Simple statements...

I am a word nerd. I am also a Word nerd. As an ex-evangelical, you might not be surprised at my dog-eared, Dr Pepper stained, broken spine, highlighted, underlined, and note-filled beloved 1977 NASB Bible.  However, as a Lutheran ... convert (who is admittedly struggling mightily with belief), you shouldn't be surprised at my dog-eared, Dr Pepper stained, broken spine, highlighted, underlined, and note-filled beloved 2005 reader's edition of the Book of Concord.

Like my Bible, I know where passages in the BOC are visually, as in the top right of the page or first column, mid-way down, on a page on the right.  I will admit that I actually have a "new" 1977 NASB bible that I use simply because it is in one column, and I am utterly fascinated with the difference of encountering the very familiar Word in a wildly unfamiliar format.  However, whenever I am hunting for something in the Bible, I go to my ratty, tatty Bible because I know I will find the comfort which I am seeking.

I am absolutely not interested in the updated version of the BOC, primarily because of the much-used, intimately familiar state of my copy. I want to be able to easily find the bit of comfort I am hunting, because I know, visually, where it will be as I begin to flip the pages.  And, to be honest, despite any valid reasons for doing so, it irks me Luther's Exhortation to Confession was moved because I miss the immediacy of its placement behind the exquisitely crafted Part V of the Large Catechism.

Anyway, one of my most favorite sentences in the BOC is on the upper right hand column.  Easy to find.  Easy to miss, maybe, because it is the last sentence in the section on the 5th Commandment.

"And besides, human holiness deserves nothing but wrath and damnation." ~BOC, LC, I, 198

I love the Book of Concord.  I love the Augsburg Confession, its conviction and camaraderie.  I love the Smalcald Articles, its piercing the heart of much of the things I love about Lutheran doctrine.  I love the Power and Primacy of the Pope, its bluntness and boldness.  I love the Apology to the Augsburg Confession, its maddeningly long paragraphs and density.  I love the Formula Epitome and the Formula Solid Declaration, their structure and spinning out of statements.  And I love the Large Catechism, its passion and magnificent craftsmanship.

[I have a complicated relationship with the Small Catechism, so we'll just leave that one aside.]

In the Large Catechism, Luther's pen is a marvel, an enviable example of weaving together complexity and simplicity, earnestness and sarcasm, and milk and meat.  To me, it is the complete document.

What I love about Part I is really summed up in that most favorite sentence:

"And besides, human holiness deserves nothing but wrath and damnation." ~BOC, LC, I, 198

You see, what I think is marvelous genius about Part I is that Luther both spins out the breath and delves into the depth of each Commandment.  In a way, to me, he sets the reader up into a bit of complacency before cuffing him on the back of the head for being such a dolt, i.e. ever thinking, for one single solitary moment, that he can fulfill even a mote of one of the Commandments.

Sanctifying the holy day?  It's not just not working on Sunday, it's this and this and this and this and, oh, yes, this! Bearing false witness?  It's not just lying about someone, it's this and this and this and this and, oh, yes, this!  Taking the Lord's name in vain?  It's not just misusing the Lord's name, it's this and this and this and this and, oh, yes, this! Murder?  It's not just killing, it's this and this and this and this and, oh, yes, this!

As a whole, Part 1 of the Large Catechism can leave you gasping, sucker-punched, curled in a ball on the floor, weeping and wailing and gnashing your teeth.  Gosh, the breath and depth of our sin is enormous!

I love that little sentence, at the end of the 5th Commandment, exactly half-way through the law.  If you had any niggling thought that you could maybe keep the first five Commandments, which, on the surface, seems a bit doable, if you had that little, spiritually smug thought, you get to that sentence and WHAM.  Any holiness you think that you might have mustered up in keeping those seemingly simple first five Commandments has earned you nothing but wrath and damnation.

I also love it because it is one of Luther's simple statements, the hidden gems of the Large Catechism. Some of them bring on a wry chuckle.  Some of them give you pause.  And some of them leave you breathless.

[I wrote this for my Reveling in the Book of Concord Facebook Group.  Sadly, I am pretty much the only one reveling (sharing what I am reading or thinking about the BOC) and the group is filled with folk content to just read the posts, which are most just straight quotes instead of musings like this.  I am cross-posting it here because it is rare that I am able to write what I set out to write and to write in one setting without great labor and confusion.  I greatly miss who I was as a writer and grieve mightily how dysautonomia has compromised my mind.  I liked this post.  To me, it was a home run as far as my goal for writing it.  After all, by now, I've resigned myself to loneliness in the group, to remaining the lone BOC freak.]