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I worshiped recently with Christians from another tradition who began their liturgy with the first question from the Heidelberg Catechism. Heidelberg Q1 is a pinnacle of our confessional tradition for me. Hearing these words outside a Reformed context made them all the more powerful:

Question: What is your only comfort in life and in death?

Answer: That I belong-body and soul, in life and in death-not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

As I closed my eyes and repeated the answer, I was convicted of an inescapable reality. I belong to Christ, but am I "wholeheartedly willing and ready to live for him?" I'm certainly not living that way at the moment.

What's wrong? I can get all fired up about the "tragic state of affairs" in the PC(USA). I can join others in the renewal movement to organize presbytery battles and even envision a new structure for our denomination. I can lead rousing worship. What difference is all this making in the way I live my daily life? Honestly, not much. Jesus is not my "only" comfort.

Why? There are too many other "comforts" in my life. Even in the aftermath of our latest General Assembly, I've not been ready to be "inconvenienced" away from the very culture that is killing the Good News in our denomination to be closer to Jesus. I have a comfortable home, a comfortable marriage, even a comfortable commute to work that doesn't eat up too much gas. I have the means to provide my daughter a quality education at a comfortable college. I even have comfortable opportunities to share a little bit of Jesus in different settings around the denomination. My all-sufficient Savior doesn't really need to get in my way too much. That is a huge problem--and I know I am not alone-not by a long shot.

If the 2008 General Assembly showed us anything, it is how comfortable the majority of us in the PC(USA) are with enough Jesus to "sound" Christian but without letting the living Christ make much lasting difference. We can mention Jesus in our calls to vote and then reject him in misguided attempts at interfaith relativism. We can claim to be motivated by some version of the "love of Jesus" while simultaneously ignoring the parts of the Good News that don't conform to our fallen culture's latest titillations. We can even complain when all this happens without repenting of our culpability, relinquishing our personal pride, or realigning ourselves within the grace and the commission of our faithful Lord and Savior. And we wonder why we're not "comfortable" with our denomination, with our current reality, or even with ourselves.

There's no question that we in the PC(USA) face staggering challenges; living in the ambiguity created by the unconventional appropriation of the Peace, Unity and Purity recommendations, and now forced, once again, to divert energy and resources away from mission and ministry to help the presbyteries reverse the unfaithful actions of yet another Assembly. These are challenges indeed. But so are sermons devoid of Christ or any sense of Gospel hope, congregations where there is little if any personal accountability to live transformed by Christ, communities whose only contact with Christians is the annual rummage sale, and thousands of other missed opportunities to share the Good News of our faithful Lord and Savior in Sunday School classes, in family devotions, amid scenes of injustice, and the list goes on.

If we are going to take seriously the seriousness of the challenges we face, our personal commitment to the reality of Jesus Christ must be the first thing to change. Far too many Presbyterians, even elders and clergy, are spiritually starving, and far too many of our congregations, even among evangelicals, are confused and disoriented. And the answer to these challenges is not going to be found by adopting someone's list of "essential" beliefs in a dysfunctional Church that is being slowly suffocated by a fallen world.

Our only comfort-that means our only strength, consolation, solace, assistance, cheer, assurance, help, pleasure, refreshment, gladness, relief, serenity, support-is the amazing reality that we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, not to ourselves, (or to our denomination, or to our culture, or to our personal ideologies and goals) but to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. This is Good News! But the Good News that we belong to Jesus Christ will begin to change us only when we trust him enough to let him make us willing and ready from now on to live only for him.

In writing this, I am making a (very) public commitment to take the seriousness of our situation so seriously that it inconveniences me into a change of life. I'm tired of being uncomfortable at deep levels in order to stay comfortable day to day and play at being part of the Body of Christ. I want to grow closer to Christ each and every day-in prayer, in worship, and in Scripture-and I welcome others who take our current situation seriously enough to join me in this walk.

A blogger, new to the Reformed Tradition, has written that encountering the Heidelberg Catechism "rocked her world." She goes on, "I, for one, am most thankful that God led me to the reformed confessions and catechisms! It would be a terrible thing for these denominations to take lightly the great treasures handed down to them from men who were willing to die for their faith in the all-sufficient Savior."

How true! This may well be the time when our generation(s) are called to rock the world we have known, even seeing comfortable patterns of life and cherished institutions change and die, in order to truly live for our Savior Jesus Christ. Are we ready?

Yes, it is that serious.