“A True Life Hidden With Christ in God”
A Sermon for the Resurrection of Our Lord
March 22, 2008
Acts 10:34-43, Colossians 3:1-4, Matthew 28:1-10
Rev. Larry Lange
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Congregation
Green Bay, Wisconsin
When Tom was baptized, he died, which sounds a lot worse than it really is, because in baptism we all die, and then our lives and Tom’s life are hidden with Christ in God.
This is the strange claim today’s second lesson makes, so this morning I’d like to spend a few minutes trying to figure out what that means.
Tom grew up to be a smart lad. He remained very studious through all his years of schooling. He was out-going, but not at all athletic. His face, in fact, was quite round, with chubby red cheeks, and he’s been wearing the same black horn-rimmed glasses for his entire life. Geeky as he looked, Tom’s intelligence made him as much a celebrity in school as a quarterback. Every student and teacher knew Tom, so for the bullies to have picked on him for his geekish appearance would have been an unspeakable scandal. Where somewhat less intelligent or less outgoing geeky kids like me regularly got the bejupiters beaten out of us, Tom, the celebrity brain, did not.
Tom studied so hard he had little time for friends,though he was the pride and joy of his orange-haired mother. She also was an outgoing person, and she would have been very happy to talk your ear off about Tom and about herself and all the interesting things she did among the well-to-do in town. She made sure Tom had everything he needed, because she herself was very well provided for. She had no doubts in her mind about Tom’s life: 65 years ago, college for many people was unthinkable and was a certainty for only a few, but when Tom was about three, Tom’s mother knew he was going to graduate school to be a lawyer.
And so it was.
Yet Tom’s true life was hidden with Christ in God.
Now graduate school was a bit more of a challenge for Tom, because it seemed like all of the students there were exactly like him: smart as whips, hard-working, witty, out-going. Not many were smarter than Tom, but most were distinguished persons in many more ways than Tom was: they were sailors or tennis players or as handsome as Gregory Peck. Tom’s lack of these kinds of astonishing qualities earned him the respect of a professor or two. But while the more dashing students became politicians, Tom took a non-descript but well-paying job as an attorney. Living frugally as a bachelor for many years, Tom had amassed a considerable fortune before he married a woman who lived alone in a grand farmhouse occupying several landscaped acres of a hilltop commanding a view of the entire city and Lake Michigan miles away. Tom felt life had truly begun, as the two of them began to enjoy his wealth together.
Not too many folks had BMWs in those days, but Tom brought one back from one of their many trips to Europe, and he left the oval German license plate on it just to show everyone what kind of outlandishly tremendous life he’d made for himself.
Yet Tom’s true life was hidden with Christ in God.
When Tom’s wife’s father died, Tom disputed the terms of the will, because his wife was not going to get exactly half the estate. Tom felt he was a knight in shining armor, a servant of justice, and he leapt into action on his wife’s behalf and dragged his wife’s family into court, so justice could be done.
Tom lost the case. His wife lost her family.
And now, almost thirty years later, Tom’s wife has Alzheimer’s disease, and she is slowly losing everything else: her memories of her wonderful life of trips all around the world, her ability to sing, her ability to do anything. These days Tom has been setting his mind on things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. His life, which had once been hidden with Christ in God, is now truly unfolding like the petals of a blossoming flower. As Christ was a loving and faithful servant, so Tom is now a loving and faithful servant for his wife, working hard to keep her happy and comfortable in that beautiful home with the amazing view as long as he can. Tom remembers and knows enough about Christ to have come to understand that fighting over earthly things is not true life, and so Tom admits he was wrong to have challenged his wife’s father’s estate even though the will did not evenly distribute the assets. What need had he of them in the first place?
Tom is now aware there is a power of love and forgiveness hidden with Christ in God that could heal the wounds he believes he has inflicted on his wife and her family. Tom is looking for that power to bring healing to his ailing wife, because now Tom and his wife are leading an increasingly isolated life. Their health is declining. There are no more gala champagne parties with colleagues and friends who have all moved to Arizona or who are aging and dying as well. There are no more family gatherings, because there has been little reconciliation or love or forgiveness forthcoming from his wife’s family. There are no more family gatherings, because they had no children, no adopted children, no grandchildren. And finally, their life is isolated and diminished, because they have no family in Christ. They belong to no church, which has, like this one does, many wonderful visitors for homebound members whose lives have taken similar tragic turns.
There are lots of glowing expectations and potentialities about life in modern America: perhaps you’re wishing this sermon were a bit more upbeat about life like TV commercials for all the marvelous products we’re told we must buy to have a happy life.
But that is not true life.
Our true life is hidden with Christ in God. The high wattage gala party lifestyle is a life we steal from others in the sense that a small percentage of the world’s population devours a very large percentage of its resources. The percentages vary depending on your source, but the truth behind such statements does not vary. Our voracious appetite for eating up the earth is not true life.
Our true life is hidden with Christ in God.
Our true life is a life of love and servanthood like Tom’s life.
Our true life blossoms in us as we set our minds on Christ, as we listen to Christ, learn from Christ. Our true life blossoms in us when our primary meal in the week is with Christ, so more and more of our life hidden in Christ is revealed.
The time of the high wattage gala party lifestyle is almost over. Billions and billions of people now believe in that kind of life, so their demands for an equal share of a dwindling supply of the world’s resources will grow increasingly militant, and like the dispute over Tom’s wife’s family estate, there is a desperate struggle ahead: everyone will think they have a right to the high wattage gala party lifestyle and fights over such earthly things will ensue.
But that is not true life.
In baptism, we have died to that kind of life. Our true life is hidden with Christ in God. Our true life, like Tom’s, is one of love and servanthood. Our true life is not threatened by the loss of the high wattage gala party lifestyle. Our true life is about sharing of love and everlasting hope with all the people in the world as today’s lesson from Acts reminds us. The religious authorities who arranged for the death of Jesus were dead sure this was not what true life was all about, and we’re a lot more like those who killed Jesus than we care to admit.
But Tom understands his new life of love and servanthood is his true life, even if Tom, like Jesus, is suffering now that he is living that life.
But suffering is not the end of the story.
Resurrection is the end of the story. We celebrate this resurrection today. For we believe the one who suffered and died for true life is risen, is seated at the right hand of God, and we believe we have been baptized into his life and death and that he hides and holds our true life within him: a true life that is ours forever if we simply believe it’s worth seeking. Christ is risen, risen indeed! Your true life and hope is hidden in him.
Alleluia! Amen!