Opening Ceremony of the Turin, Italy Winter Olympics

Tonight we watched the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. We're in the same time zone as Turin, so we won't need to be awake in the middle of the night to watch live events during the next two weeks.

Events like the Winter and Summer Olympic Games and the World Cup Football (Soccer for Americans) and Rugby remind me of what a global village we live in today. Every 4 years, athletes from different nations around the world gather for these events. In theory, these competitions are to help draw the nations of the world together, rather than to divide them in a spirit of tribalism. Of course, it doesn't always work out this way, as the hooliganism during soccer matches demonstrates.

We're blessed to be in both living and vocational settings where we rub shoulders with people representing many nations of the world. Our church, l'Eglise Réformée be Belleville, with its vision statement to be "a house of prayer for all the nations," draws people from approximately 40 different countries. La Fonderie, a ministry to artists, draws creative people originally from France, Senegal, Colombia, Peru, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, New Zealand, USA, etc. In our son's school of 60 later pre-school and kindergarten students, we know of German, Vietnamian, Portuguese, North African, Black African, Balkanese, etc.

Our across the hall neighbors are from Algeria. They practice Islam, including Ramadan. Despite the differences in our religions, we get along very well. For a couple of summers when they were away, they passed us the keys to their apartment and I watered their plants. When my wife is cooking and suddenly realizes that she is missing an incredient, she goes to their place and asks. Several nights ago, the batteries on their TV controls died and they asked us for some batteries, which we gave them. Two days ago, they gave a gift of baby clothes for our newborn. Tonight they brought over a chicken dish native to Algeria that they had made.

Visit from the neighbors

Have some cake

I don't think that some of my fellow Christians understand that we live in a multicultural and pluralistic world that is increasingly post-Christian and post-Christendom in most places. Some church historians point out that this era is similar in many ways to the conditions of the first century A.D. The early church was in the minority, with no political power. But that is when the church grew its fastest. This gives me lots of hope for this season of ministry.

Sadly, racism, tribalism, and religious wars rear their ugly heads in the church as well. I'm both angered and saddened by some racist comments that I've heard from those claiming to be Christians about Blacks, Arabs, Jews, Latinos, Asians, etc. These certainly don't make Christianity very appetizing or compelling. Ironically, the early Christians of the 1st century, who tried in community to model the words and works of Jesus, were very compelling, without having the political power to make it advantageous to join the church. If the church today had the same love and acceptance that Jesus had for the Samaritans, the lepers, the children, the women, the tax collectors, and other groups that had little value or respect in the eyes of that society, then it would also increase numerically and influentially.