THE OPENING CEREMONY of the Paris Olympics is a week away. The entry parade of athletes and lighting of the torch is an awesome spectacle to watch, even if you aren’t an athlete.
I recently returned from a trip to Greece and visited the site of the original Olympics. The Olympics began in 776 BCE and lasted in its ancient form for 600 years.
On our tour, I learned from our guide that champions were honored in their home regions for the rest of their lives. They might even get a statue made of them to stand in honor near the temple of Zeus, the patron of the games.
But the Olympics, then and now, focus, too, on the premise that just to compete is honorable in its own right and as important as winning.
The games held honor because all competitors had the confidence that events would be judged fairly. Winners were required to win fair and square (that’s a loose translation of something Greek, I’m sure).
There was even a somber ritual before the temple of Zeus at the beginning of the games, where all competitors swore to compete with honor and pride, and follow the rules of each sport. Further, according to our guide, just to make the point about the requirement to compete fairly, when the athletes were marched into the field of play, the route was flanked by statues of past competitors who had cheated!
Next week, we will hear a modern version of the oath repeated back then that includes a promise to not use performance enhancing drugs. Oh, how the world has changed.
As you read this, you might think I might now pivot to an old person’s rant about our culture’s loss of decorum and moral compass. That would be too easy and, anyway, history shows ancient fairness was reserved for landed citizens of Greece or Rome only.
I got to thinking that life may not be an Olympic event, but trying to live life honorably and with purpose takes the commitment of an Olympic marathoner.
Just finishing life’s race justly is honor and reward enough.
The late Eugene Peterson, pastor and theologian, paraphrased Paul’s Hebrews 12 encouragement to live as Jesus would, writing “… Strip down, start running and never quit … Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we are in. … God is training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun … but it will pay off for it is the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship to God.”
Life’s Olympics are not every four years, but every day. Train with me?
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Issues of Faith is a rotating column by religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. Don Corson is an Ordained Deacon in the Lutheran Church (ELCA) and the winemaker for a local winery. He is also the minister for Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Forks. His email is ccwinemaker@gmail.com.
