The Good Life: In the Checkout Line But Not of It

Preached by Michael Cheuk
November 22, 2009
Christ the King Sunday
John 17:13-19

Today, I’m concluding my sermon series on “The Good Life – At Least According to Walmart.”  In this series, we examined the check-out line at Walmart—or really any grocery store—to observe and reflect on what the check-out line is trying to teach and sell as the good life.[1] Throughout this series, we examined how things such as physical health, beauty and sex, wealth, celebrity and convenience can become false gods that can take us away from the worship of the one true God.  As I was working on this series of sermons, nagging tensions kept resurfacing again and again.  It’s easy for me to preach and warn about those false gods, but how can God help me and others in the congregation live the good life that God has intended for us to live and not fall into the idolatries that the checkout line offers?  I know that in my own life, it is so easy to be sucked into living a lifestyle promoted by the checkout line magazines and by other media outlets like television and the internet.  So is God calling us to totally boycott the checkout line just as certain Baptist groups have boycotted Disney?  But it’s not like we can totally avoid going to Walmart and the grocery stores; nor can we avoid the checkout lines once we get there.  Is it possible to participate in our economic system without falling victim to its power to take over the values of God’s kingdom in our lives and in our churches?  In other words, can we as followers of Jesus Christ be “in the checkout line, but not of it,” so to speak?

“In the checkout line, but not of it.”  This is really not a new challenge for followers of Jesus Christ.  I just happen to rephrase it for the purpose of this sermon series.  Any of you are familiar with the phrase, “being in the world, but not of it”?   How do we live in this world and within its structures and systems without being totally sucked into the values, beliefs and behaviors that those structures and systems demand from its subjects?  How do we live first as faithful subjects of the Kingdom of God and Christ the King, and then live as subjects of the present world order – whether it is the Roman Empire or the American Empire?  Followers of Christ have struggled with this challenge from the very beginning.  As a matter of fact, in our Gospel lesson from John this morning, Jesus addressed this very issue in his prayer for his disciples hours before he was betrayed, arrested and questioned by both the high priest and by Pontius Pilate.

The Good Life: Convenience

Preached by Michael Cheuk
November 8, 2009
Luke 14:25-33

Today, I am continuing my sermon series on “The Good Life – At Least According to Walmart.”  In this series, we will examine the check-out line at Walmart—or really any grocery store—to observe and reflect on what the check-out line is trying to teach and sell as the good life.[1] The past several Sundays, I addressed the issue of health, beauty and sex, wealth and celebrity.  Today, I want to talk about convenience, which is a very important value in contemporary America.  If we look at the magazine racks at the check-out line, we see headlines such as “Jump Start Your Weight Loss” and “Speed through Your To-Do List.”  Most of the magazines themselves are convenient in that they are easily accessible, offer quick tips, and give instant access to “life-transforming” information.  In addition to magazines, the checkout line also stacks all kinds of candy and soft drinks, all within easy reach—especially for children.  The sheer volume of choices encourages impulse spending and the instant gratification of our desires.  Seeing our checkout line, a visitor from Mars might assume that Snickers bars are a major food group.  Also, the sheer ubiquity of breath mints at the checkout line might also lead a Martian to think that bad breath runs rampant among humans!

We as a society value convenience. We have drive-through restaurants, banks, pharmacies and even wedding chapels.  We own cell phones to contact anyone, anywhere.  We use computers that allow us to shop, to do our banking, our shopping and to communicate with others online.  We have all these time-saving devices like dishwashers, washers and dryers, and microwave ovens.  In a world of movies-on-demand, five-minute meals, and even instant Starbucks coffee, we are trained to expect instant gratification.  A good life by this definition is having things quick and easy, when and how we want it, with a minimum of work, fuss and cost.

Our expectation of convenience sometimes spills over to our Christian faith. 

The Good Life: Celebrity

Preached by Michael Cheuk
October 25, 2009
Matthew 6:1-6

Today, I am continuing my sermon series on “The Good Life – At Least According to Walmart.”  In this series, we will examine the check-out line at Walmart—or really any grocery store—to observe and reflect on what the check-out line is trying to teach and sell as the good life.[1] The past several Sundays, I addressed the issue of health, beauty and sex, and wealth.  Today, I will examine an area of the good life that the checkout line particularly worships: celebrities.  The majority of magazines portray celebrities as the “saints” of the checkout line.  They embody the “good life” because they are often portrayed as healthy, beautiful, sexually fulfilled and, of course, wealthy.  They wear stylish clothes, drive new convertibles and look, even their pets are beautiful!  Because of all these qualities, they are often venerated, if not outright worshipped.

People reach the status of a “celebrity” when their lives are constantly on center stage in the theater of life, their every move watched, photographed and filmed.  It’s almost as if their lives have become a product for people like us to consume by purchasing magazines at the checkout line, and by watching Entertainment Tonight and “reality” TV shows.  They allow themselves to be placed on a high pedestal as models—or dare I say, idols—of the “good life,” where they are admired, desired and glorified from a distance.  While celebrities certainly benefit from all this adulation, there is a huge price to be paid in the form of the loss of privacy.  Their lives are no longer their own, and the same media that anoints celebrities into the pantheon of cultural gods is the same media that relishes in knocking them off that pedestal.  That’s why the checkout line is lined with tabloid magazines and newspapers that relish exposing celebrities of every foible, examining every pound of weight gained or lost, and every romantic relationship blossoming or blown up.  They play into our morbid curiosity over the tragedy of others.  The same lives that were charmed with the stuff of dreams can quickly become charred with a horror worthy of a Halloween nightmare.  All of that gets played out in a public theater generated by our media.

The Good Life: Wealth

Preached by Michael Cheuk
October 25, 2009
Matthew 6:19-24

Today, we are continuing my sermon series on “The Good Life – At Least According to Walmart.”  In this series, we will examine the check-out line at Walmart—or really any grocery store—to observe and reflect on what the check-out line is trying to teach and sell as the good life.[1] The past two Sundays, I addressed the issue of health and also beauty and sex, and today, I will examine what the checkout line has to teach us about wealth.  If we browse the magazines on display at the check-out lines, we see pages and pages of advertisements and articles that tell us that we are not living the good life because the clothes that we have are out of style, the house we live in is too small, the car that we drive is too dull, the computer we use is too slow, and the cell phone we carry is not smart enough.  The message is that if we acquire those things, we will live the good life.

At first glance, this vision of the good life is attractive and enticing.  Who doesn’t want to live in a mansion, drive a new BMW, wear trendy fashion and play with the latest electronic gadgets?  But upon closer inspection, living the good life this way exacts a price. 

The Good Life: Beauty and Sex

Preached by Michael Cheuk
October 18, 2009
1 Corinthians 6:15-20

Last Sunday, I started a new sermon series called “The Good Life – At Least According to Walmart” and in this series we will examine the check-out line at Walmart—or really any grocery store—to observe and reflect on what the check-out line is trying to teach and sell as the good life.[1] Last Sunday, we explored the matter of health, and this Sunday, I would like to explore what the check-out line is trying to teach us about beauty and sex.  So, I went to Walmart and picked up the current issues of two magazines, “O” the Oprah magazine for women, and “GQ” or Gentlemen’s Quarterly for men.  There’s no mistaking what GQ is selling on its front cover, and the cover of “O” touts a headline: “Instant Beauty Boosters.”  In both magazines, there are ads and pictures of attractive people calling us to “Live Your Best Life,” and showing images of what it means to be “Beautiful,” at least according to Estée Lauder.  In both magazines, page after page, we see pictures of slim, young models with buff bodies and flawless complexions in romantic settings, selling various products like makeup, perfumes, clothes and cars.  Who can measure up to these body images throughout the course of one’s life?  As Dallas Willard once observed: “As you encounter advertising and other media at supermarket checkout lines, newsstands, and bookstores or on television, you might think that the most unfortunate people in the world today are fat, the misshapen, the bald, the ugly, [and] the old.”[2]

What these magazine ads and articles and media messages teach us is actually a story of salvation.  Just as in the Christian salvation story, the check-out line teaches us that we are lost in a fallen world, but we can live the good life if we buy newer and better products. 

The Good Life: Health

Preached by Michael Cheuk
October 11, 2009
Romans 12: 1-2

Today, I’m starting a new sermon series called “The Good Life – At Least According to Walmart” and in this series, we’re going to examine the check-out line at Walmart—or really for that matter, any grocery store—to observe and reflect on what the check-out line is trying to teach and sell as the good life.[1] At the check-out line, there are all those impulse items: candy, breath mints, razors, batteries, lip balm, cheap toys, and seasonal items are all strategically placed so that shoppers and their kids will be tempted to buy them.  Then there are the people celebrity, beauty and Soap Opera magazines.  I don’t know about you, when I’m waiting at the check-out line, I confess that I find myself browsing the magazine covers.  It’s really hard to avert your eyes from the beautiful people and the bold headlines promoting their version of the good life.  And one gets the uneasy feeling that we, the customers, are in reality the ones being browsed.  With their hyper-real eyes and Photoshopped bodies, modern-day sirens call out to us with their enticing songs like: “Less Stress. True Bliss.”  “Make Him Fall in Love with You.” “Ten Easy Steps to Financial Independence.”and “Make Your Dream House Come True.”  Market research has browsed and analyzed our desires and made them into various products, packaged and mass-produced for us to purchase as a way to pursue the good life.  At the check-out line, we are faced with the gospel of the god of materialism and success, trying to mold who we are and make us into that image.  Once we recognize that, we can, with God’s help, not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

Today, I want to address the topic of “health” – and just this week, I went to Walmart, and I picked up a couple of magazines at their check-out line.  One of them is Prevention magazine, and on the cover is a picture of Michelle Obama in a blue dress with these headlines: “Happy and Healthy at Any Age: Life Really Gets Good When You’re 40 and 50.”  Another headline is “Flat Belly Foods! Cure Cravings. Speed Metabolism. Beat the Bloat.”  And highlighted in the table of contents is this article: “Win at Weight Loss: What’s the best way to fight over 40 fat?  Miriam Nelson, Ph.D., an exercise pioneer, knows the secret and shares it.  Hint: It’s not with long sessions in the gym.”  Now, I found these articles to be interesting and informative.  I also found them to be wonderful ways to procrastinate from having to work on this sermon!

“Get a Life!” Sermon Series

For five weeks starting September 4, I’m departing from the lectionary and doing a sermon series called “Get a Life!” based on a book by Reggie McNeal called Get a Life!  It IS All About You.

I will not be posting the texts to these sermons because I won’t be preaching out of a manuscript for much of these topical sermons.  However, you can download the audio files below listed in reverse chronological order:

Oct 4: “What Do I Need to Learn?“

Sept 27: “What Am I Really Good At?“

Sept 20: “What Is My Scorecard?“

Sept 13: “What Is Important to Me?“

Sept 6: “Why Am I Here?“

Tough Words to Swallow

Preached by Michael Cheuk
August 23, 2009, Eleventh Sunday of Pentecost, Year B
John 6:55-69

Have you ever been in a situation where you were served something at a meal and you had absolutely no idea what it was? I’ve had several instances in school or in college at which the famous “mystery meat” was served. It’s uncomfortable biting into something you don’t know. However, I do have to say that sometimes for me, it is better to eat something not knowing what it is than to eat something out of the ordinary and knowing exactly what it is. Thirteen years ago, Beth and I traveled to Hong Kong and China with my family to celebrate my grandfather’s eightieth birthday. While we were there, almost every meal was a banquet, and we were served many Chinese “delicacies.” One time, they served us roasted pigeons, which weren’t too bad – I tried to think of them as pieces of midget chickens. Unfortunately for me, among the bits of pigeon wings, thighs, drumsticks and breasts were also roasted pigeon heads, chopped off at the neck, perfectly browned and caramelized, beaks and eyes included! There’s just something disturbing about your food looking back at you while you’re trying to eat it! To make it worse, my Chinese relatives have a practice of reaching into a dish and picking out pieces of food and offering them to Beth and me. On that day, I was praying to God that my relatives would not pick out a pigeon head and put it into my rice bowl. Thankfully they didn’t, but if they had, they would have seen Michael Cheuk up-chuck!

Well, today in our Gospel Lesson from John, Jesus served up some words that were definitely tough to swallow: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” What in the world could Jesus have meant by that?

The Bread of Life

Preached by Michael Cheuk
August 9, 2009, Tenth Sunday After Pentecost, Year B
John 6:35, 41-51

Have you ever been in a situation with a group of people in a quiet setting and your stomach begins growling?  First it starts with a low rumble, and then it quickly crescendos into a loud, gurgling grumble that catches the attention of everyone near you.  You try to look nonchalant, but everyone knows that it is you.  It’s really quite annoying and embarrassing.  But aside from the annoyance and embarrassment, a growling stomach is only a symptom of a deeper issue.  Your body is crying out for food to maintain its existence.  Food, water and air are things that we human beings need on a continuing basis to physically live.  Without those things, we would die.

And so, it is not surprising that when Jesus performed the miracle of feeding five thousand men with loaves of bread and fish at the beginning of John chapter 6, thousands of people began to follow him.  Here was a man who could feed their physical hunger, a man who could sustain their physical existence.  No more embarrassing growling stomachs!  They would have been fools not to follow Jesus.  But Jesus told the crowds in verses 26 and 27 that while they sought Him because they ate the loaves of bread and had their fill, they should work not for food that spoils, but food that endures to eternal life.  Jesus then dug deep into their common history to tell how their ancestors ate manna in the desert, but while that bread would spoil and rot, God the Father could offer the true bread of heaven that gives life to the world.  Upon hearing this, imagine what must have gone through the minds of the people: “Wow, this is even better than the loaves and the fish!  There’s bread that we can eat to give us eternal life!  No more hunger!  No more worries about where our next meal will come from!  One bite of this bread and we can relax and be secure!”  No wonder the crowds responded in verse 34: “Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”

Gifts for the One Body

Preached by Michael Cheuk
August 2, 2009, Ninth Sunday After Pentecost, Year B
Ephesians 4:1-16

The human body is an amazing organism.  I don’t think you have to be a biology major or a medical doctor to appreciate the complexity and beauty of the human body and its functioning.  Each part of the body has its unique function and in order for the body to be fully healthy, every part of the body must do what it is designed to do.  Did you know that:

• By the time you turn 70, your heart will have beat some two-and-a-half billion times (figuring on an average of 70 beats per minute.)?
• Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels?
• It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 to frown?[1]
• Human thighbones are stronger than concrete?
• The average person’s skin weighs twice as much as their brain?
• Your body uses 300 muscles to balance itself when you are standing still?[2]
• No less then 19 muscles and 107 ligaments are used to control the movement of each foot?[3]

Each member of the human body is different in its function, but each is needed for the full vitality and health of the organism as a whole.  Perhaps that’s why the apostle Paul used the metaphor of the human body so many times to describe God’s people, the Church.  We are the body of Christ, says Paul.  In our Epistle lesson this morning, the apostle Paul is teaching us how we as the body of Christ can become mature and attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  There are too many truths to be mined in such a rich passage, and so this morning, I want to highlight three things that Paul is trying to teach us that will help us as a church and in our individual lives.  Those three things are maintaining unity, acknowledging diversity and striving for maturity.