American Idol

Scripture: Luke 4.14-21


Maybe you’ve heard of this TV show. You may say, “You’re a little late to the game, Rich.”

It’s not that I’ve never watched American Idol before, it’s just that I’ve never been a big fan. I watched parts of a couple episodes when they had the finals. I know who a couple of the winners are. That’s about it.

But I watched it the other night when it was the first episode of the new season. American Idol was launching a new talent search starting in Minneapolis. Wow. I didn’t know what I was missing.

The people that auditioned were so. . .horrible. They made William Hung look like John Legend. And as I watched the other night I realized that this beginning part was the best part of American Idol. It’s better because most of the acts are really bad and everybody in America gets to experience the badness. I mean, a train wreck is a horrible thing, but it is fascinating to see. Everybody laughed at William Hung. His lack of talent was so notable and popular that he actually landed a record contract.

These contestants are a harmless guilty pleasure. Most of us, who can’t really sing that well ourselves, can laugh at these people who are worse than we are. We can all laugh because, well, they’re doing it as a joke. Aren’t they?

Well, I began to wonder that the other night after a young man did his singing and juggling act to be told by Simon, Paula, and Randy that he was really bad. The young man didn’t take the rejection well. He stormed out of the audition room cursing and crying. He wasn’t the only rejected contestant to respond with what I assume to be real tears. They were crying because they really wanted to do well. More than their love for singing, they all wanted to become famous. American Idol has captured the spirit of our culture today in that anybody can become famous. The aforementioned Paula Abdul put it this way, “Anybody can be famous now. It’s like a disease.” You don’t need talent, you just need a little help and a little luck to have, in Andy Warhol’s famous words, “you’re fifteen minutes of fame.” Hello, William Hung!

Newsweek cites a poll of teenage girls, 43% of whom say their No. 1 career goal was to be a celebrity assistant – want they want to do with their life is to fetch bottled water for Paris Hilton. “Just being close enough to smell the red carpet has become its own reward.”




One of the reasons its hard for some people to read and understand the Bible is that it describes peoples and cultures that share some very different values than our own. If you took a poll of teenage boys in Jesus day, maybe 43% of them would aspire to be a rabbi. And for boys and girls, men and women alike, the values of learning, faith, and family were the norm. There was no cult of celebrity. It’s true, someone could become famous. But the fame was of a different nature than we think of fame. Fame in Jesus day was obviously for different reasons.

Luke tells us that Jesus became famous soon after he started his public ministry in the Galilee. By the time he is thirty years old, Jesus has assumed the familiar role of rabbi or teacher. Notice the natural means for Jesus to get his message out was through the local synagogues. This was the most effective way for him to penetrate the social fabric of the culture with his message. The crowds who come out to hear him soon number in the thousands. People push and shove to get close to him. They tear roofs off houses to get inside to where he is teaching.

Why is Jesus so popular? Those who hear him say he is unlike any teacher or rabbi they have ever heard. The customary method of teaching for a rabbi was to build your teaching on the reputation and learning of other rabbis. There were two main schools of rabbinical thought in those days, and as a young disciple you decided which teaching tradition you were going to ally yourself with. You would cite Shammai or Hillel to support your own teaching, which never went far afield of the masters. You used a lot of footnotes.

Jesus used very few footnotes - the Psalms, the Prophets, the Law, yes, but never other rabbis. This was not necessarily a sign of disrespect. It was merely that Jesus didn’t need to cite other interpretations of God’s Word.

Jesus cited himself.

He did not teach “in the manner of the scribes” but instead “as having authority in his own right.” Matthew 7.29

As Dallas Willard writes, “In effect, Jesus was saying just watch me and see that what I say is true. See for yourself that the rule of God has come among ordinary human beings.”

When some asked if he were the true Messiah Jesus didn’t try to reason with them or bully them into belief, he simply cited the power of God that was obviously working through him to transform people.

“The blind see, the lame walk, the dead are raised, the poor have the Gospel preached to them,” was his answer. Jesus left it up to others to decide.


“The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. . .Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

In other words, Jesus didn’t just teach the good news. He was the Good News . Still is.

Now imagine a world in which little children sing, “I wish I were a (certain kind of) wiener. That is what I really want to be. For if I were (that certain kind of) wiener. Everyone would be in love with me.”

Think of what it would mean to be a weenie, or for someone to love you as they “love” a hot dog. Think of a world in which adults would pay millions of dollars to have children perform this song in commercials and in which hundreds of millions of adults find no problem in it. You are thinking of our world.

If you are willing to be a weenie to be loved, what else would you be willing to do?
We turn to the cute and clever because we fear that deep down, life is absurd and we are irrelevant and unloved. Absurdity and cuteness are fine to chuckle over, but they are no place to live. They provide no shelter or direction for being human.

We know our culture is messed up. Is there anything to be done about it?

It begins with diagnosing the real problem and looking for a real answer.
William Hung is not the problem. If you want to you could make the argument that young men and women trying to become famous are really just crying out to be loved. The real American Idol is inside of us. It is our insistence that we can have life and live life on our own without any help from above.

Genius lies in scrutinizing the obvious. The Idol is the same as it’s ever been – Pride and Rebellion against God.

In order to slay the idol we must call for help. We must invite the Master of Life to come and give us his life.

As C.S. Lewis said, “our faith is not a matter of hearing what Christ said long ago and trying to carry it out. Rather, the real Son of God is at your side. He is beginning to turn you into the same kind of thing as Himself. He is beginning, so to speak, to ‘inject’ His kind of life and thought, His Zoe into you; beginning to turn the tin soldier into a live man. The part of you that does not like it is the part that is still tin.”

Whether the idol is made of tin or of doubt, insecurity, anger or longing, there is a better way to live. Let us pray to the Lord for his help and his life.