To stage the Opening Ceremony of an Olympics on water instead of land, with crowds gathered along a riverbank instead of in a stadium, and with performers perched on buildings instead of stages… It was outrageously creative. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Ohh, to have been an antipodean fly on the wall in those team meetings!
Epic success. I’ve never been to Paris, but now I can’t wait to do so—and I think I’ll manage without Google Maps for much of it, thanks to this ceremony (which, for me, is saying something!).
However, knowing they had a captive global audience, with the peoples and cultures and religions of the world gathered in family groups around their screens—what is it that they decided to do? Raising issues around sexuality in that way? What came over them? Did they think that such a performance was going to help where these issues are the hardest across the world? Surely not. They’ve made it worse. What happened to the ‘outrageous creativity’? Why take such a serious matter, with the opportunity to engage it instructively on a global stage, and then do something in such an offensive, preachy and polarizing manner?
Epic fail. I can only assume that the Games Wide Open are, in fact, the Games Partially Closed for many; that liberté, egalité, diversité, unité, fraternité, solidarité and the like are true for some, but not for all; and that European colonialism, albeit a softer 2.0 version, is still imposing its will and its way on others.
nice chatting
Paul
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
Recent Posts
John Stott was the first one to help me see the tension in Jesus’ teaching on salt and light. They are pictures for how his disciples are to live in society. Salt pulls them in, keeping them involved. Light holds them back, keeping them distinctive. Being light responds to ‘the danger of worldliness’, while being…
Just when I thought that it could not be possible to have another first-hand account of the impact of John Stott’s life (d. 2011), along comes this book by his close friend, John Wyatt. I am always ready to learn more about John Stott, but also about friendship. It fascinates me. It keeps coming up…
Reading stories to grandchildren over Christmas reminded me again of how powerful they can be. They are so compact and simple in presentation, and yet so clever in construction. There are just so many features at work in an effective story. It is some years since I taught narrative preaching, but when I did I’d…
A sad contrast to “Queen Elizabeth” parachuting into the stadium.
Yeah, Fred, I’d still put that London Opening Ceremony ahead of this one.
The humour and the fun in it caught us off-guard as viewers.
I might also add that I only saw ‘the Lord’s Supper’ controversy spreading across social media AFTER I wrote this little piece. It was not on my mind because on this occasion I was trying to reflect more as a global citizen than as a Christian…
Paul