Two Blond Parables for Lent?
I've been thinking a lot about Anna Nicole Smith and Britney Spears. Maybe I should explain that statement… although if you've turned on the television for more than 40 milliseconds in the last 2 weeks, I doubt explanation is necessary. How could I think of anything else?! At home sick for a day I tried to watch the news several times. All I could find was a sad and silly soap-opera. And they call us a civilized nation. Can you imagine such a spectacle in any African tribe? I’m no anthropologist, but my guess is that even the most primitive tribes have more respect for the dead.
In any case, my thoughts about these two are not the prurient kind. These thoughts are the pity kind. I feel genuinely sorry for these two walking (formerly walking in one case) parables of spiritless existence. Maybe they don’t deserve my pity, but they seem so empty.
Part of my pity comes from the fact that both characters had plenty of help in finding their way to this value-robbed existence. Society helped by its insistence on celebrating external beauty unbalanced by internal values. Our absurd “celebrity for celebrity sake” value system helps create empty shells. Families aided these two by caring more about money than about the women’s spiritual health. And men, yes we red-blooded American men, are to blame for our shallow approach to the beauty of women. No doubt about it, men keep much of that stuff going.
So without condemning either person let me point out that they are parables of Sunday’s gospel text from Luke 4. In both cases it would appear that the desire for the things of the flesh (“turn the bread into stone”), the desire for admiration and adulation (“fall down and let the angels catch you”), and the yearning for control (“worship me and you will control all”) delivered them unto evil. There is nothing wrong with sex, fame, and power, but as Jesus demonstrated, achieving them the wrong way or using them in the wrong way, leads to evil. Only by seeking first the kingdom (meaning real love, genuine hope, faith, and peace) will a person make their way.
Of course I don’t know either person, but the signs are all there: family-life is a nightmare, the focus is on the superficial, money seems an obsession, drug use helps calm the conscience which keeps saying: “there’s more, there’s more, there’s more.”
I’m not one who superficially says: “they just needed Jesus.” I’ve known many Christians who were as messed up as these two sad parables. With less money and fame to be sure, but empty just the same. It’s not just knowing about Jesus, but following the one who taught us that man does not live by bread alone, that we need not pile up stuff where moth and rust destroy, and that love, not power, is the real force of the universe.
In any case, my thoughts about these two are not the prurient kind. These thoughts are the pity kind. I feel genuinely sorry for these two walking (formerly walking in one case) parables of spiritless existence. Maybe they don’t deserve my pity, but they seem so empty.
Part of my pity comes from the fact that both characters had plenty of help in finding their way to this value-robbed existence. Society helped by its insistence on celebrating external beauty unbalanced by internal values. Our absurd “celebrity for celebrity sake” value system helps create empty shells. Families aided these two by caring more about money than about the women’s spiritual health. And men, yes we red-blooded American men, are to blame for our shallow approach to the beauty of women. No doubt about it, men keep much of that stuff going.
So without condemning either person let me point out that they are parables of Sunday’s gospel text from Luke 4. In both cases it would appear that the desire for the things of the flesh (“turn the bread into stone”), the desire for admiration and adulation (“fall down and let the angels catch you”), and the yearning for control (“worship me and you will control all”) delivered them unto evil. There is nothing wrong with sex, fame, and power, but as Jesus demonstrated, achieving them the wrong way or using them in the wrong way, leads to evil. Only by seeking first the kingdom (meaning real love, genuine hope, faith, and peace) will a person make their way.
Of course I don’t know either person, but the signs are all there: family-life is a nightmare, the focus is on the superficial, money seems an obsession, drug use helps calm the conscience which keeps saying: “there’s more, there’s more, there’s more.”
I’m not one who superficially says: “they just needed Jesus.” I’ve known many Christians who were as messed up as these two sad parables. With less money and fame to be sure, but empty just the same. It’s not just knowing about Jesus, but following the one who taught us that man does not live by bread alone, that we need not pile up stuff where moth and rust destroy, and that love, not power, is the real force of the universe.
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