Satisfaction

​Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
Proper 12, Year B
July 25, 2021
 
Cause I try, and I try, and I try,
I can’t get no. No, no, no.
 
Satisfaction, the Rolling Stones classic rock tome makes this important observation.  The harder we try to find satisfaction, the farther away it seems to be.  Such is the paradox of being human.
 
I wonder if Jeff Bezos is satisfied this week.  The Amazon billionaire turned rocket man went to space cost him somewhere north of $19 million dollars to spend five weightless minutes.  That is $3.8 million per minute, or $63,333 per second for that… “achievement.”  When they landed in a Texas desert, Bezos got out of the craft, put on a big ole cowboy hat, and said a few words.  While I am sure his flight helped with some research, employed some folks, the adventure burned 902,000 pounds of fuel.  The claim is that there was no carbon emissions for the flight, but the production, transportation, and storage of that much liquified natural gas fuel begs that question.
 
I wonder if Richard Branson is satisfied following his Space X flight into a short while before Branson’s.  He only got three minutes of weightlessness and has not revealed what it cost, but they are talking reservations for future flights at $250,000 per person.  His vehicle is more plane-like rather than a rocket, so that may have some future applications.  I don’t know.
 
Satisfaction is different for different people, I guess, and people are free to do what they wish, but the whole thing looks like a race to fill some emptiness of spirit, to make some sort of power statement, or find a new frontier to dominate as they have seemingly conquered the world of commerce and industry already. 
 
Satisfaction can be understood as the state of contentment.  What does that require?  Perhaps the bar need not be so high, so complicated, or so costly?
 
We get a glance into the quest for satisfaction in our lessons for today.  King David, the Mac Daddy of the Old Testament, the accomplished statesman, warrior, and empire builder finds himself seeking some other satisfaction.  In the painfully detailed Bathsheba incident, he spies another man’s spouse from his roof top perch, while his people are out at war. David exercises his power and might to bring her into his chambers.  When she reveals that she is with child, David tries to cover the whole thing up, leading to the calculated murder of Bathsheba’s husband, General Uriah.  David’s fall from grace, favor, and fortune is thundering.  He hits hard.  And from then on, his life, his reign, and his spirit crumbles.  The child of that sin dies.  His eldest son rebels against him, and is killed in that same rebellion.  Israel, the great hope for a holy kingdom falls with him.  There was no satisfaction.
 
In absolute contrast, we hear John’s version the feeding of the five thousand story.  This is the only story that we find in all four gospels.  The details are all remarkably similar.  There are hordes of people following Jesus.  They want to be healed and helped.  They want to accept his invitation to abide in the Kingdom of God, though their understanding of what that is… is a bit vague at first.  You know how it goes, it gets late, and folks get hungry.  There is a good bit of chaos and complaining.  A little boy appears with five loaves and two fish.  Jesus tells everyone to sit down, as he takes the loaves, blesses them, breaks them open, and all are fed.  And get this: “When all were satisfied, he told his disciples to gather up the leftovers.  They filed twelve baskets.  There was enough.  There was plenty.  There was more than they could eat.
 
All were satisfied.  They encountered tangible experience and reality of God’s Kingdom, right there and then.  Whatever Jesus was connected to, they want in on that.  But as the only model they had for leadership was a monarchy of dominance, they sought to take him, by force if necessary, and make him king.  As is the way feeble visioned humanity, they got it, but then, they didn’t get it.  Jesus slips away and retreats, as this is not the kind of reign he will fulfill.  He does not play earthly power games as a way to God.  When anyone dominates, someone else is dominated.  That did not work out so well for David.  Later, Jesus is praised as great David’s greater son.  And how.   Satisfaction happens when the power of love is ultimate, when all are fed, all are loved, and, all are saved, finally, from our worst power hungry, self-serving, and empty quests for domination.
 
The novelist and critic Samuel Butler observed that “People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, as they are at seeing it practiced.”  To which theologian G.K. Chesterton added “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”  Indeed, it is really hard to see through the lenses our world sets up as filters for what is real and life giving; that is what the Rolling Stones decry as no satisfaction.
 
Saint Paul steers us this way: “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
 
There is one Way to satisfaction.  One Truth.  One God.  One love.
It will not come through holding office, making some kind of conquest, banking a few billion dollars, or a finding few minutes of weightlessness in space.  Satisfaction comes when God’s abundant love is known, shared, and celebrated.  Satisfaction guaranteed.  Amen.