The Pursuit of Happiness

​I have recently been struck by the different kinds of temptations we see in Scripture and face in our lives.
 
One kind of temptation offers us instant gratification. These are the temptations that we tend to focus on in Church, especially during Lent, things like food, drink, and sex. And they are real temptations.
 
In Genesis, Eve gave into temptation at least partly because the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge looked “good for food” and was “a delight to the eyes.” That apple looked soooooo good that she couldn’t resist eating it. That was a sensual temptation for immediate gratification.
 
Jesus had one of those, too, and his was much tougher. Jesus had fasted for forty days and nights when the devil encouraged him to turn stones into bread. The prospect of all that bread must have been tempting indeed to a starving man. Thankfully, Jesus did better than Adam and Eve!
 
We are tempted in the same way, of course. We see things that we know we shouldn’t eat, and sometimes we just can’t resist the temptation.
 
As you all know, sweets are a great temptation for me. So, in Lent, I try to resist the temptation of sweets by giving up desserts. That is my feeble equivalent to Jesus’ refusal to turn stones into bread. His temptation was much greater than mine! But we both face the temptation of indulging in something that is not good for us but that does feel good in the short run.
 
We should resist that kind of immediate, sensual temptation.
 
But there is a second kind of temptation that is more important in the long run. The second kind of temptation is not about our physical appetites or desire for immediate gratification. The second kind of temptation concerns our life goals, our deepest values, the things that give our lives meaning and purpose.
 
We see this second kind of temptation in Scripture, too.
In Genesis, Eve wants to eat the apple because it looks tasty. But that is not the temptation the serpent leads with. The deeper temptation, the one the serpent pushes, is the goal of being like God, knowing good and evil. Being like God has nothing to do with immediate gratification. It’s a long-term goal. And though it may sound like a good goal, it isn’t good if it means disobeying God.
 
When Adam and Eve choose the serpent’s goal over obedience to God, they get off track, and they fall into sin, and they bring death into the world.
 
We see an analogous danger in the Gospel. The devil offers Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.” Again, nothing to do with sensual pleasures or immediate gratification. This is about life goals. And think what Jesus could do with all that power. Think how much better the world would be if Jesus ran our country instead of the politicians we actually have.
 
But to get the kingdoms of the world, Jesus would have had to worship the devil, which would have meant turning away from God, abandoning his mission of salvation, and leaving us trapped in sin and death.
 
How about us? What are our life goals? What makes our lives meaningful? What is most important to us?
 
People have lots of different answers, of course. If you measure what people think is important by how they spend their discretionary income, entertainment is a high priority.
 
Like a lot of people, I spend a good bit of money on entertainment, but that strikes me as a poor answer to the question, what makes life meaningful. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting to be entertained, but if entertainment becomes our primary purpose in life, it is a temptation that leads to sin and death.
 
Another answer, and a better one, in my judgment, is meaningful work, work which can make the world a little better.
 
I think first about teachers and nurses. I would include priests. But lots of professions make the world better. We had to call the plumber last week, and I am here to tell you that plumbers make the world MUCH better. I think most jobs do in one way or another.
 
But as Christians, we know that work, even good and honorable work, is NOT what gives life ultimate meaning and purpose. To the degree that our jobs become our ultimate purpose, they, too, are a temptation leading us to sin and death.
 
Perhaps the best wrong answer to the question, what gives our lives meaning and purpose is our family and our friends. We are herd creatures who need each other. Better still, we love our family and friends, and love is what we are created to do.
 
But not even family and friends are supposed to be our primary source of meaning and purpose. And that means that even family and friends can become a temptation for us, something that can lead us astray.
 
Jesus makes that point in language that is almost brutal. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and even life itself, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Jesus doesn’t literally mean we should hate our families! But Jesus is making it very clear that we shouldn’t value our families above God.
 
Our primary task as human beings, the reason we were created in the first place, is to love God. Loving God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength is the first and greatest commandment. Anything, no matter how apparently good, that displaces the love of God from the center of our lives has become a temptation for us.
 
It is important to add that loving God includes loving our neighbors, and that loving our neighbors involves us in the world in all kinds of ways, in our families, and through our jobs, and in how we spend our leisure time, and in lots of other ways, too.
 
But the keystone of the whole is loving God.
 
That is what Adam and Eve should have said to the serpent./ That is what Jesus does say to the devil. Jesus insisted he would “worship the Lord our God and serve only him.”
 
As Christian people, we believe that the only thing that makes life truly meaningful, meaningful in an ultimate way, is loving God, and loving all of God’s creation in God.
 
Whenever any part of creation, no matter how worthy it may be on its own, becomes our primary focus, it has become a temptation for us. And in the end, if part of creation is our primary focus, it will disappoint us, and leave us unsatisfied and unhappy, and in the end alienate us from God.
 
I therefore invite you, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent. I hope that your Lent will include a greater effort to resist the sensual temptations in your life, the temptations to immediate gratification.
 
But even more, I encourage you to use this season as an opportunity to reflect on your life as a whole, on what you value most, on what tempts you away from God. Then pray about that temptation. Ask God to change your heart. And see what God does in your life.
 
In Christ’s name. Amen.