Burdened
by Choices?
A Sermon by
Rev. Sharon Goss
Do you know how many different kinds
of crackers are stocked at Market Basket?
Author Barry Schwartz counted the number at his local supermarket and
found 85 – along with 285 types of cookies, 230 variations on soup, 120 pasta
sauces, and 175 kinds of salad dressing.
When we’re in the market for a spouse,
a new car, or for that matter a new minister, it’s nice to know we have
choices. Some amount of choice is good. Those who have no choices quickly become
depressed; and if given no choices, people become unable to respond even when choices
do come their way.
But might the vast array of choices we
have in so many situations sometimes be too much of a good thing? Yes, say a
growing number of people, including Barry Schwartz, whose most
recent book is The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less . For one thing, the more choices we have, the
more time we spend on making decisions. Some
of us are what Schwartz calls “satisficers,” willing
to settle for good enough. But ten
percent of us are mazimizers: people who think long and hard about every choice. Before choosing these folk read consumer
reports, gather manufacturers’ data, talk to other consumers,
and comparison shop until they drop.
Maximizers often end up with decisions that
are, objectively speaking, sound ones. But guess what! Apparently, the more
time people spend on making decisions, the less apt they are to be happy with
their choices. -- And the less happy they are with life in general.
Before I tell you why, let me explain
why this is a subject for a sermon. Much
of the Bible, as I’ve said before, is devoted to helping people live wisely. Today in Proverbs, we hear that Wisdom and
God are intertwined. Wisdom is a lot
more than a practical tool. She was
there in the very beginning, says Proverbs, born before the oceans, before the
mountains, before the earth and fields - and more precious than gold, more
valuable than silver. Wisdom is not only
happy in God’s presence, says Proverbs, she’s God’s “daily source of joy.”
Jesus engages in wisdom teaching in
the passage we read from Matthew. In
plain, simple language, he might speak to the modern world this way: Hey, do
you realize how burdened you are with choices?
Did you just buy a digital camera with 840 options for lighting,
shutter speed, image storage, and all
the rest? “Are you struggling to understand
ago? “Come
away from all that,” Jesus says, “and focus on me; for in me all the
complexities of the world grow simple.…In me is perfect
Wisdom -- She who was there from the beginning of time, God’s own source of joy.”
So often, Jesus seems to be telling
the disciples to go out and work. What a
relief to find these verses where he says, “Come and rest… Let your mind rest on one thing only – which
is the Lord.”
Accustomed to so many choices we
might find it hard to understand why our vast array of choices doesn’t make us
happier. Sometimes, as I was saying a
moment ago, it’s just because it’s confusing to sort them all out. According to Stephen Warner, writing on the
topic of choices in Christian Century, research shows that when consumers are
offered too many flavors of jam (say two dozen instead of half a
dozen), sales decrease. That’s because
too many options paralyze people.
But in that same article he suggests
other reasons that more choices can lead to greater unhappiness. For one thing, when we dwell on our choices
we become aware that for
every item we choose, we forego another. Here’s what I mean. If I order the chicken piccata
off a menu of 29 tempting options, I may enjoy it; but I’m also apt to go through the meal
wondering if I would’ve done even better with the veal parmesan or the veggie
lasagna.
That’s because, when people make a
choice, the loss that comes from giving up what they did not choose outweighs, in their mind, whatever gain comes from what they did choose.
Add to that another problem that’s called
hedonic adaptation. Simply put, it means
happiness quickly wears thin. When we
get something that makes us happy, we quickly lose the
intensity of the enjoyment and return
to feeling we need something else to make us happy.
This explains the tendency for grass to
be greener on the other side of the fence.
Of course some of us have a harder
time being satisfied than others. But in
general, beyond a certain minimal level, the more choices we have, the less
happy we’re apt to be with the choices we make.
I was thinking this week about the
implications of these ideas for those of us in Congregational churches. Our polity is all about giving people a
maximum of choice. Members choose our
ministers, our bylaws, our ways of raising money – everything,
right down to the paint color on our walls.
But if the right to choose is so good, why aren’t our members happier?
All this also gets me thinking about
the search for a new minister. These
findings about choice and happiness would imply congregations have to work hard
to maintain appreciation for the minister they have – and guard against feeling
unhappy about the minister they didn’t get --
even if that minister exists only in
their imagination. It’s easy to end up,
in Warner’s words, “wondering if we could have done better” – and thereby
writing a prescription for our own endless misery.
In that article in Christian Century Warner
offers some suggestions for avoiding the burden of too many choices:
1)
When shopping, visit
only two stores. Limit yourself to choosing
between this one and that one. (It wasn’t too long ago that people did that out
of necessity because
there
weren’t 85 kinds of crackers.)
2)
Be clear on which choices call for large investments of time and
those that don’t.
If you’re buying a car, fine. But not everything requires a high level of
scrutiny.
How often in churches do we waste
time and energy on choices that really don’t call for large investments of time
– right?
Some years ago, e.g., I served a church that appeared to be well
on its way to
dying. Yet one committee quibbled for months over
the selection of a piece of
furniture for the sanctuary. And when it arrived one woman made no end of
fuss about the varnish being too shiny. Churches that quarrel endlessly over small
decisions may find they’re riding on
the Titanic.
3) Finally,
What brings us happiness, Scripture
would say, is wisdom. And the heart of
wisdom in our Judaeo –Christian tradition has been simply
one thing: to honor and serve God by loving our neighbor. “I have set before you the ways of life and
death,” God says very very simply in the Book of
Deuteronomy, and then God goes on to direct us to the one true choice: Choose life.
Choose the life found in loving and serving God --- which for us as
Christians is found through union with Christ.
Jesus came to simplify things, to remind
us of what matters and what doesn’t, and thereby to make the choices easy. I know you’re weary, he says. Weary of
advertising and all its claims. Weary of technology and its overwhelming array
of menu items. Weary of supermarkets. Weary
of committee
meetings that go on forever trying to resolve the options. Weary of everything in modern life that
involves just too many, many choices.
Come to me, all you who are weary, he
says. And I will give you rest -- even from the burden of too many choices.
Amen.