The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris was notable for a variety of reasons.
It was an imaginative spectacle that used Paris itself as the main stage. The vast scale and complexity of the performance was breath taking. Due to the heavy rain the impact of the spectacle was more accessible for those watching on television than for those who were getting drenched in the viewing areas.
Talking points included the appearance of the singer Celine Dion to perform in the finale. This poignant moment marked Dion’s first live performance in four years and came a year and a half after a diagnosis of Stiff Person Syndrome.
The Games themselves have already had a cluster of poignant moments: Sir Andy Murray’s last competitive appearance on a tennis court, losing in the quarter final of the men’s doubles tennis. Or there was the spectacle of Adam Peaty missing out on a gold medal in the 100 metres breaststroke final by 2/100ths of a second!
Talking of medals, I was fascinated to hear that each of the medals, gold, silver and bronze minted for the Paris games have used remains of the Eiffel Tower’s original iron frame.
Parts of the iron frame used in the Eiffel Tower have been removed on various occasions during renovation and modernization projects. The metals from the original iron frame have been preserved for decades by the operator. The scrap metal is being used to make up the distinctive hexagon-shaped centre pieces of all the Olympic medals. Thierry Reboul, creative director of Paris 2024, said:
“It’s the opportunity for the athletes to bring back a piece of Paris with them. The absolute symbol of Paris and France is the Eiffel Tower.”
It reminded me of what is written in Ecclesiastes 3:11:
“(God) has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
Human beings, whether they acknowledge it or not, have a sense of the eternal embedded into their lives. We are attracted to the eternal God even when we are running away from him. He is our true north even if, like the prophet Jonah, we are running in the opposite direction.
Perhaps that is a way of responding to the controversial tableau? Maybe preachers should see it as a backhanded compliment? The Christian story is something that Western societies cannot shake off. Like a magnet, it continues to draw us back.
There was an interesting response to the tableau from a Christian artist’s point of view on the Christianity Today website.
Jared Boggess makes the point that if an artist or a preacher wants to make a provocative statement, they need to be sure that their intentions are clear. Otherwise everyone will miss the point.
It is a case of what Tom Long calls ‘focus and function’. Preachers need to be clear about what their message is trying to say and also clear about the impact they are looking for in that message.
Photo by Luca Dugaro on Unsplash
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