The Olympics and the End of the World

Did you watch the opening cermonies of the Olympics this year in London?  While certainly not the lavish affair of Beijing 2008, I thought the organizers did a nice job representing their country in spectacle on July 27th.  Did you also notice, though, the relgious symbolism in the presentation?  It was not overt, but there was a kind of undercurrent of Christian eschatalogical hope woven into the story the actors, musicians, dancers, and technicians told.

The story began in pastoral England, with children's choirs of the four countries of the United Kingdom singing portions of their national anthems.  Did you notice the words?  From "Jerusalem,"

And did those feet in ancient time
walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy lamb of God
on England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
shine forth upon those clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
among those dark satanic mills?

There is here an allusion to that theological idea of Jerusalem, that home where God dwells in perfect unity with humankind, where justice and mercy and love create a culture of God's ultimate Shalom.  What a statement to make to open one of the few non-violent gatherings of humankind in our world today!

The medley continues with children singing "Danny Boy" and the "Flower of Scotland" before the Welsh children finished off the tour with "Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer," a hymn we sing in worship in our congregation.  And the chorus of this hymn?

Bread of heaven, bread of heaven
Feed me till I want no more.
Feed me till I want no more.

You hear that, with people of different nationalities, in a variety of dress, and you cannot help but remember the invitation to our Lord's table, "In the kingdom of God people will come from north and south and east and west to sit at table."  Was this moment, hanging in the humid London night air, a foretaste of that gathering?  Maybe?

And if the opening wasn't enough for you, when we came to the parade of nations, we watched as each country entered the arena with their nation's flag, walked it around the track, and then up a manmade hill where they stuck it in the ground, so that all the flags of all the nations were gathered together in one place.  And what stood at the top of the hill?  A tree.

A tree of life perhaps?  "On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves are for the healing of the nations.  Nothing accursed will be found there any more.  But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever."

A tree whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.  I believe this theatrical presentation to open two weeks of competition between people of different countries, was pointing us to a unity we cannot understand fully yet, but a unity that we as followers of Jesus Christ must cling to, a hill where we will sit with brothers and sisters from across the globe and across the ages, beneath a tree of healing.  May it be so.