GordonMoyes.com

On Sunday 25 May, Rev Dr. Moyes was the guest speaker for the National Thanksgiving Day Service at Bexley Uniting Church. The theme of his sermon is “Being Part of the Thankful Ten Percent”.

Every four years, after the Olympics, the Paralympics are held. At these world games are some of the most inspirational moments of international sport. I have interviewed on radio and television many of the Paralympians. Every story is one of achievement. I remember a non-sporting event with such an amazing person a few years ago in Wesley Theatre in Sydney, in an evening service.

The Olympics Sydney 2000 closed with the judgment that they were the best Olympics ever in history. Certainly they were the most expensive, involving athletes from the most countries (200), with the greatest crowds and most spectacular opening and closing ceremonies. I am writing this before the close of the Beijing Olympics 2008, but I am sure they will be judged the best ever, as you would expect from a totalitarian state.

I saw the champion USA female sprinter Marion Jones win five medals, including three gold medals in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. She was unbelievably fast. That was the trouble. It was unbelievable! It took until just before Christmas 2007 until the truth was out. Now don’t look for Marion Jones’ name in the Olympic record books. As far as the IOC is concerned, her five-medal performance at the 2000 Sydney Games never happened.

The first thing you notice is his size. He is head and shoulders above everyone. And his shoulders – they are wider than the barn door. He often wears shorts to church (ours is a relaxed fellowship!) and that is when you realize his thighs are like tree trunks.

The sport I loved as a teenager more than any other was athletics. I discovered as a boy I could run fast. By twelve years of age I was already training daily in athletics. From the day I had my first race at high school in Form 1, I won. I was to run every day of my life for the next six years, training every night, running in winter cross-countries and in summer athletic competitions for my Athletics Club.

Let me be the first to tell you that, during what will be an incredible Beijing Olympics 2008, the Chinese Government will proclaim they would naturally be incredible because the Chinese invented the concept of the Olympics! When historians seek to find origins of popular activities, they find national pride claiming the origins, whether there is evidence for it or not. For example, China, Egypt and Russia usually claim to have invented most activities before others.

Nothing excites those of us who enjoy the great Olympic sports, as much as the marathon. From the very first marathon ever run, to the first of the modern Olympic era, to the latest trial for Olympics 2008, people are fascinated by this greatest test of endurance and speed. Here the competitive nature of athletes is seen at its finest.

As we approach the commencement of the Beijing Olympics, 2008, there are no more relevant passages in the Scriptures than those written about athletic competitions by the Apostle Paul. Paul, or Saul as he was known in his pre-Christian days, was a citizen of the world. He was born a Jew, trained in the university of Tarsus in southern modern day Turkey, became a Pharisee in the Pharisaic School in Jerusalem, spoke fluent Greek and Hebrew, travelled freely as a Roman citizen, and if you have ever walked along the routes of his prodigious travels, as I have, you will realise quickly he was superbly fit and tough. Little wonder he should look to the arenas for analogies of the Christian life.

My wife Beverley and myself, have long had a great appreciation of the Christian Church in Korea which has remained faithful to God even under persecution and war. The Australian Korean Churches have a great deal to teach the other churches through the Korean example of faithfulness in prayer, in evangelism and personal witnessing.