Sunday 25th August 2024
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
The Olympics and the Gospel
Ashley Null is an unusual character. He is an academic, an expert on Thomas Cranmer and the theology of the English Reformation, and also a chaplain to elite sports people. For the past 40 years he has been attending elite competitions at the request of various athletes, and the Olympic Games in Paris was his sixth Olympics.
In an interview with Premier Christian Radio, he is asked, “You’re an academic and a sports chaplain. What makes those two roles work together?” He replies: “The Reformation was the recovery of the gospel, and the gospel is the antidote to performance-based identity. So, literally, all I do is give athletes Reformation teaching: it’s not what you do for God, but what God does for you …
“The lie of sport is that if you win, you will be whole. But there are spectacular cases of people who have found out that’s not enough. In his documentary, The Weight of Gold, Michael Phelps [the American swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time] talks about the successful Olympians who have questioned whether their lives were worth living. When you have what everybody would give anything to have, and you realise it doesn’t make you whole, where do you turn? The gospel is revolutionary for many elite athletes. Realising that it’s about what God does for them gives them meaning, purpose and hope.”
Later he adds, “These are not Thomas Cranmer’s words, but this is a summary of his theology: only the unconditional love of God for sinners inspires sinners to love God more than sin. Gratitude is the fuel of the Christian life. When we see what God’s love has done, is doing and will do, it inspires a loving gratitude to serve him and others.”
I love that line: “only the unconditional love of God for sinners inspires sinners to love God more than sin.” The reality is that elite athletes are not the only individuals wrestling with a performance-based identity. We are all tempted to feel that we will have ‘made it’ only when we are rich enough, smart enough, pretty enough, clever enough, strong enough, fast enough, popular enough… When so much of the love we are pursuing is conditional on our performance, knowing the unconditional love of God is truly revolutionary.
Lord, teach me to live by your grace rather than by my performance. Amen.
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)