Pastor's Pen: The Piano Man and Easter

The year was 1972. Billy Joel was stuck in a bad record contract with a dodgy manager. He decided to skip town and make his way to California, hoping to avoid his troubles back in New York City. When he first arrived in the Golden State, he got a job, under an assumed name, playing piano at the Executive Room in Los Angeles. Later, he took that experience and wrote a song about it. When that song, Piano Man, was released, it instantly became a classic.

Joel introduces us to a number of the patrons of the bar who drink and listen to the piano player: “…it's me they've been coming to see/To forget about life for a while.” For some reason, Joel didn’t see any need to change the real names of the customers. We meet Paul, the “real estate novelist/Who never had time for a wife.” Then there is Davy, “who is still in the navy.” We also meet John, who laments, “Well, I'm sure that I could be a movie star/If I could get out of this place.” Each patron has a story of disappointment. In fact, despite the waltz tempo, it is pretty depressing.

The song has probably lasted this many years because it speaks to the common experience of unrealized hopes. Each one of us can list regrets, missed opportunities, and failures. The litany of disappointment recited by the crowd on Saturday night shares much in common with our confession of sin on Sunday morning. Yet there is a difference. On Saturday night, the businessmen lose themselves in their drinks and the piano man's music. They practice a few hours of forgetfulness. On Sunday morning, we don’t come to forget. Instead, we come to receive forgiveness for all eternity. Because of the resurrection, because of Easter, we have victory. We rise above our failure just as our Savior has risen from the ultimate failure of death. Essentially, Billy Joel gives us a glimpse of the church without the empty tomb. It might sustain you for an hour or two, but nothing changes.

The Apostle Paul notes how dreary that would be, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:17-19). The pastor, Eugene Peterson, has expressed Paul’s words this way: “If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot.” The truth of Easter changes everything, and new life is the result.

This year, Easter falls on the first Sunday of the month. That means we will be sharing communion together. We will lift the cup for a toast, not to the musicians, but to the one who rose from the dead. Thankfully, we share more than “a drink they call loneliness.” Thanks to Jesus Christ, we share communion and victory with him. It’s certainly better than “drinking alone.”