Foundry United
Rev.
“Giving Up Money for Lenten: A Spiritual Excercise”
Sunday, April 4,
2011
Rev.
Can’t Get No Satisfaction
Philippians 4:15-20
Rolling Stone magazine has published its lists of the top 500 songs of all time. And because it is Rolling Stone magazine, it does not include operatic arias or hymns. "Jesus is Just Alright with Me" did not even make it. The top five songs on the list are
5. Aretha Franklin "Respect"
4. Marvin Gaye "What’s Going On"
3. John Lennon "Imagine"
1. is Bob Dylan "Like a Rolling Stone"
And number 2 is the Rolling Stone’s "Satisfaction" -- I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.
Keith Richards and Mick Jagger wrote "Satisfaction" during the Rolling Stones’ third U.S. tour. Keith Richards woke up in the middle of the night with the words “I can’t get no satisfaction” and a riff of music to accompany it in his mind. He turned on a tape recorder, sang the words, just these words “I can’t get no satisfaction” into a tape recorder. And then fell back asleep.
He said later the tape contained two minutes of him singing the words “I can’t get no satisfaction” and 40 minutes of snoring.
Mick Jagger wrote the rest of the words to the song during the U.S. tour and, he says, the lyrics to the song are in part a commentary on American materialism.
So here’s a question: What does it say about a culture when Mick Jagger thinks it is too materialistic?
When Jagger wrote the lyric to "Satisfaction" in 1965, commercial radio and TV was still new and rare in England. The English were used to listening to commercial-free BBC radio and TV.
So what Jagger realized during his U.S. tour was that the goal of advertising is to keep us from every becoming satisfied.
He wrote:
When I'm drivin' in my car
And that man comes on the radio
He's tellin' me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination
I can't get no, oh no, no, no
Hey hey hey, that's what I say
I can't get no satisfaction
He wrote:
When I'm watchin' my T.V.
And that man comes on to tell me
How white my shirts can be
But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarrettes as me
I can't get no, oh no, no, no
Hey hey hey, that's what I say
I can't get no satisfaction
He also wrote a verse about sex but I don’t want to go into his personal problems.
What I do want us to notice is that even Mick Jagger realized that American advertising is designed, in large part, to make us dissatisfied with our lives by making us suppose there is something else we need in order to find satisfaction in life.
Some of us are doing a 21-day money fast during Lent in which we try to not spend money on anything except necessities. We are doing it as a spiritual exercise. I’ve been trying to prepare for three weeks but my actual fast begins today and lasts until Easter morning.
I buried my credit card and debit card this morning. No more credit or debit card until Easter. I will celebrate Easter Sunday morning by digging up my debit card.
One of the things I want to think about in my life during this time is what really gives my life a sense of satisfaction. What in life truly satisfies?
And, now, we have actual scientific research to draw on about this. There is a relatively new field of scientific study called positive psychology. Traditional psychology studied psychological problems – neuroses, psychoses, and disorders.
Positive psychology studies what causes people to thrive. Some people call them happiness studies. There are books written about this and the Wall Street Journal did a major article summarizing positive psychology studies a couple of weeks ago.
Positive psychologists are saying that there are two kinds of happiness. Because they need technical jargon in order to be a science, they call these two different kinds of happiness “hedonic well-being” and “eudaimonic well-being.” Hedonic shares the same root as hedonisitic. Eudaimonic is a Greek word used by Aristotle.
Hedonic well-being is pleasure – the kind of pleasure that comes from a good meal, our favorite team winning a game, or buying something we really want. Shopping can be a hedonic pleasure.
The other kind of happiness – eudaimonic well-being – is the experience of satisfaction that comes from a sense that we are fulfilling our potential, making the world a better place, and helping others.
Eudaimonic happiness is often less pleasurable than hedonic well-being on a day-by-day basis because eudaimonic well-being almost always involves personal sacrifice.
Here’s what the Wall Street Journal says scientific studies in positive psychology have discovered.
In a study of some 7,000 people begun in 1995, scientists have discovered that people with higher levels of eudaimonic well-being had significantly lower levels of interleukin-6 in their bodies. Higher levels of interleukin-6 are associated with coronary disease, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer disease. The research suggests that the more we have a sense of fulfilling our potential in life, helping others, and making the world a better place the less likely we are to have a coronary, develop osteoporosis, or get Alzheimers.
In another study of people with an average age of 80, those who reported a lesser sense of purpose in life were more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimers as those who reported a greater purpose in life.
This is from a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Another study showed that people who reported higher levels of hedonic pleasure – the kind that comes from shopping – tended to use their brains differently from those who had a higher level of eudaimonic well-being – that comes from helping others.
Those with hedonic pleasure from things like shopping used their pre-frontal cortex less than those with higher levels of eudaimonic well-being. The pre-frontal cortex is where we do our higher level thinking, such as goal-setting, language, and memory.
So, by the logic of the Wall Street Journal, the possibility exists that too much shopping can make us stupider.
So for those of us doing the money fast this Lent, or others of us who are paying attention to our spending during this season, it occurs to me that just doing the money fast may not be enough.
It may not be enough just to give up something. It may be important also to take on something; some way of helping others, some way of making a difference.
We have a member here at Foundry who can be very irritating. I’m going to tell you his name. He is a retired pastor and his name is Don Lowe. Don can be annoying.
When I first started talking about the money fast Don said to me that we ought to give the money we save on the money fast to some ministry to help others.
I said, no, Don, the money fast is a spiritual exercise, not a fund-raiser. I don’t want to confuse people into thinking the money fast is just another fund-raiser.
The next time I saw Don, he said to me, I don’t understand why we aren’t giving the money we save on the money fast to some ministry to help others. I said, Don, the money fast isn’t about that.
The next time I saw Don, he said, we ought to be giving the money we save on the money fast to somebody. I said, no, Don.
But this week my own spirit has been telling me that I ought to be giving the money I save over the next three weeks to help somebody else and to make a difference in the world.
So I’ve decided to keep as careful and honest records as I can on the money I probably would have spent if I wasn’t on the money fast and I am going to give it to our Volunteer in Mission project for Haiti. And I’d like to invite you to consider giving the money you don’t spend on the money fast to something you really care about.
So, Don, you win.
And find other ways of making a difference during the money fast. Join in our Great Day of Service Saturday, April 16. Run a race for a good cause. Fill this time with acts of service and self-giving.
Of all the churches the Apostle Paul founded and led, there was only one congregation that supported him financially. It was the Philippian church. When Paul was in prison near the end of his life they send him one last financial gift.
When Paul was thanking them in his letter to the Philippians, he told them that they didn’t need to send him any more money. Whatever obligations they had to him they had fulfilled with this last gift.
His words are: “I have been paid in full and have more than enough; I am fully satisfied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent …” (Philippians 4:18)
Language scholars say he is using the language here of financial accounting. And when he uses the word “satisfied,” he is using it in the sense of satisfying a debt or a bill. In accounting language, when a bill or debt has been paid, it has been satisfied. So Paul is saying whatever the Philippians owed him for his ministry to them, this gift satisfied it.
Then he uses the exact same accounting word to say this to the Philippians: “And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to [God’s] riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)
The promise is not that God will provide every material thing we think we need, but that we will receive all that God owes us, which is the opportunity to live out our potential, to help others, and to make a difference in the world.
Rich or poor or somewhere in between, we may not all find hedonic happiness but we can all know eudaimonic satisfaction.
I want to quote another retired pastor this morning. His name is Peter DeGroote. When Peter was on staff here and Peter sensed that I was experiencing frustration or discouragement, Peter used to say to me, “Just get out of here. Get yourself out of this church and spend some time ministering to somebody in a hospital or nursing home or hospice. It will make you feel better."
And it always did…it always did, not just often, not just usually, but 100 percent of the time. It always did.
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