Okay, so I'm sure that I'm just one of literally MILLIONS of bloggers writing about the Olympics this morning. The image - at left - is cut and pasted from an AP report, so props to them for a great shot...... BUT, this may well be the only blog post in the entire world that ties in so nicely with what I wrote about communion & community yesterday (go back and read the post if you missed it) and - I swear - with absolutely no element of planning ahead.
So there I was, watching the world walk into the Vancouver opening ceremonies, one nation at a time, smiling HUGE smiles and snapping photographs and generally acting as if the re-release of "We Are the World" expresses actual truth - truth that runs more deeply than the hate and the fear and the political posturing that threaten to destroy us all; truth that resonates in billions of people around the globe... and I couldn't help but think about "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring Good News, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings - who proclaim salvation..." - Isaiah 52
Yes, these athletes have beautiful feet on the Canadian Mountains:
- Dancing aboriginal nations, moving non-stop, joyful, with arms open wide in welcome.
- Crowds of athletes ecstatic simply to be there, together, already having received the only prize that means anything at all.
- Cheering and excitement, people celebrating the extravagant joy of simply being alive, of being together.
- 60,000 spectators caught up in the fun... and hundreds of millions more, worldwide, wide-eyed in wonder at the potential beauty of the human experience.
- I got the sense that 99% of these folk weren't at the Olympic Games to win so much as to participate.
Self confidence? Yes - I saw it all over the place, it's a beautiful attribute. Arrogance? Not so much.
That's the dovetail into yesterday's piece on communion. My relationship with God - the story that is so beautifully articulated in the bread and the wine - it gives me such confidence and such deep-seated assurance. But, arrogance has no place in the Christian story.
Arrogance has no place in the Christian story.
Arrogance has no place in the Christian story.
I believe God probably enjoys the opening ceremonies at an Olympic Games significantly more than many - less generous - demonstrations of overly-religious, doctrinally constrictive, politically coercive, theologically stunted, culturally exclusive so-called reverence...
Arrogance has no place in the Christian story. When are we going to understand?
- DEREK
1 comment:
Right on Derek! As Always! Love you, Geoff
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