Happiness is . . . .

Pentecost 13 August 26 2012

John 6:56-69

     Stanford and other university researchers have come up with some interesting research over the past few years that has produced some surprising results.  For example, in a number of studies intended to figure out what makes us happy, they’ve discovered over and over again, that it is usually not what we think or imagine it will be.  One simple design for the research was to survey people who were able to get what they wanted, and survey people who got something other than what they wanted---and then ask two or three days later, how they felt about what they got.   Invariably, the people who got what they thought  would make them happy were more dissatisfied two days later than the people who got something else.

     You know, we have this saying when we are enthusiastic about something new to us.  The saying is, “That’s the next best thing to sliced-white bread!”  Whenever I hear that saying or say it myself, it is usually meant as a cautionary-comment.  Because the researchers are right and some of us have been around long enough to see at least one example of what happens when we get what we think we want come full circle.
     Naturally dark bread made from whole grains was standard until fairly recent history. Most people didn’t have time or money to afford more finely milled bread, which is naturally lighter in color and texture.  Only the wealthy could afford to eat bread made from just the heart of the wheat kernel, which I suppose also made white bread something of a status symbol.  Then, in 1930, the Continental Baking Company introduced sliced Wonder Bread.  Sales were slow at first, as sliced-bread was more expensive but convenience soon overruled other considerations, and soon everyone wanted sliced Wonder Bread (building strong bodies 12 ways!) on their dinner table.  So, there was nothing as good as sliced white bread!
     But more recently, whole grain breads have taken off in popularity as have so-called “artisan bread bakeries,” like the Panera’s chain, or Mackenzie’s Bakery.  Now we actually pay more for dark chewy bread, especially if can get it unsliced and whole, so we have privilege of slicing it ourselves for our dinner guests. 
     My point is that we are first and foremost consumers, and as consumers we are always looking for things that will make us happy and happier.  And while “consumerism” may be a twentieth-century word, it is definitely not a new concept.  Whole industries have grown up and flourished around “keeping the customer satisfied,” so much so, that hundreds of churches have either sprung up or reinvented themselves in order to cater to our consumer indulgent culture.  The whole science of “Church Growth and Congregational Development” is founded on ensuring that people have a “good experience” in church.  
       The bigger, so-called “wired churches” take the idea so far as to build their churches around the shopping mall concept, together with big entertainment with performance stages, expensive sound and lighting equipment to keep people entertained, to keep people “happy.”  These churches are succeeding at making church a “fun” experience that keeps people coming back.  
      But it becomes problematic when enjoyment, fun or convenience become our end goal.  That is, when we settle for personal enjoyment---we give up on true happiness.  Which is understandable, given the human tendency to constantly fall short in finding true happiness. To greater and lesser degrees, we all live in a state of constant dissatisfaction with what is going on in our lives---which, when we give in to it—keeps us shopping around for that better, thing or experience, once it is ours, will finally do the trick, make us happy.  But research proves we place our hope in the wrong things---that all too predictably, we don’t even really know what will make us happy.
     For example, one researcher, Michael Norton of Cambridge, began by asking the question, “Will having money make you happy?” Across cultures, everyone agreed that having more money would make them more happy. But in experiments repeated in wealthier countries like the US and Canada, and then in very poor African countries, like Rwanda---researchers found that having money doesn’t make people as happy as they thought it would.  Of course, having money doesn’t make you unhappy (unless like so many lottery winners surveyed in a CNN study a few years ago, it ruins your life and all your relationships.) Mr. Norton found that mostly, having money---in and of itself---is value-neutral.  Most people, when given money, spend it on themselves, too. 
    But when asked, the researchers found that the people who spent it on themselves reported less happiness, than the people who gave the money away.  In the end, researchers say, “Money CAN make you happy.  But money only makes you happy when you give it away.”   
     With reference to this Sunday’s gospel and most of Jesus’ teachings, it is not hard to see why so many of Jesus’ followers eventually just gave up on him.  Jesus’ teachings were as  counter-intuitive  as Michael Norton’s research about money and happiness.  “Give, and you will receive,” says Jesus.  “Your gift will return to you in full--pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back." “Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.”
     And, finally in John’s gospel, Jesus identified himself as life-giving bread that could not be earned by the sweat of human work, and could only come as a gift in relationship to the giver.   As one writer puts it, “ If Jesus is the bread of life, we are nothing more than the 5000 plus hungry pilgrims on the hillside, or the lost wanderers in the Sinai desert.” Who wants that?
     People were just as interested in getting something out of their investment in Jesus’ time, as we are and were just as avid in their pursuit of happiness. They didn’t know anything about “consumerism” and for many, hard cash in the form of shekels was rare.  But they were human like us, looking for whatever would feed their hunger and finally help them to feel happy and satisfied.  When it was clear that Jesus wanted to be more than a “quick fix” in the form of a free lunch, they lost interest.  
      When his words and teaching became, as John puts it, “difficult,” most wandered off to find something a little easier.  Jesus was inviting them to go deeper and take a risk,  in order to find that which could really satisfy their hungers.
     But we know how that turned out.  Most couldn’t stomach it. They just couldn’t see enough in it for themselves, so they quit.
     Something like it happened in churches in the Southern United States in the late 50’s  and in the 60's, when liberal preachers openly called on their congregations to support the Civil Rights Movement.  There was a great exodus of people who left churches whose preacher spoke out in protest against desegregation.  Also in South Africa, when in the 1980′s, preachers in white churches started calling “apartheid” the destructive, dehumanizing sin it was.  South African Methodist preacher, Peter Woods writes of that time, “The exodus from such challenging preaching . . . was huge.  I used to call such people ‘Tutu Refugees’ as they tried to disown and disavow the courageous actions of the diminutive Archbishop.”¹  Something like it is happening right now in Great Britain, in the Church of England, as some people persist in asking for the consecration of women to the Episcopate.  Something like it is happening now in the Episcopal Church as many people have left even as gay, lesbian and transsexual Christians are welcomed, because many find the teachings of the church on these issues too uncomfortable or difficult to stay with.
    Christian writer and apologist C.S. Lewis once said,  “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy.  I always knew a bottle of Port would do that.  If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”
     Wherever that place is within your own mind and heart where what the Gospel seems to ask of you is too much---if you wonder if continuing in a certain direction or not is, in the end, going to make you happy---Christ is there.  He never demands you do what he says.  God always keeps the door open for coming in, and for going out.  It is an open question that only we can answer, “Do you also want to go away?”   Will you trust Jesus to know and to give you what you want, even when you don’t know for sure yourself?  Will you trust Jesus with your deepest heart’s desire—secret perhaps, even from you.  May it always be true for me and for you, that our response be, “Lord, to whom can we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”

 

¹http://thelisteninghermit.wordpress.com/