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- Apr 25, 2006
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21 April 2007
Ecclesiastes 2:4-9
Then I did great things: I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made gardens and parks, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made pools of water for myself and used them to water my growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and slaves were also born in my house. I had large herds and flocks, more than anyone in Jerusalem had ever had before. I also gathered silver and gold for myself, treasures from kings and other areas. I had male and female singers and all the women a man could ever want. I became very famous, even greater than anyone who had lived in Jerusalem before me. My wisdom helped me in all this.
The next stage on the Teacher's quest for meaning sees him adopting the celebrity lifestyle and today's passage reads like an extract from Hello magazine!. This lifestyle not only filled his life with people and things but also, no doubt, caused him to become an object of fascination to those around him.
Our culture seems obsessed with the cult of the celebrity - but why? In a recent article on this topic []COSMOS magazine | The science of everything it was noted that: "Social psychologists agree that the reasons are complex, but some issues seem to recur". One is that we're bored, and living through celebrities is a way of alleviating that boredom; another is that we're searching for identity; social fragmentation might also play a part.
"As family and community values are crushed by the cult of individualism and an omnipresent media, perhaps fantasy relationships are becoming easier to form than real ones."
"Perhaps fame is the new religion, and celebrities our gods . . . After all, throughout history and across cultures, people have always worshipped idols. With all its myth, ritual and power to immortalise, celebrity could well be filling a similar cultural niche. Psychological research lends some weight to this theory". Interestingly it also notes that "the more a person subscribes to a formal, institutionalised religion, the less likely they are to worship a celebrity."
There's something in human beings that longs not only to worship but also to be worshipped! But why do many chose to worship other people or things? Is it because religion has distorted the image of God?! People have rightly rejected that distorted image but as yet have not found the True Image for themselves. How do you know if you have a distorted image of God? By comparing your image to that of God in Christ in the Bible.
Pray for someone today who you know is seeking for God - perhaps in the wrong places - but still seeking! Ask God to reveal Himself to them. Pray also that God will reveal to you where you have a distorted image of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Be attentive to God's response throughout the coming days and weeks as you study His Word and meet with His people for worship.
Written by Christine Gore.
Ecclesiastes 2:4-9
Then I did great things: I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made gardens and parks, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made pools of water for myself and used them to water my growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and slaves were also born in my house. I had large herds and flocks, more than anyone in Jerusalem had ever had before. I also gathered silver and gold for myself, treasures from kings and other areas. I had male and female singers and all the women a man could ever want. I became very famous, even greater than anyone who had lived in Jerusalem before me. My wisdom helped me in all this.
The next stage on the Teacher's quest for meaning sees him adopting the celebrity lifestyle and today's passage reads like an extract from Hello magazine!. This lifestyle not only filled his life with people and things but also, no doubt, caused him to become an object of fascination to those around him.
Our culture seems obsessed with the cult of the celebrity - but why? In a recent article on this topic []COSMOS magazine | The science of everything it was noted that: "Social psychologists agree that the reasons are complex, but some issues seem to recur". One is that we're bored, and living through celebrities is a way of alleviating that boredom; another is that we're searching for identity; social fragmentation might also play a part.
"As family and community values are crushed by the cult of individualism and an omnipresent media, perhaps fantasy relationships are becoming easier to form than real ones."
"Perhaps fame is the new religion, and celebrities our gods . . . After all, throughout history and across cultures, people have always worshipped idols. With all its myth, ritual and power to immortalise, celebrity could well be filling a similar cultural niche. Psychological research lends some weight to this theory". Interestingly it also notes that "the more a person subscribes to a formal, institutionalised religion, the less likely they are to worship a celebrity."
There's something in human beings that longs not only to worship but also to be worshipped! But why do many chose to worship other people or things? Is it because religion has distorted the image of God?! People have rightly rejected that distorted image but as yet have not found the True Image for themselves. How do you know if you have a distorted image of God? By comparing your image to that of God in Christ in the Bible.
Pray for someone today who you know is seeking for God - perhaps in the wrong places - but still seeking! Ask God to reveal Himself to them. Pray also that God will reveal to you where you have a distorted image of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Be attentive to God's response throughout the coming days and weeks as you study His Word and meet with His people for worship.
Written by Christine Gore.
