Blog by Revd Sheila Maxey of Brentwood URC

Posted on 08/05/2013 by idavidsonblog

Towards the end of April I will be acting as chaplain to the Thames North and Eastern Synods Ministers’ Spring School. Its theme is “Strangers in a strange land” with the subtitle of “Who are we?” I don’t know how the various speakers are going to address the theme but it seems to recognise that we, as Christians, are not – and perhaps should not be – at ease in our current culture.
Down the centuries Christians have resisted the culture in which they have found themselves in ways they believed to be faithful to the Gospel: the early Quakers refused to use titles such as ‘Sir’ or ‘my Lord’ or even ‘Mr’ or ‘Mrs’ because we are all equal in the sight of God: an uncle of mine would not use a bank for money because the Bible forbade usury (earning interest): many Christians would not take a Sunday paper or use a shop on Sunday in order to honour the Sabbath: an Ethiopian volunteer at PENHA fasts regularly as a spiritual discipline. What in our culture should we, as Christians, be resisting?
Our culture is sometimes criticised as a ‘blame culture’: we must find someone to blame for whatever is wrong. Who do we blame for the present economic crisis – the bankers, the government, people on benefits, the NHS, the very rich etc., etc.?
Many years ago I went to see a series of Greek tragedies (dating from centuries before Christ). At the side of the stage stood the chorus – a small group which commented on the action. They had very few words to say, but as each tragic event unfolded, they would say : “Who is to blame? Who is to blame?” So a blame culture is nothing new.
However, we Christians have some very different words sounding in our heads:
All we like sheep have gone astray (Isaiah 53:6)
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John. 1: 8)
And Jesus’ words to the crowd gathered round to gloat over the woman caught in adultery: Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.

I don’t think the Bible gives us easy answers to how we should live faithfully in our culture or any other culture. In trying to prepare for the Spring School daily prayers I have turned to the Easter chapters of John’s Gospel – chapters 20 and 21 – in order to stand on firm ground. There the risen Jesus comes, time and again in surprising ways, to meet his frightened, unfaithful disciples (just like us). He forgives all the past, he directs their fishing, he feeds them by the lakeside, he gives them confidence to step out into an uncertain future, telling others about God’s love and power.

So, as we try to approach the big issues of our day or find our bearings in the events and encounters of our daily lives, the only place to stand is on that same firm ground.

Sheila Maxey

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Relationship Problems

Posted on 25/02/2013 by idavidsonblog

In principle, I don’t have any objection to eating horse meat. I am prepared to eat cow meat. What’s so different about eating horse, as long as I know that is what I am eating. I think the important point in the recent food scandals which have affected so many manufacturers and supermarkets is that they and we did not know what was in the product. Vegetarians, amongst whom are some of my best friends (I’m married to one and we’re the parents of another one), are in no position to feel superior to omnivores. If you can’t guarantee the beef burger is horse-free how can you be confident about your veggie burger?

The problem seems to have been connected with the length of supply chain, with meat travelling across several countries before appearing on supermarket shelves, only to be removed when the food standards agency in another country (Ireland) cottoned on that all might not be as advertised in UK shops. The horse meat scandal is an example, a sign, of what happens when you increase the distance between producers of the food and those who consume it. Instead of being people that we know, either personally or as part of our community, they are people who live in other lands, and so we feel less sense of obligation to behave correctly. I think that’s why, it appears, Rumanians have been secret suppliers of horse meat to the UK whilst (perhaps ironically) we British have been fulfilling this role for the French population.

 

Distancing between people and peoples also affects several other areas of life. See how risk taking rises in the finance sector as (other people’s) money whizzes around the entire world in an instant; consider how much easier it is to go to war against people far away when your remotely controlled drone launches your missile against people you have never met; whom your ‘pilot’ will never meet face to face, nor run any physical risk in attacking them. This is the sort of world in which, paradoxically, churches both struggle to prosper and yet have much to offer.

On a practical level, church congregations often offer opportunities for people to experience face to face relationships and build acquaintances beyond immediate family (if they have one), on a stronger basis than that offered to them in their role as consumers, clients or voters. In other words, such things as coffee mornings, lunch clubs, fellowship circles and Sunday congregations really matter on the level of providing opportunities to experience human community and enhance the lives of individual people. Churches are a living question mark to a world in which human beings are ‘half-free, half-bound by inner chains / by social forces swept along / by powers and systems close confined / yet seeking hope for humankind.’ (Brian Wren – see Rejoice & Sing 339 v. 2)

We offer these sorts of activities not just to do good deeds nor even through simple self-interest, though these things are good to do and they are in our interest. We do this because it is part of our response to God, who sees the big world-wide, creation-wide, picture but is not content to operate on that level alone. Instead, God acts in world-changing ways through the personal, in the being and actions of a human being, Jesus Christ. He, Jesus, builds a whole serious of face-to-face relationships, which bring some to follow him and lead others to strongly reject him. In turn, the ones who follow in his way seek to build human relationships that echo the concern God has be in relationship with his creatures. (Given that God has a Creator’s relationship with both cows and horses this might make us consider how human beings relate to them and how we make them relate to one another.)

For the future, whether working as congregations in Essex or working with congregations elsewhere, let’s be guided by the understanding that God is interested in a good relationship with creation, people included, in the relationship peoples have with one another, and with the rest of God’s creation.

                                                                     Trevor

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Travelling on the Way

Posted on 04/02/2013 by idavidsonblog

Oh, ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road,

And I’ll get to Scotland afore ye …

By now most or all of you will have heard that I am moving on from the pastorate of Billericay, Brentwood and Ingatestone and heading for Scotland, to be Chaplain for Eco-Congregation Scotland. At the time of writing preparations for the move are underway; removal firms are offering quotations for sending our goods and chattels North; questions are being asked within the household about what is going to Edinburgh and what is going to the charity shops, Freecycle, recycling and the rubbish dump. Not surprisingly, travels and journeys are on my mind at the moment.

Both the biblical Old and New Testaments contain stories of journeying. Probably the best known one in the former is the Exodus, the story of the journey of the Israelite people from a situation of slavery in Egypt to freedom in a new land, via a long wandering journey through wilderness. And let’s not forget a personal favourite of mine, Jonah, who plans to journey as far West as he can get only to find himself dragged back in an Eastward direction, to the frightening city of Nineveh, as God has always intended.

In the New Testament Jesus is often pictured as on a journey, from his early years, when he, like the early Israelites, ends up in Egypt, a place of safety rather than slavery, to his travels around Galilee and South to Jerusalem; to the cross and to his resurrection. On occasion, we are told, there are people who literally followed Jesus, that is, went on his journey with him. On such is Bartimaeus, a blind man who, once cured, ‘followed him on the road.’ (Mark 10: 52 REB)

Of course any language about following Jesus’ on the road’ or ‘on the way’ carries greater resonances to the Christian ear than any description of a literal road. Following Jesus is also about following his teaching and his actions. Following Jesus is to some extent about ‘dying to yourself’ and ‘living for others’ because that is what Jesus actually did in his death and resurrection. Saint Paul, in words that bring together baptism and following Jesus, puts it this way, ‘Have you forgotten that when we were baptised into union with Christ we were baptised in his death? By that baptism into his death we were buried with him, in order that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might set out on a new life.’ (Romans 6: 3, 4)

So following Jesus is not something confined to a few folk who could travel Palestinian roads with him almost two thousand years ago. It is about something available to and asked of us in the here and now. Following Jesus is about how we live our lives in this early twenty-first century, technologically interconnected, forever changing and developing world. The opportunity to be involved in making a focused Christian response to one of the merging issue of the twenty-first century (what we are doing to creation through climate change arising from human activity) is a major reason I have chosen to move on at this time.

Like all journeys, following Jesus includes elements of looking back and looking forward, the former with joys and sadnesses, the latter with uncertainties and exciting possibilities. That is certainly how things feel for me at the moment as I look back over the last seven years and I imagine there are other people feeling in a similar way with regard to the congregations in this pastorate at this time. However things work out for us in the next few months and years I hope we can all keep focused on the fact that for us Christians the route, the road, the way ahead, is defined by following Jesus, the ‘pioneer and perfecter of faith.’ (Hebrews 12: 20

                                            Trevor

For further information on Eco-Congregation Scotland http://www.ecocongregationscotland.org/

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What I want for Christmas

Posted on 28/11/2012 by idavidsonblog

What I want for Christmas…..

Some years ago, just a few days before Christmas, the British ambassador to the USA was relaxing at home in Washington DC when the telephone rang. At the other end of the line was a representative of one of the American television networks. “Mr Ambassador, we have spoken with you on several occasions during the last year and you have been such a helpful source for comment on important issues. Thank you for that. We wondered what you might be hoping for this Christmas.”

The ambassador, modestly playing down his importance to the company, protested that nothing was necessary, but that in these circumstances was prepared to admit that he would be happy to receive a box of chocolates. The call concluded and he gave the matter no more thought until Christmas Eve.

That evening, as he sat watching the news programme on TV, the anchor-man announced, “Well, as we come to the end of the news on Christmas Eve, you might like to know that we rang round the ambassadors here in Washington, asking them what they were hoping for this Christmas. The German ambassador said that this Christmas he was hoping for economic prosperity for all and the end of global poverty. The French ambassador said that this Christmas he was hoping for an end to conflict in the Middle East and peace throughout the world. The British ambassador said …”

Have you written your Christmas list yet? I have started mine, though there are only three items on it so far, and none of them feature the eradication of poverty or the advent of world peace (though I might consider adding a box of chocolates to it). Ask me what I want for Christmas and my thoughts automatically turn to gifts and presents, and, If I am honest, the more of them the better. Like the ambassador, my mind does not leap to the big picture, to think of others, to consider the problems and dilemmas facing the human race. I am more concerned with myself; who I need to buy for and who might be buying for me.

Gifts feature heavily in the Christian version of Christmas, not only in the gold, frankincense and myrrh, presented by ‘wise men’ to the infant, but also in the belief that Jesus, a baby born in Bethlehem, is God’s gift of himself to humankind. Maybe the Bible’s New Testament books could be seen as thank-you letters, letting God and others know how much we appreciate this special gift. And Jesus is a gift from God that manages to respond to both the big picture and intimate setting.

After all, since Jesus turns up and turns out to the saviour of the world then he is the greatest gift for all those whose lists include prosperity and peace, economies and armies. At the same time, however, he’s also a gift for those of us in need of that personal gift, the one that speaks to our individual human experiences: faith and doubt, relationships that work well and those that don’t quite work at all, bodies that ‘let us down’ and minds that can’t find peace. It’s not just that God’s Son was born in an era of turmoil that matters (though it does) but that he was born as frail human being, knowing our deepest needs and responding to them. It’s human to desire gifts and to give gifts; it’s divine to give yourself away for others.

Now there’s a thought, a gift, to enjoy and share with others, or as the Apostle Paul once put it, in one of his thank you letters, shared with a church in Corinth,  “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, no longer holding people’s misdeeds against them, and has entrusted us with the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors.” (2 Corinthians 5: 19, 20)

      Trevor

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Mixed Memories

Posted on 23/10/2012 by idavidsonblog

Mixed Memories
Well, it seems like no time at all since I staggered out of the harvest season, having negotiated, in three successive weekends, three harvest services and three harvest suppers (all of which were both substantial and enjoyable). Now, at the time of writing, with plans being negotiated and put in place, Advent and Christmas are looming up over the horizon of church life. Before we can get into that season, however, there is some remembering to be done.
Most obviously, in November, there is the remembering of war on Remembrance Sunday, which this year coincides with Armistice Day, November 11th, the day the First World War came to an end in 1918. All three churches in the pastorate will mark the day in their morning worship. In Ingatestone and in Billericay we even change service times so that URC members can join (increasing) crowds of people gathering around the local war memorials for a public act of remembrance.
I must admit to being surprised and bemused to hear that our government intends to spend several tens of millions of pounds in 2014 (when I presume we will still be in a period of austerity) to mark the centenary of the start of the First World War. After all, as a nation we seem to have been remembering that war quite effectively, on an annual basis, for many years, by marking the anniversary of its conclusion. Given that I began this year as mildly sceptical about the Olympics and am ending it as an enthusiast, however, I am cautious about criticising. Perhaps I will appreciate whatever comes out of this initiative.
I suppose my worry is that if you mark the start of the war there is a danger that you treat it as a celebration. Remembrance can be a mixed affair. After all, acknowledging human bravery and the virtues of comradeship and community in the midst danger and difficulty is right to do, but only when accompanied by remembering the horrors of humanly contrived carnage, destruction, death and loss that are intrinsic to warfare. Each of us as individuals will have our views on where the balance should be struck between these competing demands but it is a bigger challenge to hold together the different conclusions we reach in an agreed, shared act of remembrance.
Other acts of remembrance, closer to (our URC) home also exhibit similar complexities. The United Reformed Church came into being in October 1972, which is worth remembering with pride and celebration, though forty years down the road the original vision for further church unity needs to rethought and there are a lot fewer URC members around now to do the rethinking. If you want to think back three hundred and fifty years, to 1662, should we not celebrate the beauties of the Book of Common Prayer, published in that year, yet also mark the ‘Great Ejection’ of hundreds of clergy from the Church of England, also in that year, that gave rise to the Nonconformist tradition that underlies so much of the history, life and ethos of United Reformed Church?
And if we dig down deep into the roots of Christian faith, to Jesus’ orders, given at the dinner table, that in gathering to eat bread and drink wine, we do these things in order to ‘remember’ him, we can find a similar mixture of sadness and celebration. After all, the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, Eucharist brings to mind not only the companionship of Jesus’ followers but his arrest and execution, not only his death but his resurrection. It’s not that one thing cancels out the other but that all must somehow be held together so that we can fully remember; as it is around the communion table, so it around the world, and vice-versa.
Trevor

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Watch your Language

Posted on 24/09/2012 by idavidsonblog

Watch Your Language

At the time of writing Andrew Mitchell, currently the government chief whip, has got into trouble over subjecting a police office to verbal abuse in which four-letter words were prominent. Interestingly, Mr Mitchell’s problems relate not his (acknowledged ) use of a widely popular swear word but to the allegation that he deployed another four-letter word, calling  the police officer a ‘pleb’

If you or I were to use the F-word to a police officer in public there is a strong chance we would find ourselves in handcuffs, sitting in a cage in the back of a van and on our way to a night’s complementary stay in no-star accommodation. If we called a police officer a ‘pleb’ we’d still probably be allowed to make our own way home. Curiously, for Mr Mitchell the situation seems to be reversed. Police officers, it seems, just have to put up with being cursed at in the street by representatives of government but a politician using the P-word courts a political death sentence, especially if senior police officers just happen to mention to the press that such an incident has taken place.

Sometimes, it seems, it is not just the word itself that matters but who says it and in what circumstances. I wonder; is that is true concerning how we talk about God? During September and October Methodists and URC folk in Brentwood are having a five-session joint Bible study course on the Ten Commandments, staring at number ten and working our way down to number one, two commandments per meeting. My Methodist colleague, Wes, gets to lead the session that includes the third commandment: “You must not make wrong use of the name of the Lord your God; the Lord will not leave unpunished anyone who misuses his name.” (Exodus 20: 7 Revised English Bible) What are we to make of that these days?

To take one example, is it breaking the third commandment, is it taking the Lord’s name in vain (as the King James Version of the Bible translated it), to scatter the exclamation ‘OMG’ throughout text messages, emails, tweets and Facebook comments? If this is something ‘the Lord will not leave unpunished’ then many teenagers (and others) up and down the length of the country should start worrying now. Alternatively, perhaps the perspective of those using the comments really matters here. After all, if you have little or no knowledge of the God encountered through the Bible, God made known in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; if you have never been part of a bunch of people trying to live out the implications of that in their lives (aka ‘church’), then the ‘G’ in the initials for ‘Oh my God’ really can’t be a reference to the one who is Lord in Exodus 20 and is Lord for followers of Jesus. It seems to me that the emphasis here is all on the ‘M’ – ‘my’ – in the term, which is not to say that I’m commending its use: everyone should be careful about what we mean by ‘God’.

The ones who should be really careful about how they use God’s name, however, are those who claim they are trying to respond to God in their lives. And that goes beyond careless use of the divine name in conversation. It includes any claim we make about what God thinks about what goes on in the world today; not just how God feels about all that careless use of the term ‘OMG’. I suspect God gets much more exercised about those who ‘tag’ the divine name unto acts of terrorism, claim to have God on their military side in ‘fighting for Christian civilization’ against Islam, or are ever-ready to say that Christian brothers and sisters with different views really don’t know God at all.

Yes, we Christians really need to watch our language when we talk about God.

Trevor

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Back to the future

Posted on 08/09/2012 by idavidsonblog

Back to the Future

The New Year may start officially on January 1st but in practice for many people it comes at the beginning of September. That’s the case for all of those who study and work in education (which is a lot of people in this country) and also for those involved in the life of churches (which is still a lot of people in this country).  Even for those whose work or life does not reflect this nation’s agricultural inheritance (‘all is safely gathered in’) the end of the summer holidays is a big moment in the year.

One thing you can be sure of is that things will not be the same as they were last September, whether for good or ill. Church members have a habit of informing their ministers that ‘we are all getting older here you know’, though none of them seem to be doing so at a rate greater than one day at a time. Also, it would be pretty spooky to find yourself as Minister of a congregation where no one aged a day. I don’t think I like that idea. (Part of the reasoning behind running the Emmaus course in the Billericay congregation is to give people the opportunity to re-look at the basics of the Christian faith, not relying on childhood memories but seeing it anew from an adult perspective.)

The big challenge for Christians seems to be that things appear to change in the society around us at a rate greater than that within the life of the churches. On one level that is helpful because churches become places where you can find some sense of stability in the midst of a constantly changing world. On the other hand, if we are not careful, churches become places so out of step with their communities that they come to seem irrelevant to the vast majority of the population, including the children, family and friends of those involved in congregational life. Consider, for example, the technology taken for granted in the school environment for learning and in the business setting, and then compare that to what goes on (or not) in churches.

A slogan which is bandied about in Reformed Church circles goes thus: Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda, which can be translated ‘The church reformed is always to be reformed’. To put it another way, ‘real’ Reformed churches are always reforming. So a Reformed church that welcomes another September does so ready to look at it differently to the way it did so the previous September, because the world has changed since last September, and it is prepared to do some things differently as a result. Of course that does not mean everything in church life just get thrown up in the air on an annual basis. That would represent more change than most of us could cope with and stay sane.

At the same time there are not many things in church life that we absolutely have to do in the way we do them today or did them yesterday. The enduring focus on Jesus Christ, who is described as: “the same yesterday, today and for ever” (Hebrews 13: 8) gives us our essential stability. The business of the Church, responding to Jesus, is to love God and to love our neighbour. The ways in which we choose to do these things are many and various, looking to our traditions and responding to the situation in which we find ourselves today. And good news, God has given us another year in which to do so.

Trevor

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Summer Holiday?

Posted on 19/06/2012 by idavidsonblog

We’re all going on a summer holiday,
no more working for a week or two.
Fun and laughter on our summer holiday,
no more worries for me or you,
for a week or two.

Written by Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett
(and often performed by Cliff Richard)
Most or all of us will have memories of summer holidays we have enjoyed, either as children or as adults, taken in this country or abroad.  I can remember caravan holidays from my childhood; both the blazing sunshine of two weeks at Newcastle, County Down, and another fortnight huddled together in a caravan on the constantly rain-swept North coast of Ireland.  The latter holiday was the one when the family’s Monopoly set was purchased to stave off the boredom (by the way, is it possible to play Monopoly and not have an argument at some stage in the game?).
In truth, though, we’re not all going on a summer holiday this year, no matter what Cliff and the Shadows may have told us in song, all those years ago.  Some will be choosing to holiday at other times to avoid the rush of high season: note how there almost always seem to be members of a Church congregation away on holiday, no matter what the time of year.  Others won’t be going away because physical frailty means that they have to stick close to home on a permanent basis these days, and once again Church congregations usually include people who are in that situation.

Then there are those for whom summer is the busy time.  Indeed, for some people it is essential that summer is busy because their livelihood depends on the money that summer visitors bring into their town or district during that period of the year.  It’s not as simple as the song lyrics might suggest.  Not all of us are going on a summer holiday this year.

In the 1963 film, Summer Holiday, Cliff and his friends are driving their double decker bus across Europe with Athens as their intended final destination.  I suspect, however, that today’s Greek population are not due a holiday from financial austerity any time soon.  In recent years another popular holiday destination has been Egypt, but the Egyptian population are not due for a holiday from political uncertainty in the near future.  You can say the same for the people of Syria and on-going political bloodshed, for Afghanistan and continuing war.  In the case of the latter, Helmland Province is no holiday destination as far as men and women in the British armed forces are concerned.
There’s no point in those of us who are intending to enjoy a summer holiday this year simply to give up having one because of a bad conscience about the situation faced by others.  We (yes, I’m one of the fortunate ones) should be aware that we are fortunate, and give some thought to the source of our ‘good fortune.’  To quote some words from an old hymn, “Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your blessings, see what God hath done!  Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”  If you prefer a Biblical response how about some words from Saint Paul: “Always be joyful; pray continually; give thanks whatever happens; for this is what God wills for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonian 5: 18)

Whatever our situation this summer, I hope we all have something for which to give thanks – a blessing to be counted – and, remembering Saint Paul’s injunction to be prayerful as well as joyful, that we take time to pray as well.  Perhaps the people and situations mentioned above would make a good starting point for our summer prayer agenda.

Trevor

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Grabbing Hold of Eternal Life

Posted on 29/05/2012 by idavidsonblog

“Run the great race of faith and take hold of eternal life, for to this you were called, when you confessed your faith nobly before many witnesses.”

1Timothy 6: 12 – The Bible
“Insurance firm Aviva has announced that group chief executive Andrew Moss will be leaving with immediate effect.  The move comes after the firm suffered the embarrassment of losing a shareholder vote on executive pay at its annual general meeting last week.  He is the latest boss to face pressure from investors unhappy that pay levels do not reflect company performance.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17987271
Some years ago Christian Aid, the Church international development agency used to have a slogan that proclaimed “We believe in life before death.”  I must admit that I never really liked it.  The reason was that although I have supported the work of Christian Aid for many years (and continue to do so) I felt as though they had taken a Christian phrase, about life after death, and its link with ‘eternal life’ and distorted it for their own organisational ends.

This week I have been preaching on verses from the sixth chapter of the First Letter to Timothy, as part of series of sermons at Brentwood United Reformed Church on the third Sunday of each month.  The verse at the top of the page is part of that chapter and the reference to eternal life was the intended focus of the sermon.  Now, you can’t (or shouldn’t) preach a sermon based upon one verse, without taking into account the verses around it.  Otherwise you run the danger of distorting the original intent of the writer and so it’s possible applications for today.

Having been brought up in a Church setting where ‘eternal life’ was all about what happened to you when you die, on the basis of decisions you had made about accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, I was expecting the surrounding verses to be about “spiritual” things – prayer, worship, and the like.  The part of me that believes that issues of peace, justice and economic fairness are an essential aspect of our Christian faith expects to find that sort of thing in the Old Testament, or even in the Gospels, but not so much in the New Testament letters.  As is often the case, prior expectations about the Bible get overturned.

“We brought nothing into this world, and we can take nothing out; if we have food and clothing let us rest content.” (6: 7-8)

“The love of money is the root of all evil, and in pursuit of it some have wondered from the faith and spiked themselves on many a painful thorn.” (6: 10)

“Instruct those who are rich in this world’s goods not to be proud, and to fix their hopes not on so uncertain a thing as money, but on God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.” (6: 17)

In other words, talk of eternal life is embedded in a whole set of verses about our attitude to riches and the pursuit of money.  When Christian Aid proclaimed “We Believe in Life before Death” the biblical nail was being hit squarely on the head.

Just in case anyone has any do doubts, I do believe that eternal life has to do with our destiny and condition when we depart this life and I do believe that it is important to acknowledge Jesus as your Saviour and Lord.

It’s just that I believe, and I’m reminded of it by this letter to Timothy, that eternal life starts now, and the richness of our eternal life is inextricably bound up with our attitude and actions concerning material wealth, including such matters as executive remuneration and the fate of the Eurozone economies.

Trevor

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Citius, Altius, Fortius

Posted on 25/04/2012 by idavidsonblog

Faster, Higher, Stronger?

Citius, Altius, Fortius – Motto of the Olympic Games

Well, are you looking forward to the Olympic Games?  There are only one hundred days to go until the opening ceremony as I write this letter and there will a lot fewer by the time you get to read it.  Have you booked your tickets to spectate or have you booked your holiday, to be as far away as possible from Stratford and the other sites whilst the games are going on?  Alternatively, are you just going to carry on as though nothing special is happening?

As a family we have got some tickets and I am sure we’ll enjoy the events we get to watch.  I enjoy watching sport, though I have never excelled at any and risen as high as ‘average’ in only a few.  I will enjoy watching the Olympics, both live and on TV, but I hope they don’t get to dominate my life.  For me, it will be fun to see who goes faster or higher than anyone else and who is the strongest of them all.
When you make ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’ your motto however, you should not be surprised when some people take things very seriously indeed.  After all, despite the intentions of Baron de Coubertin that the modern Olympics would be an amateur get-together it has become a multi-billion pound, world-wide, media saturated, thoroughly politicised event.  No wonder some are prepared to go to any drug-enhanced lengths in order to be first over the line.

Along with ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’ (apparently suggested by a Dominican priest) de Coubertin also used informally the well-known phrase, “the most important thing is not to win but to take part” (this one attributed to an American Anglican bishop, preaching at the 1908 (London) games).  How do you manage to hold together those two sayings without contradiction?  Maybe you cannot do so.  If a Christian tries looking to the Bible for help with this conundrum then some athletic texts are to hand.  For example, Saint Paul, who lived in Corinth for a while, the city with the most important set of first-century athletics championships after the ancient Olympic games, held by Athens, was happy to pick up such imagery to describe the Christian life: “At the games, as you know, all the runners take part, though only one wins the prize.  You also must run to win.  Every athlete goes into strict training.  They do it to win a fading garland; we to win a garland that never fades.” (1 Corinthians 9: 24, 25)

Christians will want to affirm some aspects of the Olympic Games from a faith perspective, celebrating the physicality and fellowship of the event, for example; things that we were made for by the God of Creation.  At the same time as congratulating the faster, the higher and the stronger, Christians remember that Jesus seemed to spend a lot of his time with the lower, the weaker and those who had been left trailing behind in the society where he lived and ministered.  How we keep these perspectives in balance is a good subject for discussion in Church at this time.  Additionally, the Olympics provide an opportunity for Church-goers to share in fun with neighbours and chat about what beliefs and values help us keep such a big event in some sense of proportion in the coming months.

Trevor

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