I want you to try an experiment with me for a minute.  Think about all of the celebrities that are constantly parading across our TV screens, magazines, and newspapers these days – Brad & Angelina, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Johnny Depp, and so on – and answer me these two questions:  Firstly, do you know more about them than you do about your next door neighbors?  And secondly, has knowing the details of their lives added even the smallest bit of value to your life? 

We’re in the third week of series I’m calling “American Idols,” where I’m attempting to unmask the idols in our culture – things other than God that we are tempted to worship, emulate, or believe will save us – and discuss how they have distorted our understanding of the gospel and what it means to follow Jesus.  Idol #1 was the Idol of consumerism, with the Temple of the Mall as its place of worship.  This week’s Idol is the Idol of celebrity, and here is one of its many sacred texts:

You know you want to look inside…

I mean seriously – if tomorrow we ceased to hear another word about Britney Spears or Paris Hilton, would anyone’s life be negatively affected?  If we could no longer hear about where Lindsay Lohan was doing rehab or what parties the Olsen twins were attending, would we even notice?  So what is the attraction to this Idol?  Why do millions of people crave the latest scoop on what American celebrities are up to?

Let me speak in generals that obviously do not apply to everyone but may help us understand this Idol.  Part of the attraction to the Idol of celebrity is likely envy – we think it must be great to be universally known and loved by millions, to be rich and beautiful and powerful and seemingly have the world at our command.  We wish it could be that way in our lives, and following the lives of celebrities allows us to live vicariously through them, to pretend we know them.  But the dark side of envy is often hatred – as much as we adore and worship them, we also want to see them fall and be ruined.  We want to laugh at their failures so that we can console ourselves that ultimately our lives are better than their lives.

The false gospel preached by the Idol of celebrity is this:  you are not important until you are famous.  As soon as you are on TV, in the papers or magazines, however, you become Important with a capital I.  All of a sudden you matter, and what you have to say is worth listening to.  And in a world where reality shows are a dime a dozen and websites like MySpace and YouTube have opened new avenues to fame, the temptation to worship the Idol of celebrity is a big one.

But here is the real truth underneath the false gospel of the Idol of celebrity – fame and celebrity have nothing to do with how important you are.  Just because someone has had a book published does not mean they are wiser than your 80 year-old grandfather who has no books to his name.  Just because someone is being followed by the paparazzi does not mean they are happier, a better person, or worthier of more respect than your teacher, your mailman, or even you.  And if you were to someday reach celebrity status and have your name included in the celebrity Bible known as People magazine, your life would not have any more value than it did when you were flipping burgers at McDonald’s.  Because according to the real Gospel, value has nothing to do with our celebrity status, but with this reality:  “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

So how has the Idol of celebrity corrupted the gospel and our discipleship to Jesus in 21st century America?  I think this Idol can cause us to believe that the more well-known a pastor, teacher, or writer is, the more spiritual they are and the wiser they are.  As for pastors, we may also think that the bigger the church is, the more we should listen to what the pastor has to say, because he or she must be more spiritual and have more wisdom.  Like our culture, we can falsely equate fame with importance.  But this is not so in the Kingdom of God – just because a preacher is on TV does not mean they are preaching the true Gospel, and just because someone has not written a book does not mean they do not have wisdom in every word they speak.  In fact, just because someone is a pastor or missionary does not mean that they are more spiritual or have more wisdom than anyone else in the church. 

The second way the Idol of celebrity has invaded our church is in how the church can sometimes pin its self-worth on celebrities who begin to proclaim their faith in Christ.  Two of the most recent examples in the world of music were Brian “Head” Welch, former guitarist for the nu-metal band Korn, who left the band in 2005 after coming to faith in Jesus, and the rapper Mase, who “retired” from rap in 1999 after turning to Jesus, and returned in 2004 with a rap album without the cursing and derogatory references to women.  I have noticed how sometimes Christians (especially younger Christians) are less ashamed of their faith because there are respected celebrities who are also believers, as if somehow image is more important than whether or not the Gospel is true (and being associated with Mase is more worthy of respect than being associated with Jesus).  The disproportionate honor given to athletes, entertainers, and other celebrities who are Christian is an example of how the Idol of celebrity has corrupted our view of the Gospel.

The truth of the Gospel is that it was a baby born in a nowhere village called Bethlehem, who grew up in a nowhere town called Nazareth (as Nathanael put it in John 1:46:  “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there? “), who called together twelve nobodies who were working as fishermen, tax collectors, and the like, who never wrote a book or held political office, and who was crucified between two criminals by the Roman Empire, who has sparked a revolution that forever changed the world.  The kingdom of heaven, the reign of God, is not about celebrity and status but is a movement that starts small but ultimately transforms everything.  As Jesus put it in Matthew 13:31-34: 

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.  Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.” He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

Destroy the Idol of celebrity, in your life and in the church.  Do not seek to be famous or to be seen by men, for true spirituality according to Jesus is done with God as the only audience (Matthew 6:1 - “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”)  Do not believe the lie that just because a Christian is on TV or in the magazines, that somehow they are more spiritual or have more wisdom than one who is not famous. 

And for God’s sake, put down People magazine and get to know your neighbors instead.

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