Q&A 1 Cuts Across Age Boundaries
This poster is displayed in a church in The Netherlands.
“What is your only comfort in life and death?”
This is the first and very familiar question in the much-beloved Heidelberg Catechism.
But even more familiar is the answer, one that Reformed Christians have been reciting through much joy and sorrow for 450 years now.
The answer begins: “That I am not my own, but belong — body and soul, in life and in death — to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.”
It ends with: “Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.”
Both the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) and Reformed Church in America (RCA) synods this summer urged members of their denominations to recite Q&A 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism during worship services on Sunday, Sept. 15.
The synods made this request as a way of collectively marking the 450th anniversary of the Heidelberg and chose Q&A 1 because of how familiar church members are with it.
Rev. Neal Plantinga, former president of Calvin Theological Seminary and a professor of systematic theology, says he encourages church members to recite Q&A 1.
A statement about how much we are accepted into and embraced by God’s love, Q&A 1 has a universal appeal, he says.
“In a day when it seems difficult to determine what unites older CRC members with younger CRC members, it is remarkable how these words are able to unite all kinds of people,” said Plantinga.
For many people, Q&A 1 holds the kind of familiarity found in Psalm 23, said Plantinga.
The CRC and RCA synods this summer also asked churches to take time over the next several months to study all of the Heidelberg Catechisms’ 129 questions and answers.
Published in German and Latin in 1563, the Heidelberg was written as a tool for teaching young people the precepts of the church, to serve as a guide for preaching and as a source of unity for a range of Protestant churches.
The Heidelberg is one of the CRC’s foundational confessions, long admired for its clarity “as an expression of the Reformed Christian faith as well as for its warmth and personal tone,” says Rev. Leonard Vander Zee, who was editor of a special anniversary edition of the catechism.
As part of a promotion helping to bring attention to upcoming anniversary, a dozen delegates to the RCA’s General Assembly take turns reciting Q&A 1 in this video.
