Scripture: Proverbs 13: 12; Revelation 22: 1-5
Sermon: A Desire Fulfilled
Topics: advent, hope, desire, brains, imagination, trees
Preached: December 2, 2007
Rev. Mike Abma
Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
Revelation 22: 1-5
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; 4they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign for ever and ever.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
We are now in Advent.
Advent is a season of preparation:
It is the season to prepare to celebrate Christ’s first coming;
It is also a time to prepare for his second coming.
Part of that preparation involves taking an inventory of our hopes and desires.
Our text from Proverbs says,
A hope deferred makes the heart sick.
That begs the question, “What is it that we hope for?
What is it that we desire?”
Or simply fill in the blank,
“If only …(fill in the blank)…. I would be happy.”
“If only….
Have you ever seen the now classic movie, A Christmas Story?
There is Ralphie Parker, with his big eyes and even bigger glasses.
And what is he dreaming about for most of the movie?
He is dreaming about
A Red Ryder, carbine action, 200 shot BB gun, with a compass in the stock.
For him, the answer was clear….
“If only I had a Red Ryder BB gun, I would be happy.”
If only….
If only I had (blank) I would be happy.
This is the season of the year when every retailer on the planet is trying to help us fill in the blank.
They will go to ludicrous lengths to do it.
The other day, while watching something on TV, there was suddenly a commercial for an LG refrigerator. It was all about obliterating your old refrigerator and replacing it with a new, state of the art LG refrigerator.
But it was the last line of the commercial that caught me off-guard:
“The LG refrigerator — A refrigerator worth dreaming about.”
A refrigerator worth dreaming about?
You have to be kidding — who dreams about refrigerators?
Obviously they are hoping someone will.
They are hoping someone will sigh.
“If only I had a new Panorama French Door LG refrigerator for Christmas,
I would be happy.”
It may not be a Red Ryder BB gun;
or an LG refrigerator,
but many of us are dreaming about something.
Something we are hoping for.
Something we are hoping will make us happy.
BRAIN SCIENCE
Recently, the psychologist Daniel Gilbert has written a book called Stumbling on Happiness.
In this book, he convincingly describes how we have this habit of fixing our hearts on something that we think will make us happy, even though it never does.
According to Gilbert, it all starts in the brain.
When neuro-scientists do tests on the brain,
they notice that when we are involved in specific tasks,
when we are focused on doing something.
certain parts of the brain light up.
But when we are apparently doing nothing,
other parts of the brain light up.
Neuro-scientists refer to these parts of the brain as the “dark areas.”
And these dark areas are actually lit up and working much more often than we realize.
So what are these dark areas of the brain involved in?
What are these dark areas of the brain thinking about?
Apparently they are the part of the brain that involves our imagination.
They are the part of the brain that allows us to engage in a kind of time-
travel.
Our brains have the ability to travel back in time,
to recount things in the past.
They also have the ability to go forward in time,
to envision or anticipate things in the future.
Just as an aside,
When a person gets Alzheimers or a form of dementia,
it is apparently these dark areas of the brain that are most affected.
It limits a person’s ability to recall the past,
but it also limits their ability to anticipate or envision the future.
It traps a person in a perpetual present,
in the moment of the “now.”
So this ability to imagine,
to recount the past
(and each person recounts in their own way),
and this ability to anticipate the future
(each person anticipates in their own way too)
is absolutely essential to who we are as humans.
It is this ability to envision the future
that occupies our dreams and desires.
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS TRAP
Gilbert writes that when we envision the future,
we are constantly trying to predict what will make us happy.
And we are constantly getting it wrong.
So a teenager wants a tattoo on her left shoulder.
She really wants a tattoo.
She wants it to be a “Tinkerbell” design because,
“wouldn’t that just be the coolest?”
If only she had Tinkerbell on her shoulder, she would be so happy.
Of course, Tinkerbell may make her happy for, oh, 24 hours or so,
and then she will realize that maybe Tinkerbell
isn’t her heart’s deepest desire after all.
And even though Ralphie Parker really, really, wanted a Red Ryder BB gun,
the truth is, he almost does shoot his eye out.
Of course, it isn’t only “things” that we dream about.
We also dream about other parts of our future:
going to prestigious schools,
getting advanced degrees,
finding fulfilling careers,
and becoming successful.
Gilbert’s point is that what we dream will make us happy,
isn’t what makes us so.
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS Trap Example
The movie, The Family Man, starring Nicholas Cage, in many ways illustrates the thesis of Gilbert’s book.
In that movie, Nicholas Cage plays a successful Wall Street investment banker.
Thirteen years earlier, he had ended a relationship with his high school/college sweetheart.
He ended it, because he didn’t think
being trapped in a marriage,
in a mundane job,
driving a min-van
and living in the Jersey suburbs
would make him happy.
So here he was, thirteen years later,
a successful, rich, single investment banker living in Manhattan,
driving a Ferrari.
And he is miserable.
In the movie, he suddenly finds himself living the life he would have had,
if he had married his college sweetheart:
Yes, in this life he is living in the Jersey suburbs;
Yes, he has a seemingly mundane job selling tires;
Yes, he is married, and even has two young children.
But surprise of surprises,
in this alternate future,
he is happier than he could imagine.
Gilbert would say, Amen to that movie.
Our brain has the tendency to want the wrong things,
and to predict the wrong things will make us happy.
In a way, every Christmas confirms the thesis of Gilbert’s book.
We make a wish list.
We take an inventory of our desires.
And even if we get everything on this wish list,
rarely, if ever,
do these things make us as happy as we hoped they would.
As adults, we have ways of covering this disappointment,
even of lowering our expectations.
But it is clearer for kids.
How often haven’t kids begged, pleaded, implored their parents for something on Christmas,
and a week later,
the toy, the gadget, the gizmo,
lies unused, unenjoyed, in some corner of the house.
It isn’t only hopes deferred that leave us heartsick.
It is even hopes fulfilled that leave us heartsick.
That is because what we desire,
what we desire,
rarely makes us as happy as we thought.
THE TWO TREES
Even though Daniel Gilbert’s book describes the part of the brain that conjures up these desires,
that part of the brain that pictures us
happily hugging our new BB gun,
or refrigerator,
or admiring our new tattoo,
he never quite explains why we keep desiring the wrong things.
Why is it that our hopes are so often deferred or unmet?
Why are our desires so often misplaced?
And why are our dreams so often misguided.
You would think we human beings would have learned something by now.
For Christians, we look both backward to the distant past,
and ahead to the distant future
for an answer to why.
We look to the distant past and what do we see?
We see a tree in a garden.
We see a tree that is a “delight” to the eyes.
We see a tree that promises to make us “wise.”
We see a tree with fruit that looks very good.
We see a tree that promises us happiness, divine happiness.
The truth is, ever since we ate of that tree,
we seem to have developed a taste for its fruit.
Sort of like what happens to Edmund
in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Once he tastes Turkish Delight,
he simply wants more,
even though Turkish Delight never really satisfies,
even though Turkish Delight is one of the reasons
it is always winter and never Christmas in Narnia.
We are addicted to Turkish Delight.
We are addicted to the fruit of that old, old tree.
the tree we weren’t supposed to touch,
but the tree we almost cannot help dreaming about.
Dreaming and desiring the fruit of that tree will always promise happiness,
but it will always leave us heartsick.
Even when we have it’s fruit in our hands,
and it’s taste in our mouths,
we will always remain heartsick.
We need to develop a desire,
a hunger,
an appetite,
for the fruit of another tree.
On our own, we can’t do it.
On our own,
the dark areas of our brain will continually dream of BB guns and refrigerators.
But when the Holy Spirit descends,
the flaming presence of God,
will replace the flaming sword protecting us from the tree of life.
It is finally safe to see the tree of life
and we notice that it is in the shape of a cross.
It finally safe to see and to eat from,
because the Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the world.
It is the leaves of this tree that heal us of our wayward desires.
It is the fruit of this tree
that fully satisfies more than we can dream or imagine.
It is the Holy Spirit that plants the anticipation of eating that fruit in our hearts.
It is the Holy Spirit that causes us to dream of eating the fruit of this tree.
It is the Holy Spirit,
that blazes in the dark areas of our brain
with the light of Christ,
causing us to realize our heart’s deepest desire –
that is to be welcomed home by God,
and to live in his presence as his sons and daughters.
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