I would like to add my contribution to the subject of preaching on the Heidelberg Catechism.

With Bajema and Wesseling (and contra Lankheet), I would plead for using the Lord’s Day itself as the “text” for the sermon. I believe that is the only legitimate way to “preach the Catechism.” And such a sermon can be just as thoroughly biblical (perhaps more so) as one which uses a particular text ofScripture. The Catechism was never intended to be used in the latter way (using a verse or two ofScripture). One simply cannot do justice to the richness of the Catechism by using one particular passage ofScripture. The Catechism’s teaching is based on the whole Bible. It brings the entire teaching of God’s Word to bear upon a certain doctrine. If one then uses one particular text of the Bible, he is either short-changing the Catechism or he will have to use the text as a “coathanger” on which to hang all kinds of things which are not in the text in order to try to cover the teaching of the Lord’s Day. It can’t be done. None of the Dutch authors on the Catechism (and they are the best: De Graaf, Holwerda, Tunderman, Veldkamp) use the textual approach. They all deal with the Lord’s Day itself.

Lankheet is right: You can’t find one particular text of the Bible which covers the whole teaching of the Lord’s Day. Exactly! That is why I will almost always read at least two Scripture passages (sometimes three) in connection with a certain Lord’s Day. That way the congregation also becomes aware that the teaching of the Catechism is based on the whole of Scripture, Old and New Testaments.

I’m not afraid of the charge: You preach the Catechism, not the Bible. Proper preaching of the Catechism is biblical preaching through and through. The sermon can make this abundantly clear. It is just as easy to preach an “unbiblical” sermon by using a text as it is using the Catechism (and I’ve heard such). That’s because the Bible itself has a “system” of truth—it is one book with one message, not a conglomeration of isolated texts. That’s why it’s just as easy to preach a good biblical sermon using the Lord’s Day itself as it is when not using the Catechism (the so-called “free sermon”). For further reading on the subject may I suggest “De Catechisinus in den Dienst Des Woords” by the late Rev. F. Guillaume, a chapter in the book Van Den Dienst Des Woords, Ed. R. Schippers.