SATISFIED MIND
Exodus 16:2-4,9-15 Ephesians 4:17-25 John 6:24-35
What would make you happy?
What would satisfy you? Imagine
living as an enslaved people, hated and feared by your masters. Freedom looms just over the horizon and your
worst nightmare is in your rearview mirror.
Would you be satisfied?
The Israelites said … "If only
we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land
of Egypt, when we sat by the
fleshpots and ate our fill of bread..."
When I read these verses, I’m reminded of a song from the
mid 1950s, written by "Red" Hayes and Jack Rhodes. Hayes said, of the song, Satisfied Mind ,
The song came from my mother. Everything in the song are things I heard her
say over the years. I put a lot of
thought into the song before I came up with the title. One day my father-in-law asked me who I
thought the richest man in the world was, and I mentioned some names. He said, "You're wrong, it is the man with
a satisfied mind." It has been done
a lot in churches. I came out of the
Opry one night and a church service was going on nearby. The first thing I hear was the congregation
singing "Satisfied Mind." I
got down on my knees.
-- [as quoted in Country Music People, Jul 1973,
reprinted in Dorothy Horstman, Sing Your
Heart Out, Country Boy, New York, 1976, p. 255.]
How many times have you heard someone say,
"If I had his money I'd do things my way."
But little they know that it's so hard to find
One rich man in ten with a satisfied mind.
Money can't buy back your youth when you're old
Or a friend when you're lonely or a love that's grown cold;
The wealthiest person is a pauper at times
Compared to the man with a satisfied mind.
I once thought our purpose; our goal in life was
contentment— until I realized how elusive that is. I am, after all, a product of the culture in
which I was born and raised. I was
probably ten when I saw television for the first time— and around 15 when we
acquired a television set of our own. I
have to tell you, I was never so disappointed in anything as much as when I saw
the Lone Ranger on television. Standing
before what was obviously a fake rock, his gut hanging over his belt! He just looked so much more heroic in my mind
on radio!
But television, good roads, cheap travel— these opened our
eyes to a wider world than our ancestors could have imagined. And they opened our hearts to want more than
our ancestors could have imagined. I
read recently that Gallup began a
poll if measuring “satisfaction” in the 1940s.
While the numbers change with immediate events, the trend has been
downward since the mid 1950s. At a time
when the average size of a family home was less than 1,000 square feet and most
folks were fortunate to have a car in their garage, satisfaction was higher than
today, with an average size home almost double that—and fewer kids to fill that
space; with two and three cars, an overabundance of food, literally hundreds of
channels to watch on TV. My grandson and
his wife just came back from Dublin, Ireland. They flew over to see the opening concert of
U2 new tour—because it was sold out in Dallas
where they live!
Don’t misunderstand— these things are nice; they make
life enjoyable and offer many advantages.
But— always the “but”— but they can become burdens if acquiring things
becomes our goal in life. Enjoy what you
have, what you receive, but, as Paul, writing to Timothy says, keep sight of
the truth that great gain is found in godliness with contentment.
The things we think we need for happiness in this world are
illusory— easy come; easy go. Have you
ever wanted something to the point of thinking you absolutely had to have it to
make your life complete, only to get it and find you are no more complete than
before you ever thought of it in the first place? That, of course, is the purpose of what we
call marketing— to create a desire, a sense of need, to offer fulfillment and
satisfaction— if you only have this house, this car, this item, this brand,
this, this, this.
In his letter to the Philippians, Paul, writing about the
concern they have shown for his travails says: “I have learned to be content
with whatever I have. I know what it is
to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned
the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being
in need. I can do all things through him
who strengthens me.”
I think one of the things I like best about the Bible as
sacred literature is that it tells not about a remote god and how to follow
that remote god’s rules but rather shows humankind in relationship with a very present
God, with one another, and even with our selves as individuals. The Bible, even in my “away from God” period,
has always helped me understand something of life, people, and my own thoughts
and feelings.
The Israelites, recently freed from an onerous situation of
slavery and abuse, are still dissatisfied with their condition. Freedom from isn’t always what we
imagine it to be; it must be accompanied by commitment to. Israel
has become a people with no country, no home.
Though barely out of the prison which Egypt
had become, they have quickly developed selective memory and fond thoughts
about the customs that developed and the foods to which they became accustomed
in 400 years of sojourn there. “Well,
maybe the old days weren’t so bad.” Ah, the
power of selective memory, memory filtered through the passions and hungers of the
flesh to which we choose to listen.
Following Christ is less a matter of head than of heart; less
of belief than of faith; less of thought than of spiritual sensitivity. It is not about we want but about finding our
true home and place in God’s kingdom.
For many reasons there is a special place in my heart for stories about
characters that are searching for and find their home. Home is not about returning to the past but
entering that place where we find rest, peace, and the elusive quality of
belonging. It is where we know that come
mealtime, we will gather with our family around the table and share our lives
through food and drink, through stories and listening, through drawing close in
spite of our differences.
Last Sunday, as we encountered the compassionate Christ
feeding 5,000 with a meager amount of resources, we saw that what is insufficient
in our hands is abundance in God’s. He
feeds his flock, he offers bread and drink that is his son. We are invited to, in our own brokenness,
take, eat, and give even as he takes, blesses, breaks, and gives to us.
Because the crowd ate bread and saw miracles they wanted to
raise Jesus up as their king. But Jesus
came to be our savior, to bring us into a kingdom different from our own. Jesus is already king— their desire is to
trap him into being the one who will make life easy, grant their wishes. But Jesus is calling us home, home to the
place where our Creator and God is waiting and longing to gather us
around. A place of true satisfaction
rather than an elusive image of satisfaction.
Whatever else Red Hayes and Jack Rhodes might have meant in
their words, I think that the last verse offers the hope of all of us:
When life has ended, my time has run out,
My friends and my loved ones I'll leave, there's no doubt.
But one thing for certain, when it comes my time,
I'll leave this old world with a satisfied mind.
That is what Jesus offers us in the call to enter the
kingdom, to set our hearts and minds on things above. Then we shall be satisfied with “holy and
imperishable food, the Body and Blood of our Savior, the holy food and drink of
new and unending life in him.”
Amen.
The Rev. John Dryden Burton
preached at St. Andrews’ Episcopal Church
Rogers, AR
August 2, 2009
8.09