Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; ¹⁶for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches - comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷And the world and its desire^* are passing away, but those who do the will of God live for ever.                    1 John 2.15-17 

Do not love the world or the things in the world.
 
But did not god make this lovely world?  Yes, however we live in a beautiful world which has been despoiled by our lust for it
 
If we could but learn to love god then our love of god's world takes its proper place
 
How then do we learn to love god without becoming enamoured of the world?
 
Botolph’s way was easy - move to Iken and learn to love misty moisty marshy midge molested mornings
 
More difficult for us - after all who can afford to live at Snape anymore?
 
Learning to love god without lusting after  the world is extremely  challenging in a world  driven  by rampant capitalism and its evil twin consumerism
 
Timothy Gorton Ash in 'Capitalism's Contradiction' - Guardian Weekly 02.03.2007- has this to say
 
'Marx thought capitalism would have a problem finding consumers for the goods that improving techniques of production enabled it to churn out. 
 
Instead it has become expert in a new branch of manufacture: the manufacture of desires.
 
The genius of contemporary capitalism is not simply that it gives consumers what they want but that it makes them want what it has to give.'
 
The genius of contemporary capitalism is ....... it makes us want what it has to give.'
 
I remember being horrified many years ago by an advert for a particular brand of luxury German motor car - I want it because I want it!
 
'Do not love the world', the apostle  john  tells us 'or the things in the world.  ¹⁶for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches -  are passing away, but those who do the will of God live for ever.'  
 
So to love God correctly – and so love appropriately we must learn to cope with these three desires
 
1) The Desire of the flesh
Now 1 John does have Gnostic overtones but most biblical scholars acknowledge that all kinds of ‘flesh' is overrated.  Whether  we mean 'flesh' in terms of what we do with our and each others bodies or the 'flesh' of unredeemed humanity within each of us which drives us to live inhumane lifestyles - neither of them has any future. 
 
We may hanker after 'the fleshpots of Egypt' but for  the children of God they are part of our past - from the time before we crossed the river, before we were ransomed and redeemed by the gentle love of Jesus - and to give in to the desires of the flesh is to surrender ourselves to the chains  of slavery
 
And everyone  who has ever sinned knows how punishing and crippling that  slavery can be
 
2) The Desire of the eyes
Sometimes we get ourselves in a real mess, no let me correct that, sometimes I get myself into a real mess with all the wonderful things there are to enjoy in the world.  I know I can’t have them all, and even if I did I could never use them, but that doesn’t mean I do not spend inordinate amounts of time drooling over them.  Come on gentlemen we all know the problem don’t we?  Is it not true that a mobile phone is the only thing a man wants a smaller one of? I personally freely admit to that newest of deadly sins – techno lust!
 
This is so sad – when we give in to the desire of the eyes – when we, in the words of the apostle Paul in Romans, exchange worship of the Creator for the creature.
 
We find ourselves hypnotised by lifeless objects, entranced by their God given beauty we are unable to hear God’s voice speaking through that selfsame beauty and are unable to find the beauty which God has placed within each of us.  And in doing this we never grow, instead we whither, die and become little more than well dressed corpses
 
3) Pride in riches – (which is the desire for independence)
This is one distraction which Botolph found very easy to resist - if you have no riches it is very difficult to be proud of them.  But we, in our ability to store more than ‘the bread we need for this day’ can somehow believe that we need only believe in ourselves and have no need for this God who even gives us the very next breath each of us will take. 
Pride in riches is perhaps the most dangerous of all temptations. Dangerous because we somehow pretend that if we can garner enough of God’s gifts we can say ‘no thank you’ to the maker and giver of those same gifts.
 
Our god is a great big generous God who gives us far more than we need – not so that we can store it for the next day but so that we can be generous to others.  Riches, of themselves are neutral, and the world (even today) has many examples of generous wealthy people, it is when we think that somehow storing riches can give us a sense of permanence and independence that we fall foul of them. 
 
I was fifteen the first time I went to London to see a show in the West End.  The show was Godspell and the song which grabbed my heart was ‘By my Side’ – but the words which still tear at me come after the telling of the parable of the Rich man and his bigger barns which ends with the words, ‘this very night God will demand of you your soul – you have made your money – who’ll get it now?
 
I do not want to hear those words from my blessed Lord!
 
 
So how do we get past all these desires for the things which God made?
How can we use ‘All God’s gifts around us’ without them turning into a curse?
How do we enjoy them without being entrapped by them?
 
Botolph, and the other monastic figures of his era, gives us some clear clues. 
He was someone with very strong desires but, unlike others, they were directed in helpful ways which brought glory to the Creator rather than the creature.
 
His desires were directed to the Lord God.  His body, his flesh, was totally given over to serving his Lord.  The desire of his eyes was only for the one who made him.  His pride was in the richness of God’s generosity and everyday provision of the things he needed to serve God better.
 
Botolph’s world is, I suppose, a little like a reversal of some of the TV adverts for products aimed at helping people to stop smoking.  One of them involves people buying an imitation cigarette which will help them replace their desire for the real thing. Sounds a little odd does it not?  Get off the real thing by desiring an imitation?
 
But the truth is a little like that, we have become addicted to the imitations of God.  This beautiful creation which after all is only a pale reflection of who God is, will, as we have seen in the words of the reading from 1 John, pass away.
 
Some days, when I have drunk deeply at the well of the desires of this world, I say to myself ‘What a waste of time and effort’.  ‘Why did I not spend more time today desiring my Lord who loves me perfectly, who provides me with all I need, who shows me that somehow he sees in me a beauty I can only begin to imagine’.
 
Botolph knew how to do that – and so for centuries people entering and leaving our capital city stopped at one of his chapels at the city gates to pray that they might walk in his way of following the Lord.
Wonderfully we too can do that.  We can, if we but give ourselves permission to do so, become people who are consumed by such a deep desire for God that all that is in the world fades away, it loses it power over us and then resumes its proper place as part of the celebration of God’s love rather than something which draws us away from true worship.
 
This day is a good day to be consumed with desire.  Not for the things of this world – they will pass away and we will fade with them if we invest ourselves – but for Him who desires us so much that his passion led him to the cross of Calvary.  Let each of us resolve this day to not leave this place without having chosen to replace at least one of our desires for the things of this world with a desire to know Him more intimately and to perform God’s will.
 
For, after all ‘the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live for ever.’