"Forbidden Fruit"

Many years ago as I was riding in a car on the way to Boston, a sign in the distance caught my attention. The message on the sign, which was hanging down over the road facing us as we drove, was brief and to the point. It said, "Ignore this sign." Hrumph, I thought, and looked away, wondering with only vague interest why someone would bother to make such a sign, let alone manage to get it up there on the overpass. Then, absentmindedly, while musing about the sign's maker, my eyes wandered back to it. "Ignore this sign," it said to me again, and I realized I was bad at ignoring random commands. As I thought about it, I realized that I (and others like me) had probably won the creator of the sign a beer, by performing badly as expected. I probably wouldn't have remembered the incident at all except that the next day the front page of the Boston Globe had a picture of it. There it was again, "Ignore this sign," plastered on the front page of the region's daily newspaper for everyone to ponder.

This is only a small example of how, as humans we have a hard time dealing with commands to not do something. Most of us apparently found it next to impossible to ignore the ignore sign.

Let's look at the story of Adam and Eve one of the all-time biggies in being told not to do something. Adam and Eve were said to have had everything in Eden. All of paradise was theirs except for just one thing. "Don't eat the fruit of this tree." God said. And you know the rest of the story. This Biblical tale it plain that humans have appetites for just about everything and we don't like them curbed. Make us boundary and we're liable to defy it just for its own sake.

In fact it was Mark Twain who noted, "Adam didn't want the apple for the apple's sake. He wanted it because it was forbidden." It seems to be part and parcel of human nature that prohibition creates what we call forbidden fruit. There are many who argue that heavy underage drinking in this country, which is higher than in most of the countries in European, is, in part, caused by our laws that forbid drinking until 21. Similarly, a study at Iowa State University, showed that the television viewer-discretion rating For Mature Audiences Only, actually served to attract younger viewers. For that reason we need to be careful when we forbid something because we may, given the human condition, inadvertently entice people.

Today I want to talk about temptation, what it is and how we wrestle with it. Before I do, though, it might be wise to define what I mean by the word. The dictionary says only that temptation is "something that allures." That's a rather neutral definition. The fact is, our attraction to the forbidden doesn't have to be a negative. Think of the poem "It Couldn't Be Done" by Edgar Guest:

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,

But he with a chuckle replied,

That "maybe it couldn't"; but he would be one

Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin

On his face. If he worried he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn't be done, and he did it.

Sir Edmund Hillary's desire to conquer Mount Everest, fits into this category. It was something they thought could never be done, so he did it. But I think when we say we're "tempted' we usually imply, by our use of the word, not only that we are attracted, but that for some reason - it isn't a good idea to act on the attraction. Perhaps we are tempted to eat an ice cream Sunday but we don't want to put weight on, for example. Something that tempts might costs more than you have, be too dangerous, too expensive, bad for your marriage - it might be morally wrong and therefore guilt-producing, and so forth. This is the kind of temptation I'd like to focus on.

The inventor, Thomas Edison, when asked how he resisted temptations, said: "Never have any. I don't have time." Edison was in denial, I'm afraid. Temptation is part of the human condition; we all experience it. Forbidden fruit, large and small, is everywhere, and if we do not see it then we do not know ourselves. Daily the mass media bombards us with allure. There's even a show that specifically creates a game to tempt male and female partners to test their faithfulness - Temptation Island. Temptation is an everyday experience.

Ernest Kurtz writes in The Spirituality of Imperfection, "It is sometimes suggested that the Desert Fathers and Mothers retreated to the desert in an effort to escape temptation,... but they knew full well the impossibility of such escape. Instead, they sought to confront temptation in a setting where they could recognize it for what it is. They viewed temptation as their most valuable tool, for by observing their desires they came to know themselves."

So our question is whether we take the time to recognize the temptations that provoke us. To see them is to better know ourselves. So, let's begin with something easy. Let's think of some of the ordinary boundaries you may have transgressed when you were young no matter how reasonable they were: "Don't go near the bee hive." "Don't go on the ice, it's too thin." "Don't stay up after your bedtime." "Don't go out without your jacket." "Don't open till Christmas!" Can you remember doing just some of these things?

Two or three questions always come up sooner or later when something is forbidden to us. Most of us like to know the power of the one issuing the command - who says we can't do that? and by what authority? The dictionary says authority is " the power to judge, act or command, and to administer consequences for either following or not following a command." We also want to know why it's being issued and the possible consequence of breaking it. All kinds of sources claim some authority over our lives, but we certainly don't grant it in every case. For example, if your little brother or sister told you not to do something, you'd probably ignore it. But with your parents you'd only ignore it half the time.

Let's go back for a minute. I've shared this story with you before. When I was a child I can remember wondering what the big deal was about the 10 commandments. I can remember being taught them and realizing that Moses was considered a very great man for having received this gift of the 10 commandments from God -- and I didn't understand it. Of course I didn't want to look stupid so I kept my mouth shut, but all the while I was wondering, "They're so obvious --- is it possible that before Moses revealed "Thou shalt not commit murder," or "Thou shalt not commit adultery or steal, or kill," that these ideas weren't generally known? What was life like then before Moses lived - just chaos because no one had any rules at all?

The real story of Moses and Exodus was not that the 10 commandments were new information The authority behind the commandments and the contract they implied were the real reasons for the headlines. God appeared to Moses and his people at Sinai -so his authority was real. And this authority basically said, "You live in my house -- you follow my rules and be blessed - of course if they didn't - they would experience the wrath of this new, monotheistic God." But that was okay. The Jews in this covenant because it assured a measure of safety from their enemies and a more orderly world. Millions of people today try to give to this God full authority over their lives and try to resist temptations, believing that, in return, they will be assured of God's blessing. Religious beliefs are a powerful authority in people's lives.

Frank Koch, a navy officer shares an experience in the magazine of the US Naval Institute, which brings into sharp relief another kind of authority. He describes a situation in which two battleships were assigned to a training squadron which had been at sea on maneuvers in heavy weather for several days. He says, "I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. The visibility was poor with patchy fog, so the captain remained on the bridge keeping an eye out on things.

Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing reported, "Light, bearing on the starboard bow."
"Is it steady or moving astern?" the captain called out.
The lookout replied, "Steady, Captain," which meant we were on a dangerous collision course with the other ship.
The captain then called to the signalman, "Signal the ship: 'We are on a collision course, advise you change course twenty degrees.'"
Back came the signal, "Advisable for you to change course twenty degrees."
The captain said, "Send: "I'm a Navy captain, you change twenty degrees.'"
"I'm a seaman second-class," came the reply. "You had better change course twenty degrees."
By that time the captain was furious. He spat out, "Send: 'I am a battleship. Change course twenty degrees.'"
Back came the flashing light, "I am a lighthouse."
They changed course.

You can't argue with natural law. Natural law catches you every time. You don't get away with it. This is why a scientist who spoke to some of us at the Cranberry Cluster dinner the other night was able to get a laugh with a T-Shirt that read: "Gravity is not only a good idea. It's the law!"

Natural law brings home the fact that punishment and getting caught are factors in our obedience. Where would you go wrong if you knew you could get away with it? Do you know?

I remember a day back when I was in elementary school when I was allowed to walk the three or so miles home from school with two friends. But instead of walking home immediately we trekked up a side street to surprise a school chum by showing up at her front door. It never occurred to us that no one would be home - no problem, I said. My aunt's house is close to here. She'll let us use her phone. So we walked even further away only to find no one home at my aunt's house either. And there we were, now probably five miles away from home, deep in suburbia, knowing of no one we could turn to for a ride or even a telephone call with darkness not very far off. We would either have to walk five miles home, or we could knock on someone's front door and ask simply ask for help. But then I had a different idea. I knew of a way to get easily onto the back of the roof of my aunt's house to a window where my cousin's bedroom was. If her window was unlocked we could get in and use the telephone. But the window was locked. Now what. Then a forbidden fruit materialized in our minds. That we chose it still amazes me. We broke a hole in my aunt's second story window, let ourselves into the house, phoned a parent and asked to be picked up outside our first friend's home. For some the excitement of this kind of moment might have been a thrill. For me it was more like one of those nightmares where you suddenly find yourself downtown with no clothes on. Then we slipped out through the downstairs cellar door which we locked behind us. We were never caught. This is the first time I've ever told this story as far as I know.

The reason I remember that event is because it is a burden that I am still carrying. We have, all of us, a certain amount of baggage that we carry in the form of guilt and shame. Such burdens are hard to divest. Guilt and shame are forms of authority that are active in our lives and may be strong factors that help us to resist forbidden fruit.

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As adults, of course, we have other kinds of temptations. Perhaps you play when you should be working, or work when you should be spending time with your family. Perhaps you cheat "just a little" on your taxes. The thin ice you step out onto may take the form of relying too much on your credit cards to support your life. Perhaps you are allowing yourself an illicit relationship. You may be secretly betting more than you should on today's game with the Patriots

What authorities help you to be the person you should be? For each of us a complex mixture is probably brought to bear. Spiritual depth and human maturity comes in knowing oneself. Bill Moyers, in the television series "Genesis: A Living Conversation" said: "My mother used to leave her freshly baked sugar cookies right in the middle of the table, warm and inviting but forbidden until supper was over. If she meant the temptation to be a test of discipline, to build character, my brother and I often flunked."

Possibly Bill's mother did intend to build his character, to make him aware that life does offer forbidden fruit, to help him confront his temptation in the safety of his home. Sorry to say, kindly forces do not put our forbidden fruit on a high shelf to spare us from being tempted. Temptation is as close as the kitchen table, the dial on the television, the mouse of the computer and the credit card in our wallet...

Each of us has three jobs to do in relation to our forbidden fruit: come to know our temptations, come to wisely choose the authorities which we allow to influence us, and then we must choose to act accordingly. We can't be expected to go out into the desert to come to know ourselves like the Desert Mothers and Fathers. We don't have blocks of time to spend. But meditation, prayer, personal reflection and reading are effective ways of confronting our desires and the choices we are tempted to make.

A great Jewish sage, The Rabbi of Lelov, put it another way:

"A man cannot be redeemed until he recognizes his flaws and tries to mend them. A nation cannot be redeemed until it recognizes the flaws in its soul and tries to mend them. Whoever permits no recognition of his flaws, be it man or nation, permits no redemption. We can be redeemed to the extent that we recognize ourselves."

Go in peace.