1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26
Do any of you remember Schlitz beer? I don’t know if they ever sold it in Virginia — I don’t know if they even make it any more. The beer itself is eminently forgettable, but I can still recall the television commercials for it I saw when I was a child. Their catchphrase was, “When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer,” but what has stayed with me most vividly is this one ad. There’s a guy getting off a boat: I think he was a commercial fisherman coming home from a trip. He kisses this woman, presumably his wife or his girlfriend, and then all these smiling people join them for this big happy clambake on the beach. Meanwhile there’s a manly voiceover saying, “You only go around once in life, so you’ve gotta go for the gusto everyday.” It left an impression on me, but not a happy one. My ten-year-old brain would think, “We’ve only got this one life! This is it: the pressure is on! But what if you don’t have someone to kiss? What if your friends don’t throw a party for you? What if you miss out on the gusto? What if you mess up badly? What if you get cancer and die when you’re 20?! Gah!” I was an intense kid, but that kind of anxiety is not unique to me. The idea that we’ve only got one life to live and we better get it right or else is pretty common. And it has been running through my mind this week as I have pondered Paul’s momentous words to the Corinthians: If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
What is the purpose of this life? I realize that, day to day, most of us are just focused on doing what we’ve got to do: working, raising children, taking care of aging parents, fixing the leaky faucet in the kitchen, going to the store, going to church, and trying to have some fun in the midst of everything else. But here in worship together, we can pause, step back from all the busyness, and in the light of Christ, ask ourselves: Why do we do what we do? What is the purpose of it all? And are we achieving that purpose? If the purpose of life is to live to the age of 100 and then die peacefully in your sleep, billions of people in human history will fail. If the purpose of life is to become rich and famous, billions of people in human history will fail. If the purpose of life is to have a spouse and two children, living in a home you own with enough money to retire comfortably on, billions of people in human history will fail. If the purpose of life is to belong to the right religion and live an exemplary life following the precepts of that religion, billions of people in human history will fail. Is this life just a test that only a select few will pass? Would a God of love create a world where most of the inhabitants are doomed to failure?
I think the answer to that is a resounding “No.” Jesus Christ shows us the purpose of life, and that purpose is to expand the experience of love in every possible way. That is what Jesus does: whether he’s at a dinner party with the Pharisees or healing a leper, Jesus increases the amount of love in the world. There is no situation, no matter how mundane or how horrific, in which Jesus does not do that. Even dying on the cross, Jesus expands the experience of love. And with his Spirit we can all do that, regardless of our jobs, our talents, or our circumstances. We can manifest love while volunteering in the food pantry when we’re 80. We can manifest love while dying of leukemia at the age of 18. Rich people can do this. Poor people can do this. I’ve personally seen people of all ages and all life circumstances do this. That’s why we are here: to experience and reflect God’s love in every possible earthly situation.
And if it seems unfair that some people get to know and share love into a prosperous old age while others do so only briefly before dying young and poor, then the words of Paul hit home: If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. Our faith calls us to understand that our life is an eternal one that goes far beyond our very brief sojourn on Earth, and that our “self” is so much greater than our current human embodiment. So regardless of our fortunes in this world, all shall be well. This is what Jesus assures us of in the Gospel today. Even if we are poor, hungry, weeping, and persecuted, we can grow in love and God will, in the world to come, redeem all our suffering — all of it — and turn it to good as we, in Paul’s words, go from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18) in a life journey that is truly eternal.
That Schlitz commercial got it wrong: we can go for the gusto precisely because this life is not all that we have. So rather than going through life defensively, desperately trying to make sure we get whatever we can for ourselves, we can relax: our ultimate well-being is assured. And so we are free to fulfill our purpose and grow in our experience of love. And we can take risks as we do that: we can let ourselves be vulnerable, loving people even though they may leave us or die. We can make sacrifices for others and find ways to give ourselves away. And we can do all of this knowing that sometimes we will fail, and that’s okay: we don’t need to hold back because we’re afraid. Jesus calls us to let go of fear so that we can live freely and lovingly: it is the only way we can find true happiness and fulfillment. And along the way we can enjoy the wonderful things of this world and relish them while we are here, whether that is for nineteen years or ninety years. And we can look forward to more wonderful things in the world to come. After all, it is in God that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28), and God is love — always and forever.
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