of "catechism preaching" and
"catechism sermons." Ever since the late 1500s, Reformed ministers of
the Word have, once per Sunday, preached and taught the Word of God with the
help of the Heidelberg Catechism. As churches we have even agreed that: "The consistory shall ensure that, as a rule,
once every Sunday the doctrine of God's Word as summarized in the Heidelberg
Catechism is proclaimed" (Art. 52, Church Order).
Why do we have this custom?
Is it a valid custom? Is it correct? Is a "catechism sermon" a
proclamation of the Word of God? Why do we have regular catechism preaching, as
a rule once per Sunday, year after year?
In several of his letters
the apostle Paul wrote that in addition to bringing people to confess their
faith in Christ, he also wanted to present every man mature in Christ. He wanted to establish every member of the church
firmly in the true faith. In Eph. 4:11ff
Paul stated that the task of ministers of the gospel is to equip the
saints, to build up the body of Christ, and to perfect the children of God. The
congregation is to be well instructed so that it will not be thrown around by
every wind of doctrine. Some people think that "doctrine" is a dirty
word. It is not. It is used often in the Scriptures. Further, a church without
doctrine (and there is no such church) is no church. The church needs to
formulate its doctrines carefully—for three reasons. It holds up its doctrine
as a banner stating what it believes. These doctrinal formulations (creeds and
confessions) are also a defence against heresy. Furthermore, the church summarizes
the biblical teaching so that it can teach it to the members and hand it on to
the next generation.
According to the apostle
Paul, ministers are not only proclaimers of the gospel. They are also teachers,
called to teach the people of God, and to confirm them ever more firmly in the
different aspects of the Christian faith.
The authors of the
Heidelberg Catechism understood well what the apostle Paul was saying. To teach
those whom God, in his grace, had released from bondage to the church of Rome,
they wrote this catechism. For about 400
years now, the Reformed churches have been taught the sound and comforting
doctrines of the Scriptures by way of catechism sermons. For 400 years now, Reformed believers have
been more thoroughly rooted, more solidly built up in Christ, by means of the
doctrines of the Word of God as they have been summarized in the catechism.
We should not make a false
contrast between the Word of God and the Heidelberg Catechism. Some people want to make such a contrast.
Although the Heidelberg Catechism was written by men, every word is backed up
by Scripture. The many Scripture references you find at the bottom of each
question and answer prove that, as do the many lines of the Heidelberg
Catechism that are direct quotations from Scripture.
For what is the Heidelberg
Catechism? It is a summary of the Word
of God by which the church confesses and says: Thus says the LORD. This is what the Word of God teaches. When
Lord's Days of the Heidelberg Catechism are faithfully explained to the
congregation, then God's people are being comforted by the Word of God and by
Jesus Christ.
There is a difference in
method between the morning sermon, which is a text-based sermon, and the
catechism sermon. In the morning the minister typically takes a few verses or a
chapter out of the Bible, and works that out. The sermon is focused on those
verses or that chapter. He will show how that text lies in the context of the
chapter, the book, the testament, and the Bible, and yet, he focusses on those
few words. When the minister preaches the Word of God using a few questions and
answers of the Heidelberg Catechism, he and the congregation together look at
the entire Scriptures through the lense of a particular biblical doctrine
(which ever one that particular Lord's Day summarizes). One, then, does not,
strictly speaking, preach a specific text of Scripture, but the Word of God is
being proclaimed. When the minister uses the Heidelberg Catechism as text, then
he uses a Lord's Day as a window on the Bible. His aim is to proclaim and teach
the Word of God as it has been summarized in that Lord's Day, looking at the
entire Scriptures through the window of the Lord's Day, and using formulations
the church of all ages has accepted as being entirely biblical.
And so, even though I and my
congregation had just completed the catechism, it was good for us to begin it
again. For, like a faithful map, it will once again take us across the terrain
of Scripture. It will guide us to, what we might call, the main points of
Scripture. It will, in a summary way, teach us the whole counsel of God. We will learn what the Bible teaches us about
our sinful natures, about salvation, and how to be thankful to God. And doing
so, it will comfort us with the knowledge that God has saved us from sin and
eternal destruction by the blood of Jesus Christ, and has called us to be his
people.
Should we keep preaching the
catechism? Yes, we should. It is one of our strengths. The Heidelberg Catechism
is part of the great heritage we have received from the Reformation. It is a
wonderful tool to keep us closely attuned to the doctrines of Scriptures. As it
takes us back and forth through the Word, as we scale the heights and plumb the
depths of the teachings of Scriptures, it helps to keep us as people of the
Word.
