Opinion Column

Olympic harmony should unite and encourage us

Andy Bryant has been enjoying the Olympics and Paralympics, and has been particularly inspired by the displays of unity and harmony as well as competition.

I am suffering withdrawal symptoms.  It is something I go through every four years.  I am an Olympics and Paralympics fan.  I do not usually watch sport, but the exception is the Olympics.  My particular love is athletic and field events, but I love the wonderful range of sports on offer.  It is the only time I watch rugby sevens and hockey, and I find myself getting addicted to archery and table tennis. 
 
Of course, I am cheering on team GB but there is always something special when one of the smaller teams strikes gold. And the Paralympics raises this wonderful feast of sport to another level, with its focus on ability not disability.
 
The opening and closing ceremonies are also all part of the fun.  Amidst all the acts of entertainment comes the long lines of competitors and there are always one or two nations that get me searching for my atlas as I try to locate them on the globe.
 
At the Paris Olympic opening ceremony there was one particularly moving moment.  The Olympic flag was carried by a horse rider, moving through a guard of honour of the flags of the competing nations.  And as the horse rider move past them, the flags joined in a great procession, a wonderful muddle of all the flags from across the globe, together, side by side, and all equal.  It was a wonderful symbol of how the world should be – the nations coming together in peace and harmony.  It felt like a glimpse of the Kingdom of God on earth.
 
We live in deeply dangerous and divided times and the world feels precarious and fragile. Alliances are shifting and changing as governments flex their assertiveness. We become too easily obsessed by the things that divide us and make us different.  Yet the future of our planet depends on us remembering the things we hold in common and the things that unite us.
 
Above all we need to remember that we are all beloved of God who sent his Son to reveal the depth of that divine love through the death of Jesus on the cross.  Tempted as we may be by a sense of national superiority, we all fall short of all that God requires of us, none of us can earn our salvation.  We all depend on the grace of God.  We need to reach out to one another across our differences and discover that deeper unity we have in God. 
 
The Olympics offer us a brief glimpse of what our world could be like if we met as equals and maybe, just maybe, some of the friendships forged during the games will play their part for the healing of the nations.  As the flags of the nations milled together in the Paris opening ceremony it felt that this was how God intended us to be, united by something truer than our divisions.
 
Image by Lynthia Kim from Pixabay

The Revd Andrew Bryant is the Canon for Mission and Pastoral Care at Norwich Cathedral. He was previously Team Rector of Portishead, Bristol, in the Diocese of Bath and Wells, and has served in parishes in the Guildford and Lichfield Dioceses, as well as working for twelve years with Kaleidoscope Theatre, a charity promoting integration through theatre for young adults with Down’s Syndrome.
 
You can read Andrew's latest blog entry here and can follow him via his Twitter account @AndyBry3.

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