In the novel, The Second
Coming, by Walker Percy, the leading character is a lawyer named Will
Barrett. Will Barrett is retired from
a law practice on Wall Street. He
resides in comfortable surroundings in North Carolina. By all outward appearance Will Barrett
has all the necessities and ingredients for a good and happy life. However, he has a problem. He finds himself strangely depressed
and alienated from his daughter and his golf partners because his life has
become so ordinary, so routine and monotonous. He feels estranged, so much so that he goes down into a cave
to wait for a sign of God's existence.
Do you ever feel this
way? I guess retirement can be like
this for some people, but it certainly isn’t a retirement I know. Life may not always be routine or
monotonous, but sometimes, just by watching the news on or reading the
newspaper with its wrenching stories of violence, murder and degradation, the
feeling is one of such overwhelming weight that hiding in a cave seems to be
the only way to cope. Where is
there a sign of God's existence?
For Will Barrett it was a strange
but seemingly unavoidable behavior.
Eventually, however, Will is driven from the cave by a severe toothache,
and he stumbles into a neighboring greenhouse owned by Allison Huger. Allison left a mental hospital and is
making a new life for herself in a greenhouse. With Allie he gradually learns to be open to another person as
well as to himself. And in his
new-found openness Will also inadvertently finds God. He begins to transform the world with Allie. In a great comedy of restoration the
two of them make plans to renovate her greenhouse and to provide work and
meaning for a number of sedentary and lifeless nursing-home residents. Their openness even transforms their
normal down-time of late afternoon into a time of grace and joy.
The Second Coming is a zany, tragic and comic novel. From the depths of despair and
alienation Will searched for God existence and ended up finding much more. It is one of Walker Percy’s best
novels, and it is about God’s love.
I thought about this as I
read the passage we heard from the Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon is sometimes referred to as the Song of
Songs because it is the greatest of all songs, and it is about love. It is a joyful and glorious passage often
read at weddings because it is so romantic: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Its meaning is about God’s love for all
creation. Love is about God; it is the very nature of God, and it is to be
enjoyed and valued.
Will Barrett found God’s
love in his relationship with Allie.
Together they exemplify what Jesus proclaimed: having an honest
relationship with God and not deceiving oneself are the keys to a healthy
balance in life. Accepting one’s self
as authentic and genuine in its own right spills over to all the relationships
that form the network of life. If Will
Barrett remained as he was down in a cave, and if we remain less than who we
are and handicap ourselves in relating to others, we invite frustration because
we cannot offer others a mutually beneficial relationship.
Our reading from the Letter
of James ties in to all of this because it is about bringing forth the fruit of
good works. When confronted with
worldly anxieties filled with all the trials and tribulations of life, where economic
inequality, poverty and unemployment prevail, the Letter of James is about
being “doers of the word.”
“Be doers of the word, and
not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word
and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they
look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like….
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this: to care for orphans and
widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
The point James is making is
that those who persevere in searching for God will hear the good news, and when
they understand what they are hearing will be moved to do the work and ministry
that Jesus modeled in his life.
James addressed those who were
given "birth by the word of truth." He bid his readers to
"welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your
souls." In other words,
salvation is a given, but, here is the catch, one must be a doer of the word as
well as one who simply hears it.
There are so many issues and
needs that command our attention.
The situations that cry for a just resolution are many and complex: the
nuclear treaty with Iran, the ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel, acts
of terrorism, the huge number of refugees in the world, environmental problems
and energy sources, violence and the lack of adequate gun control, abusive relationships,
the continuing need for affordable and universal health care, capital
punishment, poverty and hunger, and high quality public education. I am sure I have left something out.
Every day the media report about a few of these issues and it becomes tiring
and overwhelming because so little seems to change for the better.
Perhaps like Will Barrett we
need as a society to be driven out of our cave of complacency and learn how to
reshape the public policies that have sustained inequality. Let us work as those born by the word
of truth to be doers of the word, followers of Jesus and ministers of God’s
love for those in need. Amen.
