In the cool of the evening a young pastor in Tanzania named Joseph struggles in the glow of the candle to find a way to address those in his community who practice the African Traditional Religion, especially concerned with some under his own care who call themselves Christians on Sunday but Monday are at the witchdoctor’s home. Joseph knows the fundamental violation is against the first commandment but creativity is not a value fostered in his culture so he searches for some direct reference to explain the depths of meaning behind those few words, “You shall have no other Gods before me.” Turning to the English Book of Concord he borrowed from his bishop, Joseph struggles to find the passages he thought he remembered hearing translated in seminary. But English is his fourth language and seldom finds use, and our brother ends up frustrated as his candle burns down and mandates an end to the night’s struggles. Had he access to the Book of Concord in one of his primary languages – like Swahili – he doubtless would have found the text for which he searched, clearly laid out in the Large Catechism, “Idolatry… is primarily a matter of the heart, which fixes its gaze upon other things and seeks help and consolation from creatures, saints, or devils. It neither cares for God nor expects good things from him sufficiently to trust that he wants to help, nor does it believe that whatever good it encounters comes from God.” Until a pastor can skim the Confessions in his own language to locate those expansive written words, the Pastor’s arsenal aside from Scripture and prayer consists of faint recollections of seminary lectures, virtual rumors of what the Lutheran Church believes and teaches, his hymnal, and a worn copy of Luther’s Small Catechism. Access to the Book of Concord in his own language, to those Confessions a pastor pledges himself to in ordination as a right interpretation of God’s Word, could well be the trigger that calls these learned servants, our brothers, to a new and revitalized campaign of Gospel proclamation among those who have yet to clearly hear God’s message of reconciliation through Christ. Praise the Lord for the clarity, opportunities, and hope that lie in these pages! This is why we translate works like the Book of Concord.
The Swahili Book of Concord was published by The Lutheran Heritage Foundation and was dedicated on October 22nd, 2011 in Moshi, Tanzania:
