What do you think of when you think of the good life? Are there people who spring to mind? Is it about comfort, material blessings, living without guilt or regret, being famous in some way or another? We have many, many descriptions for the good life. I, in my ever-present, yet seldom acted upon, desire to simplify my life, love the Life is Good® line of t-shirts. They are simple, direct, and remind us that life is the good-est in the little things. The two brothers who created the clothing line just wanted to spread optimism. The fact that the shirts and gear are so popular says to me that most of us are attracted to optimism. The fact that other lines of clothing in a parody of the Life is Good® shirts were distributed (and I choose not to use the name of the shirts from the pulpit) also remind me that not everyone is quite so enthusiastic about being optimistic. Nevertheless, most of us long for the simplicity of optimism in our lives, particularly our spiritual lives. Today, I am the bearer of good news—Jesus says that eternal life is to know God and to know that God sent Jesus to model the good life to us. Pretty simple, right? If it is so simple, why then, do we have so many people telling us how to live such a life?
Many preachers, and I know that many of you know or knew some, focus on the ‘don’ts’. I, for one, and I know that I am joined by many of you, don’t do well with don’ts. I long to know that, “Yes, life is good and I am a part of all that goodness”. Paul, in our beautiful passage for today, gives as clear a description of the ‘good life’ as appears anywhere and it is mostly in do’s. Beginning with the nature of our spiritual lives—our relationship with ourselves—he says, “Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it”. Ah, we find we are back to the sermon from a couple of weeks ago, regarding living an authentic life—you remember, a life where the inner matches the outer. Paul calls us to this congruent life at the very beginning of his description of the so-called ‘good life’. Then he tells us where our focus should be: “Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good”. We hold on to the good (may I suggest that optimism as well as morality may be implied here?) and by holding on to the good, we plant ourselves firmly in the ‘good’ of all creation.
From there Paul begins to talk about our relationships in this present life (he will return to this theme again), “ Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle”. Most of us would identify the first half of Paul’s admonition regarding others to be the most important. One really cannot do one without the other, however. We have to be able and willing to put our friends first if we truly love deeply. Paul then turns to the question of the longevity of such a life. “ Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of Jesus, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder”. I love the line “keep yourselves fueled and aflame”; if ever there was an endorsement for spending time with God—refueling—this is it. Though Paul does not say as much, we know that prayer and meditation was crucial to Paul’s own spirituality. He spent many a hour preparing his heart for his work in spreading the good news.
He finishes with a list of do’s and don’ts—this is, after all, Paul writing, which give us simple guidelines for living the ‘good life’ in the context of a community. We might want to pay special attention:
1. Help needy Christians. Indeed, we strive to do this when we remember. It’s the remembering that can be hard.
2. Be inventive in hospitality. I take this to mean that we are to practice hospitality in ways that no one has thought of before—ways that are so inventive that people will have no way to expect or anticipate the hospitality.
3. Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Ok, this one is a challenge—one that’s been on my spiritual growth radar for years. Always a struggle, but always worth the struggle.
4. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy. This is the easy part; except when you are not happy yourself—perhaps their laughter can help move you into laughter as well.
5. Share tears when they’re down. My child welfare workers used to ask me what they should do when a child was on the floor sobbing his or her heart out. My answer—get on the floor and wait.
6. Get along with each other. If it were only this easy. If you have siblings, you more than likely had a parent who asked, “Why can’t you just get along?” I never had a good answer, did you? I wonder what it would have looked like if I had been able to say, “Well, I don’t know. I’ll pray about it.” I’m thinking that might have put some light on the subject.
7. Don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody. When we go out of our way to make friends with those whose worth is not acknowledged by others, we receive the greater blessing by far.
8. Don’t hit back. Imagine the number of wars that would never happen if we could just not hit back.
9. Discover beauty in everyone. Sorta like #7 and, yet, it expands it to encourage us to find and help the person find that inner beauty, that spark of the divine.
10. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. This must be important since Paul says this twice.
11. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.” Walk away, just walk away…leave it to God.
And finally, on the treatment of our enemies, “Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy
hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him
with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.” Clear and to the point, this needs no further explanation. It may, however, need motivation. I did not include this as #12 in the prior list, because it seems as if this reaches far beyond our community and into the world to all of those who oppose justice and truth. One heart a time, when we “get the best of evil by doing good”, we will change the world.
So, what does all of this mean for us, here on the Sunday before Palm Sunday? I believe that Paul’s description of the good life is a way for us to finish up our Lenten pilgrimage because we know the life to which we have been called. There is one very important aspect missing from our conversation. That is the why? Why do we choose to seek this ‘good life’? Who or what calls us into this strenuous re-examination of our inner selves at this Lenten time. Is it Jesus, himself, or the Holy Spirit? Perhaps, but perhaps it is the seeking of our own hearts—those hearts graced by the presence of the Sacred within—perhaps it is the wisdom of our inner spirits whispering—‘there is so much more”. Is this not what Lent is all about? We open ourselves to listen more carefully, respond more thoroughly and to ask more directly. We choose to spend more time in silence, in contemplation. We do not necessarily deprive ourselves of something we hold dear. We may find, however, in this pilgrimage to the good life that things that felt dear to us as the beginning of this journey are willingly left behind because we no longer need those things.
It is not too late to spend extra time alone with God this Lenten Season. Perhaps the nearness of Palm Sunday caught you napping. But this last week, the week before the final week of Jesus’ life plays out once again, you have the opportunity to ask the Truth and Beauty of the Universe, this God who we call ‘good’ where you fit. You have the opportunity to ask yourself, “Do I really want this good life?” You have more than enough time to open your hands and heart to the Sacred within and without yourself and allow the stillness of the Truth of God flood your hearts and minds with peace, beauty and joy. Amen and amen.
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