View 4 The Lutheran Sabbath
At the outset, I have to acknowledge that the issues of when to observe the Sabbath and how we observe the Sabbath have not drawn much attention from Lutherans over the years. To this day, Lutherans are guided in large part by the way in which Martin Luther, the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformer, interpreted the Sabbath commandment in his Small and Large Catechisms. In the Small Catechism, Luther renders the biblical text, “You shall sanctify the day of rest” (for the texts of Luther’s catechisms, see The Book of Concord, ed. Robert Kolb and Timothy Wengert [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2000]). As you can see, it looks a bit different than how we are perhaps accustomed to reading it. To better grasp the Lutheran view of the Sabbath day, we need to consider both its history and its current understanding. THE GOSPEL AND THE SABBATH Every tradition is shaped by the formative era from which it emerged. This is true also for Lutheranism. When Luther rediscovered the gospel, he stripped