The American
humorist James Thurber published a short story in The New Yorker in 1941, entitled “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” While driving his wife on a
shopping trip, Walter Mitty has five fantasies about leading a heroic life, far
removed from his mundane existence. He sought something higher and better than
his humdrum existence, and sought escape in day-dreams.
Paul calls
on the church—those who have been raised in Christ—to seek something higher and
better than earthly existence. Unlike James Thurber and his comic here, Paul’s
exhortations are grounded not in fantasy, but rather in the reality of “things above,”
the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
We gather
here today to proclaim the Paschal truth, a truth passed on to us from the
first witnesses, beginning in that garden with Mary Magdalene. The church has
born witness to this event for twenty centuries, proclaiming to all who will
hear “Alleluia! Christ is risen!”
Everything
changed when Christ rose victorious from the grave: the world could never be
the same again. The church’s witness has continued to change the world, as it has
testified to the Resurrection—this unique world-changing event.
Paul tells
us that our lives are “hidden with Christ,” not secret like Walter Mitty’s, but
bound up with the one who died, and rose, and took his seat at God’s right
hand. What we are and what we to become is in God’s hands, to be fully revealed
only at the full revelation of Christ at the last day.
In the
meantime…
We who lead
lives that are hidden with Christ are called to seek the higher things, the
things made fully and finally accessible to us through the Resurrection.
We are
called to “Practice Resurrection,” in the words of the poet Wendell Berry
(1973)
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Ask the questions
that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Practice
resurrection.
Practicing
resurrection means not being content with the ways things are, but seeking to
do the good in this world that Jesus began, and that he sent his disciples
forth to do:
Heal the sick;
Clothe the naked;
Feed the
hungry;
Challenge
injustice;
Care for
the earth;
Proclaim
God’s kingdom…
Do all those
things that may make no sense in the world economy but which in God’s economy
are beyond value and price.
Live the
hidden life in Christ, and live it to its fullest! This is not Mittyesque
fantasy, but the great reality of God’s power and love for us and for all
humankind.
We live
this reality of the higher things, hidden in Christ, and revealed in the hearts
of all who hail his Resurrection.
Alleluia!
Christ is risen!
The Lord is
risen indeed! Alleluia!