Nothing new under the sun

As some will know, I am preaching my way through the book of Ecclesiastes just now. It’s not the sunniest read in Scripture, it has to be said. The book’s writer, The Teacher, takes a searingly honest look at the way the world works, and concludes that there is no way to make sense of it ‘under the sun’, without reference to God. This week’s passage is Ecclesiastes 6, which looks at possessions and the hold they have over us. To have them is to want them, and to want them is to crave more of them.

I wonder how Chinese teenager Little Zheng might reflect on that today? The story broke yesterday that a little while ago, desperate to own the latest Apple object of desire, he sold his kidney to unscrupulous agents for £2077 – part of which he used to buy his Ipad 2. Complications followed when there was post-operative infection, and Zheng’s family have had to seek medical care locally. Let’s hope his latest acquisition provides some distraction whilst he recovers.

As The Teacher would say, there is nothing new under the sun….