Here is what the author writes:
The myth of mass lemming suicide began when the Walt Disney movie, Wild Wilderness, was released in 1958. It was filmed in Alberta, Canada, far from the sea and not a native home to lemmings. So the filmmakers imported lemmings, by buying them from Inuit children. The migration sequence was filmed by placing the lemmings on a spinning turntable that was covered with snow, and then shooting it from many different angles. The cliff-death-plunge sequence was done by herding the lemmings over a small cliff into a river. It's easy to understand why the filmmakers did this - wild animals are notoriously uncooperative, and a migration-of-doom followed by a cliff-of-death sequence is far more dramatic to show than the lemmings' self-implemented population-density management plan.
As the popularity of Disney grows, I guess so does his influence over all aspects of life...
But spiritually speaking, sometimes we can all adopt the lemming method of spirituality. Far distanced from our past insistence on both scriptural literacy and integrity, our contemporary world simply follows head to tail with the one who seems most in tune with either theology or spirituality. For instance, it would not be a surprise to most Christians to learn that in a Barna report in 2014:
...a majority of U.S. adults (81 percent) said they consider themselves highly, moderately or somewhat knowledgeable about the Bible. Yet less than half (43 percent) were able to name the first five books of the Bible. The statistics are similar to the previous 2013 report which also showed that only half knew that John the Baptist was not one of the 12 apostles.
In his own experience, one student, Berding recalled, did not know that Saul in the New Testament was different from King Saul in the Old Testament. Another student thought the Old Testament figure Joshua was the son of "a nun," unaware that "Nun" was actually the name of the father and not a member of a Catholic community of women.
In essence, instead of understanding the direction in which God's will is taking us by daily reading the Bible and adhering to practices long established so that, as Paul writes, "(people) would seek him and perhaps reach out and find him, though he is not far from any one of us." (Acts 17:27)
In essence, we leap unconcerned off the non-scriptural precipice of selfishness and blame God for abandoning us when we lie crumpled in a heap in the abyss of our shattered dreams.
So it was with the people of Athens. As a place concerned with the inner life, Paul encountered a group of people, some Jews and 'God-fearing Greeks' as well as the smartest idle men in the city who "lived there and spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas." (Acts 17:21)
At least they were talking about new ideas, I guess.
But Paul was appalled by the proliferation of idolatry in the country, and if there was any one thing that God did not like it was idolatry. (See the first two chapters of Zephaniah if you want to know how that's going to turn out.) So, Paul engages with the people and their understanding of God and points to an altar where, presumably, sacrifices were being laid to 'an unknown god.' They were trying to cover all the bases. If I can just find a way to make sure that all the gods are appeased, I should have no problem being blessed by health, wealth and happiness in this life...
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? In a contemporary world that almost completely disengages with anything spiritual, it is no wonder that the root of its discontent is that of idolatry - the endless quest to fill the spiritual with the physical. Without any reflection whatsoever, we buy the newest, the brightest, the fanciest and most entertaining gadget that we hope can somehow appease the one we've set up as god: Ourselves.
But Paul points out to the Athenian spiritual lemmings: "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather he gives everyone life and breath and everything else." (Acts 17:24,25)
You who are jumping off the cliff into the abyss of materialism and egomania, beware that at the bottom, in the dark of that which you can't see, is the breaker of all dreams that God has for you. And when your back is broken in the cliff of despair, you will have two options:
1. You can blame God for 'leading' you over the edge.
2. You can still cry out to the only one who can save you. To God in Jesus Christ.
To be sure we all have, myself included, longed for something more, something different, something that will bring out a greater sense of happiness. Paul even says that God provides everything else, and the material is not a sin in and of itself, but when in its addictive state, it is just a 'chasing after the wind.' (Ecclesiastes 2:10,11)
This altar to an unknown god which Paul addresses, he says is the God that they don't know - Jesus Christ and in him alone is the resurrection of the dead. In him alone is the fulfilment of the scriptures. In him alone is life and breath and everything else.
As Paul winds up his diatribe with the people of Athens, he says this: in the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. (turn back to God) For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.
God's peace to you as you turn back to him this week. God's peace as you encounter the one who gives not only life and breath, but new life and renewed breath.
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