“Q: What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A: That I am not my own but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.”
You might find yourself more reflective than usual this week. You have said, ‘goodbye,’ to 2018. You have said, ‘hello,’ to 2019. You might have some resolutions for the new year.
It is wise to reflect on your life at the new year but it is rather arbitrary to mark the new year on January 1. When I lived in Worthington, we had many Lao brothers and sisters in the church who celebrated new year’s in mid-April. The Jews celebrate their new year in late September. They call it the first day of Tishrei. We call ours the first day of January according to the Gregorian calendar.
Different cultures celebrate new year’s on different dates, but they all celebrate it. There is something right about marking the end of an old year and the beginning of a new year. It is a natural time to reflect.
What will 2019 hold? How might your life be different by 2020? Does the thought of where you might be a year from now scare you? Does it excite you?
Those are good questions and I hope you’ve asked them. These are the sorts of questions we consider at the beginning of a new year. This year we are going to consider them using the Heidelberg Catechism. The Catechism begins by asking, “what is your only comfort in life and in death” or ‘what is your only security in life and in death?’ Today I might ask you, ‘what is your only comfort for 2019? What is your only security for 2019?’
You have some sort of security for the year ahead. You have something that you will depend on. The burden of this message is to make sure that you have the right security.
The comfort, the security, that you need comes from belonging to Jesus. That’s true for you. It is also true for every person in this sanctuary. We all have different temperaments, different personalities, different family situations. We are of different ages and income levels, but the comfort and confidence that is needed is the same for each and every soul here. This the security that every human being needs. That is a startling thing to say in a culture like ours. The security every soul needs comes from belonging to Jesus. The security you need comes form belonging to Jesus. That is the claim of this sermon.
We will see this in two points. First: your security. Second: your only security. First: your security. Second: your only security.
First: your security. The Catechism begins by asking, “what is your only comfort in life and in death?”
The German word translated here as comfort is ‘trost’. It is also translated as confidence; what is your only confidence in life and in death? It can be translated as security; what is your only security in life and in death? Essentially, the Catechism is asking, ‘what is the one thing that you can’t happily live and die without?’ ‘What do you need?’
How would you answer that question? Some people would say, ‘money. I need money.’ Some would say, ‘popularity. I can’t live or die happily without knowing I was popular.’ Some would say, ‘love. I need to love and to be loved to be happy and I would die happy knowing that I loved well.’ How would you answer that question? What do you absolutely need?
This is a question that we all must answer. That is the burden of the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon recognized that we are born needing some sort of security to build our lives upon.
Solomon looked for it in learning, but he was disappointed. He looked for it in pleasure, but it didn’t deliver. He threw himself into his work, but he didn’t find comfort. He tried to build his life on beauty, but that wasn’t enough. He tried to build his life on wealth, and he had plenty, but he still felt empty. He had more than his share of romance and it didn’t fill the hole in his heart. He called all of it, “a vapor.” The best that life could offer was as fleeting as your breath when you walk outside on a cold day. You see it for a moment, and it is gone. You can’t build your life on it. That’s why Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, “vapor of vapor! All is vapor…”
You can build your life upon your spouse, but either you or your spouse will die first. All is vapor. You can build your life on your career, but in the end, it won’t mean much to anyone besides you. All is vapor. You can distract yourself from these questions with wealth, but the newest toys can only distract for so long. You know that. Christmas was only a week and a half ago. All is vapor.
The Bible is certainly an honest book. It asks the questions that we ask ourselves. Solomon was searching for something worth building his life on. He was searching for security.
What is your only security in life and in death? The man who can answer that question happily is the happiest man. Can you answer that question happily? If you can answer that question happily you know something the world longs to know. How many ills of the culture around us—drunkenness, sexual immorality, greed—come from people looking for comfort in all the wrong places? How many of the ills of the culture around us–alarming rates of mental illness, wide spread cynicism and angst–exist because people have no real security?
The Heidelberg Catechism was written in 1563. These people lived in the midst of relentless war, disease, and trouble. They needed comfort. They needed something to depend on. They needed security. Think about our culture. We Americans live in relative peace, health, and luxury. We have what they didn’t and yet we ask the same questions. We need comfort. We need security. That alone should be enough to prove to you that we humans can’t make ourselves happy. We can’t manufacture security. We Americans would have done it by now if we could.
What is your comfort? What is your security? The world accuses the church of refusing to think, but that’s not the case. The church questions itself, “what is your only comfort in life and in death?” The world does its best to avoid such questions. It distracts itself with entertainment. It dulls its senses with drugs and alcohol because it doesn’t want to feel the force of such questions. The people of the world do not want to believe that life is as important as it is.
Imagine asking your unbelieving co-worker, ‘How do you live with purpose today knowing that one day you will die?’ Such conversations are exceedingly rare in this culture. The Heidelberg Catechism puts it front and center. Think about your life. Think about the moment you are going to die. What are you building your life on? Will it hold?
Jesus provoked such questions. He who “hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Will your life stand or fall? You are going to die whether you are ready for it or not and you are going to appear before God. Will you stand or fall then? You exist whether you want to or not. What confidence do you have in going forward? What security do you have?
The Catechism compiles the Bible’s answers into something you can memorize. We are going to memorize this as a church because we need to remember. I need to remember. “I am not my own, but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.”
Is that your answer? Do you find security in that answer or is that just something that you feel like you should say? There is a big difference between an answer coming from the inside and answer imposed from the outside.
There are two groups of people—those who have found security in belonging to Jesus and those who haven’t. If you’ve found this security, you want others to have it too. If you haven’t found it, you must know that nothing else will fill your void. The Catechism makes that clear with the word ‘only.’ What is your only comfort in life and in death? We put our focus in this word ‘only’ in our second point: your only security.
By speaking of belonging to Jesus as the only security, the Catechism isn’t saying that other helps are totally worthless. If you take anti-depressant medications, you aren’t saying that Jesus has failed as your only comfort in life and in death. If you have forms of insurance, you aren’t declaring that belonging Jesus is an insufficient security.
So, what does it mean to say that belonging to Jesus is the only security in life and in death? George Bethune explained it well when he said, “Without God, [man] has nothing; with God, he has all things.” “Without God, [man] has nothing; with God, he has all things.”
Jesus told a parable that said the same thing. He said, “the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
Was that man a fool to sell everything he had to buy that field? Of course not. The treasure hidden in that field was worth far more than everything he had. That’s why Jesus said, “in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” That man got a good deal. He had God and so he had everything.
Is belonging to God worth more to you than everything else? If you could gain the whole world, everything you wanted—romance, power, wealth, health—and give up Jesus would you do it? “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” asked Jesus.
Belonging to Jesus is the only comfort that delivers what you truly need. You need God. “Without God, [man] has nothing; with God, he has all things.”
During the sacrament we are going to sing a song to God. We are going to sing Give Me Jesus. “You can have all the world but give me Jesus.” Can you sing, “You can have all the world but give me Jesus” with integrity?
Is belonging to Jesus your security or is it an add on to your life? Is it the unshakable foundation of your life or is it a decoration for your life? You don’t use it. Your faith just sits there. In other words, why do you call yourself a Christian? Is it because you grew up this way or is it because you say with Peter, “Lord, where else will we go? You have the words of eternal life”? Is it because you want to think of yourself as a good person or is it because you say with Horatius Bonar, “I came to Jesus as I was, so weary, worn, and sad; I found in him a resting-place, and he has made me glad”? You have some reason for calling yourself a Christian. What is it?
The Catechism tells you that belonging to Jesus is the only security because he will not disappoint. Everything else you trust in will disappoint. Everything else you trust in can be stripped away. Your health can be stripped away. Your money can be stripped away. Your reputation can be stripped away. One day your life will be stripped away. You will not be stripped away from Jesus. That’s why Christians love Romans 8, “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Asaph saw that. He wrote a poem about it. He said, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail,but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Everything else can let you down. You will let you down. Your will power will fail. Anything besides God that you choose to trust in for 2019 can fail you. God will not. He will not let you down. He asked, “Can a mother forget her nursing baby and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” We have some sweet, nurturing mothers in this sanctuary who would do anything for their children. Even if these women forget their babies, which they never would, God will not forget His children. Belong to Him. That’s where you’ll find comfort. That’s where you will find security.
The Catechism tells you that belonging to Jesus is the only security because there is no one else like him. Who else can do for you what Jesus can do for you? Your spouse can’t. Your parents can’t. Your children can’t. Your boyfriend can’t. ‘“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”’ Nothing else you trust in will do that for you. Certainly nothing else will do that for you when you die. That’s why the Catechism calls belonging to Jesus your only comfort.
The Catechism tells you that belonging to Jesus is the only comfort because no one else can satisfy like Jesus. Augustine was right when he said, “I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.” No one you have ever met or heard of can satisfy likeJesus. Jesus knew that. That’s why he went to a festival and yelled, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.” Jesus thought he could satisfy people who were thirsty for life. He has been doing it for generations.
If you aren’t a Christian and you happen to be here for whatever reason, I want you to ponder why these other people are here. Now it’s true that some of them might be here out of tradition. People do any number of things week in and week out of tradition. Some of them might be here out of superstition. People around the globe do any number of things out of superstition. Some might not know why they are here. The vast majority do. The vast majority have found that Jesus satisfies them in a way that nothing else can. They have found the words of Theodorus VanderGroe to be true, “Nothing but God alone can provide the soul with true and essential satisfaction, comfort, and encouragement.” They have found the words of Augustine to be true, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” They have found the words of Jesus to be true, “I have come that they might have life and have it to the full.”
You can have this life. You can have this comfort. You can belong to Jesus. Tell him that you’ve tried to live life on your own. Tell him how that has worked for you. Tell him that you are a sinner. He knows what you’ve done. He knows what you are like. Tell him that you want mercy. Tell him you want comfort. Tell him that you want something worth building your life upon.
You aren’t going to find this comfort anywhere else. You’ve tried. Like Solomon you’ve looked for something to build your life on. Like Mick Jagger you’ve found yourself saying, “I can’t get no satisfaction.” The Catechism uses the word ‘only’ because this comfort, this satisfaction, this security can only be found in belonging to Jesus.
The exclusivity of Christ – Jesus being the only source of comfort - is the doctrine that rubs hardest against the grain of the modern world. Many people admire Jesus for a host of reasons. They speak highly of the Sermon on the Mount. They even speak of Jesus’ way as being the best way, but they aren’t ready to say it is the only way. They aren’t ready to say that belonging to him is the only comfort. They might even say it is their comfort, but not the only comfort. This word “only” is certainly a lightning rod, but the question is, is it true? Is belonging to Jesus the only comfort in life and in death?
How can we answer that question? I’ve got an incredibly limited breadth of understanding. I’ve never been a Muslim. How can I say that belonging to Jesus is the only comfort in life and in death passable for Muslims? I’ve never been a Hindu. How can I say that belonging to Jesus is the only comfort passable for Hindus? I’ve never lived for any real length of time out of the United States. How can I say that belonging to Jesus is the only comfort in life and in death passable for people living in Ghana? I’ve only lived for a few decades. How can I say that belonging to Jesus is the only comfort passable for people in their 80’s?
It would be a sad state of affairs if anyone was here to listen to what I have to say on my own authority. I’m saying what God said. He said, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” That’s exclusive. That’s only comfort language. There is no other comfort that can do that.
This language of only comfort is exclusive, but it isn’t meant to exclude. It is meant to invite. God didn’t give us miserable humans the comfort of the gospel to exclude us. He invites us to belong to Jesus. “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Do you belong to Jesus? There is no wiggle room here. There is no ‘sort of’ here. You either belong to Jesus or you don’t. You can either say, “my only comfort in life and in death is that I belong to Jesus,” or you can’t. What is your answer? This is your life and only you can answer for yourself. You must answer for yourself . Amen.