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!