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GIVING HEAVEN THE HEADLINES

Every four years the entire planet watches television. I hope a few of you are still listening to your radios for at least 15 minutes a day, but for these next two weeks the Nielsen people figure that two-thirds of the world’s population will be tuned in to the 28th Olympiad, beaming around the globe on TV. We’re all thinking about Athens, Greece and the races — the contests — the tournaments — the aching muscles — the new world records — and especially the GOLD MEDALS.

I guess especially this year, 2000, the first games in a new millennium, we’re all going to pay attention. And for more than 10,000 athletes, these two weeks represent everything they’ve ever worked and LIVED for.

Of course, you have a right to immediately ask me: “Pastor Lonnie, we’re getting hundreds of hours of Olympic coverage on TV these two weeks. Why are you getting into it on the Voice of Prophecy too?” Fair question . . . and I suppose I have to give the same answer thousands of Christians pastors will give this coming Sabbath or Sunday morning, when Olympic illustrations are bound to find their way into sermons all around the world. The gospel message translates into the world, the fabric, the very CORE of what we’re into even here in the year 2000. The story of Jesus Christ comes out of 31 A.D., spans the centuries, and applies to right now, today. But it’s still the challenge of Christian preachers and Christian writers to link eternal truths to the down-to-earth realities society is paying attention to in OUR world. And this week, that’s the Olympic Games.

The Bible talks about races and training and staying the course and winning a prize. There are winners and losers in God’s Word; some get medals and others depart from the Games emptyhanded. And so this week, we’re going to ask: what’s happening in Sydney, Australia, that can have meaning to the searching Christian? What can we learn from these athletes?

You know, the Olympic Games have a long history of SPIRITUAL significance. Did you know that? The MODERN Olympics were preceded by the OLYMPIAN Games, which go all the way back to the year 776 B.C. They were held in the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia, and the athletic contests were held as a means of paying tribute to that Greek god. In a book entitled The Decathlon, by Frank Zarnowski, he writes:

“The Greek physical contests were RELIGIOUS affairs. Those who took part did so to glorify a deity. And common belief was that the prizes came from a god.”

A man named Corœbus won that first 200-yard foot race in a meadow beside the river Alpheus, received a wreath of wild olive, and the rest, as they say, is history. That was almost 3,000 years ago . . . but we find in that brief report a partial answer to the question: WHY? Why do athletes deny self and train for so many long years? For many, it’s to bring glory to an ideal or an institution above and beyond themselves.

A number of the books we leafed through in finding Olympic tidbits made the same point. Here it is: OFFICIALLY, Olympic medals and prizes and records only go to individuals. America and Canada don’t win gold medals — only PEOPLE from those countries do. “The IOC does NOT keep national scores,” says one official report. But then every writer went on to concede that EVERYBODY around the world also DOES count up the medal totals for nations. The networks do, and we all do as well. Here in the U.S. it’s a common question each evening: How’d our kids do? How many golds did WE get? Same thing in Canada and all around the globe. Athletes from the tiniest, most obscure nation know that they’re running, not just for themselves, but for everyone back home. They’re running for God and King, as the old expression goes.

Which leads us to one of our favorite Voice of Prophecy verses, especially this week. It’s found in Matthew 5:16, and if you’re one of our regular listeners, you probably don’t need to look it up.

“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works . . . and glorify your FATHER which is in heaven.”

Is that talking about gold medals, friend? Yes, I believe it is. In a way, that verse says to me: “Train hard! Work hard! Perform to your peak! Then make sure God receives the glory.”

A delightful story comes to us out of the ‘72 Olympics held in Munich. Light-heavyweight wrestler Benjamin Lee Peterson and his brother John, in the middleweight division, both participated in Munich AND Montreal. In ‘72 Ben won the gold medal, John the silver. In ‘76 the order was reversed — and ironically, they both lost to the same Russian, Levan Tediashvili.

But all through Ben’s personal story, which is related in a book entitled Tales of Gold by Lewis Carlson and John Fogerty, is a ringing testimony of faith in Jesus. Ben and his brother were intense born-again Christians, and they dedicated every single bit of their talent to the glory and honor of Christ.

“I found that the Bible teaches us that our body is the temple of the spirit of God,” he writes. “So I wanted to take care of my body both as a Christian and as a wrestler. We wrestlers often refer to our body as our ‘wrestling machine.’ We know we have to keep it properly fueled, rested, and in good repair if it is not going to let us down. And by keeping my body strong and pure I knew that I also served God. John, [my brother], felt the same way about such matters, and we often talked about what it meant to be an ongoing witness for the Lord. If a bunch of the guys were telling dirty jokes or wanting to go to a party or something, we would simply say, ‘It’s time for us to leave.’ We knew that Christ would not want us involved with something like that.”

This fascinating book was compiled nine years ago, so I don’t know the latest on these two outstanding Christians, but at that time Ben was teaching religion and coaching wrestling at Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Wisconsin, and his brother John was working in Austria with a mission group.

Well, a story like that moves us . . . and this is one of just hundreds of athletes who consider the costs and the toil of training, and then decide that if they can compete for GOD, then it’s worth it. I can’t help but repeat AGAIN one of our favorites . . . how Eric Liddell traveled to the 1924 games in Paris, would NOT run on his Sabbath, stood up to his own country’s committee under great duress, and later won a gold medal in the 400-meter race, which WASN’T his specialty. And we turn off our VCRs after watching Chariots of Fire, and say, “Well, very nice. Good movie. Oscar-winning best picture.” But friend, this Matthew 5:16 moment really did happen 76 years ago this summer! You can look in any record book, and there it’s listed. H. M. Abrahams — “Harold” — won in the 100-meter event with a time of 10.6, and in the 400, there it says in black and white: “Eric Liddell, Great Britain, 47.6.” And we think how his missionary father had said to him before the Olympics: “Run in God’s name, Eric, and the world will stand back in wonder.”

In a Newsweek cover article that came out June 10, there’s a sidebar piece about Gwen Torrence, who’s scheduled to compete in Atlanta in the so-called sprinter’s triple gold: the 100, 200, and 4x100 relay. Why does she work so hard? Her husband answered that question when reporters asked. “Track doesn’t mean that much to Gwen,” he said. “She runs because that’s the talent God gave her.”

Friend, wherever you are listening today, maybe you’re not an Olympic-caliber athlete. You may be a long ways away from Sydney, Australia, and Athens, Greece may not figure very highly in your Year 2004 plans. When they compile the Olympic list of the top 11,000 athletes, your name and my name might not show up. But in your own quiet way, you can be a champion of some kind for God. I truly do believe that.

You know, with this being early August, a number of us here at the Voice of Prophecy have been traveling this summer to various speaking appointments at religious camp meetings. And we meet so many wonderful, faithful pastors out there in the field, working for God in a district where they might be assigned to two tiny churches that each have 40 members. Every single Sabbath they’ve got to get in their car, drive to the first church, preach, jump back in the car, drive 40 miles as fast as they legally can, try not to be too out of breath when they go onto that second church platform at 10:59-and-a-half, preach again, stay for potluck dinner, and then visit members all afternoon. And you know, this is a very typical life for ministers in my Adventist denomination and probably in yours as well.

And I want to tell you something. These great men and women are Olympic champions. They are! No, they’re not on television all this week with a billion viewers. There aren’t any gold medals around their necks. Not yet, anyway. But God takes note of the fact that they’re doing their very best FOR HIS SAKE! In order to honor HIM, they work 60 hours a week and drive all those miles and deliver two and three sermons each weekend. Not for pay and not for pride, but for God. For HIM. They’re letting their lights so shine before men that GOD’S name is quietly but faithfully lifted up. And believe me, one of these days, the gold medals WILL be handed out.