The week in focus

Connecting to the world right now

In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

What’s important?

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life (John 6.27).

Context

• The first four days of Olympic action in Tokyo have been the most successful in modern times for Great Britain.
• The Labour MP for Brent Central, Dawn Butler, was ejected from the House of Commons on Thursday, for using unparliamentary language when she called the Prime Minister a liar.
• Fethi Nourine, an Algerian judoka, was sent home from the Olympics in Japan, because he had refused to fight Tohar Butbul, an Israeli. His support of the Palestinian cause, he said, made it impossible for him to compete against this opponent.

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

• While it may not quite be up there with deep sea diving or erecting steel on skyscrapers, writing topical notes while the Olympics is on feels like a pretty dangerous job. If I had been writing on Sunday, I might have said that it had been a bit of a disappointing start, but Monday morning began with three gold medals and one silver. There will no doubt be more excitement to come, but these unusual Olympic Games have already produced some great moments.

• Despite his wearing a face mask, it was clear to see that Tom Daley was moved during the playing of the national anthem. At 27, Daley is a veteran of four Olympic Games spread over 13 years, which coincidentally is also the age of the winner of the women’s street skateboarding. This slightly interesting fact would have made a great allusion a few weeks ago when we looked at the story of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak and the raising of Jairus’ daughter. Momiji Nishiya, the 13-year-old skateboarder, had the confidence of youth as she jumped over staircases and slid down handrails in an urban landscape that looked like it had been deserted following a zombie apocalypse.

• Every competitor at this year’s Olympics has been through a lot to get there. Training has been disrupted by the inability to travel and often by ill-health. Swimming gold medallist Tom Dean was severely affected by contracting Covid. Lauren Williams, who won silver in taekwondo, had lived in a caravan with her mother for 18 months as at 14 she was too young to live in the training camp. Georgia Taylor-Brown had been on crutches earlier this year, but survived a flat tyre in the cycling section of the triathlon to gain a silver medal. All of these athletes worked through pain, past disappointments and years of routine training in the cold and the dark to work for the medal that would be theirs.

• Dawn Butler spoke eloquently in the House of Commons when she accused the Prime Minister of lying. Unfortunately, despite her eloquence, and the fact that she was telling the truth as she listed some examples of occasions when Mr Johnson’s words in the House were not true, she committed the unforgiveable sin against Parliament when she accused another member of lying. So, we had the strange case of someone telling the truth being ejected from the chamber for pointing out that someone else had not told the truth. Ms Butler had to decide what was most important – standing up for truth or upholding the rules of the institution of which she was a member – and she made her choice. She worked for something – truth and integrity – that lasts.

• Back to the Olympics, and a less happy event. Politics have often tarnished the Olympic Games, starting with Hitler’s celebration of Aryan supremacy in 1936, and continuing through the boycotts of 1976, 1980 and 1984. So perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us that a Palestinian-supporting Algerian refused to fight an Israeli at judo. While it may seem that there is an irony in his refusing to fight someone whom he identifies as belonging to an enemy state, perhaps the silver lining here is that it shows that judokas don’t see what they do as ‘fighting’ and that to compete they must have respect for their opponent. While we may disagree with his stance, Fethi Nourine believed that his integrity was of higher value than the possibility of gaining Olympic glory.

Questions for discussion

• Have you ever refused to do something/done something that was an unpopular choice, but a matter of personal integrity? Do you have any regrets?
• Jürgen Klopp, the manager of Liverpool FC, has said that football is the ‘most important of the least important things.’ Should we play games with those with whom we have fundamental disagreements, or is sport a way of building bridges.
• Have you ever made a significant commitment of time and energy to achieve something? Was it worth it?

Simon Carver is a Baptist Minister in St Albans and takes a particular interest in film, sport and US politics. 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

The ‘2020’ Tokyo Olympics finally started last weekend, a year after schedule due to the pandemic. Despite a lack of packed stadiums, it is turning out to be a wonderful spectacle of sporting excellence and endurance. I don’t know about you, but I love watching the Olympics; from the skateboarding and surfing, to gymnastics and badminton, through to all athletics. I find it so exciting to see who will be the fastest/strongest in the world on the day. The competitors’ self-discipline and daily practice, year in year out, is an inspiration. This week Adam Peaty was described as Britain’s greatest swimmer, after winning his 2^nd Olympic Gold medal in the breaststroke event. If you wanted to be an Olympian, what do you think your sport would be? How often would you plan to train? Peaty is up at 5am each morning and follows a brutal regime of swimming and gym work for up to 40 hours a week, the equivalent of a full-time job in hard training!

It is inspiring to see people working so hard work to achieve excellence. However, the life of faith offers a distinctively different approach. In the John 6.24-35 passage, the crowds follow Jesus and ask him ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’. Our natural inclination is to think that we need to do things to get a reward. Jesus’ answer is that the work that God wants is simply for followers to believe in him! Jesus tells us that he is the ‘bread that gives life’. The amazing news about following Jesus is that we don’t have to earn or work to become a Christian. It is a choice to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and trust that Jesus is what we need to live a full life. This can really release us from feeling the pressure to have to do, work and achieve. What effort or striving might you be able to lay down? In what situations might you need to place more trust in Jesus, that believing in him is what we need?

Dr Angela Mak is a Licensed Lay Minister at Holy Trinity Shaw in the Ecumenical Partnership of West Swindon and Lydiard Tregoze. She is also an enthusiastic youth worker and retired biology teacher.

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