I've been absorbed in the high drama that is the annual Tour de France cycling marathon. Maybe it's my francophile tendencies but each year I get more and more impressed with this most exacting and sophisticated of sporting challenges. The above picture shows Lance Armstrong, five times winner, formerly retired, and already a tour winner after coming back from a death sentence to cancer. Alongside him is Mark Cavendish, British sprint sensation and fastest cyclist in the world. The race, to the uninitiated, can seem an immense mystery: there are awards for overall winner (yellow jersey), sprint leader (green jersey) and king of the mountains (spotted jersey). It's all played out to deft tactics working out team strategies to shelter the lead riders from the drag of the wind and when and where to break out from the pack (the peleton).
It's not for nothing that it is generally regarded as the most arduous sporting challenge in the world. While taking in the exertions of the riders, the chateaux and mountain peaks, i've been pondering some current reading of Bishop Kenneth Cragg's works, possibly the greatest living Christian writer on Islam. His works are wonderfully generous, eloquent and sympathetic accounts of Islamic belief and tradition. Infused throughout, though, is the centrality of the cross: the self-giving love of the Christ. I watch the utter emptying of Tour de France riders, reminded of those scriptures talking of the Christian "race" (Acts 20:24, 1 Cor 9:24, Gal 2:2, 5:7, 2 Tim 4:7, Heb 12:1) and think I'm catching a glimpse of what is meant by "running the race".
It's not about winning; many of the Tour de France riders are actually there purely to serve their team leads, giving their all to push a particular pace and protect another of their riders. But every one of those riders finishes the line spent, emptied, given out. That is the crux of the challenge of the Christian gospel; it's a challenge that puts genuine and insuperable distance between Islam and Christianity. But that challenge, by definition, means that it is not about asserting ourselves, getting the last word, needing power and privilege. It's what Kenneth Cragg describes as being "troubled by truth". We have encountered truth in Jesus; but the nature of that truth is a paradox that demands generosity, grace and service. "Deciding by the gospel", as Kenneth Cragg says, "requires us to recognize that we may well be farthest from God in the very pretence of obeying Him".
So, tune into ITV4, give the Tour de France a go if you haven't already, and ponder the self-emptying of the cross as you watch Lance, Mark and Contador strain every sinew!
amen!
Posted by: jonny | July 16, 2009 at 03:56 PM
But I admire the precious time and effort you put into it, especially into interesting articles you share here!
Posted by: MONCLER | November 19, 2011 at 03:11 AM