The God of All Comfort

Passage: 2 Corinthians 1:3-11; Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 1

This week a lot of press has been devoted to Osama Bin Laden’s death. American Christians have engaged in debate about the significance of this event and, in particular, the appropriateness of celebrating it. Many have joined friends and neighbors as they dance in the streets. Many have thanked God that “justice has been done”; “that we’re finally safe.” Many others have cautioned against celebrating any human death, even that of a political enemy. Who’s right?

Perhaps we should start by dealing with another question – the question at the very heart of the Christian faith. It’s articulated at the very beginning of the Heidelberg Catechism: What is your only comfort in life and in death?
Your reaction to the threat of Osama Bin Laden, and the removal thereof, says something about your response to this question. If you find your comfort in military might, you lose sleep knowing there’s an Osama running in free in the world. If you find your comfort in political stability, you lose sleep knowing there are human organizations bent on destabilizing your government. If you find your comfort in wealth and prosperity, you lose sleep thinking knowing another attack could level an already faltering economy. If these are the places you find comfort, you demand and celebrate the elimination of any human being that represents a threat.

But what if your comfort is found in someone else? Someone from whose love and abiding presence you can never be separated? The Apostle Paul begins his second letter to the Corinthians with this statement:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. (2 Corinthians 1:3-11, NIV)

We belong, body and soul, in life and in death to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Because of him we live with the assurance that God is always with us and for us. God is our protector and provider. We also acknowledge that even now we’re living not for the fleeting stuff of this broken world, but the enduring promise of life in eternity with God. The stuff we fight and kill to protect is stuff we will eventually lose anyway. The stuff that matters most can never be taken from us. Not by any terrorist attack, natural disaster, or financial meltdown. We can, right now, stop living in fear. We need not fear the next Bin Laden; the next earthquake; the next recession. Why? Because we belong to the God of all comfort.