"I Can’t Get No Satisfaction"

(With apologies to Mick Jagger)

A sermon preached at Christos Metropolitan Community Church, Toronto, Ontario, and

Holy Fellowship Metropolitan Community Church, London, Ontario,

August 3, 2003

Today I’m going to start, appropriately enough, with a fairy tale. Actually, it’s an ancient Japanese fable, about Tasuku, the stone-cutter. Tasuku was a poor man, and he cut blocks of stone to make a living for himself and his family. Every day, he’d take his chisel and his hammer, and chip away at the foot of a mountain. It was very hard work.

One day, Tasuku saw a samurai prince riding by. He was dressed in beautiful clothes, had a great big shiny sword, and everywhere he went, people respected and feared him. Tasuku envied the samurai, and he wished he had that kind of power. Every day, as he worked chipping away at the stone he wished he were a rich samurai. He wished and he wished, and finally the powers that be heard him, and he was made a wealthy samurai. And Tasuku was very happy with his fine silk clothes, and his powerful army, and his great big shiny sword....

...until one day, when he was looking out his window, and saw the sun wilt the flowers in his garden. "Now THAT’S real power," he said to himself. And he began to wish for power like that. He wished and he wished for power like the sun had, and eventually, the powers that be turned him into the sun, and Tasuku was happy again. He was THE SUN, with power to parch fields and make people humble with thirst. And Tasuku was very happy to be the sun,...

...until one day, a cloud came and covered him, and obscured his powerful heat. This made him grumpy. So he made ANOTHER wish, and once again, the powers that be complied. Thereafter, Tasuku was a cloud, with the power to ravage the land with floods and storms. So, once again, Tasuku was happy....

...until one day, when he made a great storm and he crashed against the mountain with his rain and his thunder and his lightning.... and the mountain just stood there.

Tasuku was tired of wishing. This time he just DEMANDED to be the mountain, and, poof, he WAS the mountain. He was more powerful than the samurai, more powerful than the sun, more powerful than the storm. And he was VERY happy...

...until one day, when he felt a chisel chipping away at his feet. And there, at the foot of the mountain, was a stonecutter, working away, cutting blocks of stone to sell, to make a living for himself and his family.

You just can’t satisfy some people.

I gave some serious thought to having us try to sing "I Can’t Get No Satisfaction" today, in honour of the Rolling Stones concert last week in Toronto. Alas, it didn’t seem edifying, and I can’t play guitar. But the sentiment is a real one. People just can’t seem to get no satisfaction.

Some people seem driven. Some of us are always working toward something, unable to relax, unable to find satisfaction for more than a few minutes at a time. Constantly seeking something. We work hard. We play hard. We party hearty, and we hope in these activities we’ll eventually find some kind of satisfaction.

And yet, despite all we do, we continue to hunger and thirst, for something. What are we looking for??? What will make us happy??? What will set our souls at rest??

In our fairy tale, Tasuku never found out. He got everything he wished for, and still, he never found out. Jesus tells us, in today’s scripture, about the Israelites in the desert. They never found out either, even though they got what they wished for, to be led out of bondage in Egypt. If we read about them in Exodus, we find that they made as many demands as Tasuku. They demanded water in the desert, and then they hated the bitter water they got. So God made it sweet for them. Then they demanded bread in the wilderness, and manna was provided, enough for each day.

Yet within a few days the people were complaining again to Moses. What were they looking for? They prayed and God answered them. What would have made them happy? They complained, and God responded. What would have set their souls at rest? All of their wishes were granted, and yet they still were unsatisfied. What did they want?

What is it that WE want? Do we want something that will allow us to "let go" of dissatisfaction? Something that will allow us to trust in God? Something that will just help us to face life with all its uncertainties? Or are we seeking after something that will only lead us to want more? Or to want something different, like Tasuku, or like the people in the wilderness? Do we seek the things of God? Or the things of this world?

Last week, we read about Jesus feeding a crowd of thousands with five little loaves and two fish. Everyone ate and was filled. Everyone had as much as they wanted. And we read, last week, that after that, they hailed Jesus as a prophet, and wanted to make him king. Why did they do that? Well, they probably thought, hey, this is someone special. Someone who can satisfy our hunger. Someone who can free us from Roman oppression. Someone who could put us on easy street and make us a great nation again.

But Jesus wasn’t a bit flattered by their interest in him when they chased him down across the sea. It’s interesting to me that after the crowd had been fed miraculously, people came to Jesus still looking for a sign. What more did they want? That miracle only satisfied them for a day. Not even a full day. Like the Israelites of old, who experienced the miracle of crossing the Red Sea only to complain later about being out in the wilderness. "We shoulda stayed in Egypt," they complained. Then God satisfied them daily with Manna. They had enough for the journey on a daily basis.

So Jesus knew that what the people really needed was something that would last. He knew the difference between that which is – by its very nature – only temporary and passing, quick to wither and fade, and that which has the ability to truly satisfy. So he said to them, "Truly, I tell you, you’re chasing after me, not because you saw signs, but because you got your bellyful of bread. Don’t go chasing after food that perishes, but seek food that endures eternally." What he was saying was that there’s another kind of bread, another kind of food.

This is NOT to despise the things that we already know, the things we need for our daily existence. That’s important. But it’s not everything. There is more to life. It’s like we sang earlier... "we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." To have the bread of life that Jesus is talking about is to discover a balance and a harmony to life. It’s finding our true selves, and finding a relationship with God. It’s discovering the possibility of a lasting peace and an enduring satisfaction, to uncover the hidden connectedness of life – that connectedness that satisfies our hunger and quenches our thirst. This is what Jesus means by the bread of life.

Jesus promises us in the Gospel today the bread that endures. And he can make that promise because he IS that bread. When we give ourselves over to Christ, we can TASTE the difference in our lives.

Let’s look a little at this bread of life. What good is it to us? What can we really say about it? I can think of three things. You may be able to think of more. First of all, I think we can say that the bread of life is daily bread. "Give us this day our daily bread." It comes to us fresh and new each day, day in and day out. Is that enough?

Yes. That’s enough. That is exactly what we need. We have enough spiritual resources for the day, and that really is all we need, because today really is all we have. We have a tendency to think that each day isn’t important because of the many days we have ahead of us. But today isn’t a dress rehearsal. It’s the real thing. It’s all we ever have. We may not have another day. And we have too few to squander, even if we live to a ripe old age. And every day we’re given the gift of life. We need to accept the gifts that are given us, TODAY. We need to be still, and know that God delivers, daily. Every time God feeds us, – every WAY God feeds us – it’s an act of love.

While I was first working on this sermon, someone asked me, what would you say about the bread of life if you thought about who made it. And, strangely enough, the image that came to me was of an old woman, making tortillas, to feed her children and grandchildren. Tortillas are simple, peasant food. Kind of like the barley cakes that the boy offered Jesus, that he used to feed the thousands. That simple, daily food satisfies best. Not the fancy pastry we run around, chasing after all our lives, but the simple, daily food that satisfies. That’s the bread of life.

I think another thing we can say about the bread of life is that it’s bread that really endures. I try to nurture my life each day with some word from scripture or some other inspired writing. Some days are better than others. But I try. There are some favourite passages that I say over and over again in my mind at the beginning of the day, and I find it sustaining. It might be a passage like, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Or "those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary and walk and not faint." I’ve got that one embroidered on a sampler over my desk. Sometimes I sit and sing to myself the song we sang earlier, "Seek ye first the presence of God...."

When I sit quietly and start the day like that, it’s amazing how it affects the day. And how we start each day is how we live each day. And how we live each day is how we live our lives.

And finally, when we SHARE the bread of life, that’s how we’re strengthened together for the journey. There was a movie called Soul Food, which came out five or six years ago. And in the movie, Mama Joe, the mother of this African American family, has held her clan together for 40 years around a Sunday dinner of soul food. Fried chicken and smothered pork chops to die for. Greens and cabbage and mashed potatoes and gravy. Baked macaroni and cheese. But I digress....

Anyhow, in the movie, the mother has to go to the hospital, so the dinners stop. And the family kind of falls apart. The tensions among her daughters start to break up the family. They’re feuding continuously, and they’re on the verge of never speaking again. Finally, Mama Joe's grandson Ahmad cooks up a scheme to bring the family together, back to the table, because it’s around the table that the family enjoys not just food for the body but food for the soul. Around the table they come together as a community who care for and love one another and accept one another's differences. When they’re no longer gathering around the table, they’re all just lone individuals fighting for their individual rights and seeking individual power and forgetting the needs of others. But around the table, they’re a family, and they love and accept one another. They’re a community.

When we gather at the table for communion we share the bread of life. We’re a community of Christ's reconciling love. That’s what holds us together. And that’s what we share together with the world.

So.... What do YOU want? What’s the bread that YOU seek? Is it bread that satisfies for a moment and then is gone and leaves you hungry? The two-bite brownies of the world? Or do you want the bread that lasts for ever, that never leaves you hungry? What do you want?

Sources gratefully acknowledged:  Rev. Richard Fairchild; United Online.