23rd Sunday Year B

23rd Sunday Year B – “Ephphatha” - Be Opened

The Paralympics is coming to an end and I realise that some of you may have been fed up to the back teeth with the whole Olympic-saga which seems to have run on for weeks if not months, but bear with me for a short while. I wonder if you can still recall some of the highlights from them.

How many competitors did Team GB take to Tokyo across both Olympics and Paralympics?

How many Gold Medals did we win?

How many medals in total did we win?

What was your own particular highlight from the Games?

The reason I ask all of these questions, is this: out of two teams of almost 600 competitors, how many winners did we produce? Not how many medals did we win – which was over 160, or how many Golds – which was over 56 at the time of my writing – but how many winners did we produce?

It comes down to this interesting question of – what is a winner. Do we take only those 56 who won their respective events’ Golds as being the winners OR do we take all of the medal-winners as ‘winners: 160 plus out of two Teams of nearly 600? I think that it comes down to what the competitors set out to do. Did they each and all set out to win Gold or was it something else?

And here is the rub. The aim of every Olympic and Paralympic athlete is not to be the best in the world BUT to be the best they that they can be – on that day – at that time – the best that they can be.

And when you look at this as the aim or the target, then we have so many more than our 160 plus-medal-winners. We have people achieving season, national or even life-time bests in their sports but who still may not achieve a medal. Sarah Storey achieved her 17th Gold medal and we had Ellie Simmonds who came fifth in her swimming event who, in tears at the end of her event said, “It’s a triumph, not a defeat. What threatens to weaken you, will not conquer you,'. Because the year leading up to this event had been filled with all sorts of horrendous pain and trials and to simply be there and competing was her huge success. Which of these achieved their ultimate gold?

So why now as the Paralympics and the whole Olympic period is coming to its end, am I still harping on about them, when we’ve maybe had our fill – and more than this.

Because the Olympic message of, “Be the best that you or I can be” is the aim and the target that we should be looking to set our life by as Christians; the target that we can use every day, to live by, to grow by, to become better people by. You do not have to be an Olympian or Paralympian to set and achieve this target.

If we look at our first reading today, this is what we are being told to do: “Courage! Do not be afraid.” And in our second reading from St James, “…it was those who are poor according to the world that God chose.” And still further in our gospel, when Jesus said to the man with the speech impediment, “Ephphatha! Which means, Be Opened!”

We need to be opened. We need to be opened to God and to what He is asking of us and to what He is giving us in our lives. We need to prepare for our life with God by looking to see what we need to do to achieve the targets that He has set for us. To get ourselves ready by finding out what God wants from us each and every day, in each and every situation and then to do the very best that we can to deliver this: the best that we can - in every situation to be the best that we can be. We need to be open to Him.

To ask ourselves throughout each day for the gift of the Holy Spirit to discern what it is that God wants from us, or if you like, what it is that Jesus would do in all of our life-situations. What He would do that we could then use as our life’s example, to aim for and to attempt to achieve. To focus on Him in everything.

Not to be the best in the world at anything – but to be the best that we can be, - for God - more times than not. If we set out with this Olympic spirit as our driver and our life-motivator, we can achieve much; much, much more than we do at present

Over both the Olympics and Paralympics, we can look with wonder and awe at each of the athletes aiming to be the best that they can be in their chosen events and take hope, encouragement and example from them.

God set each of us a task in life: not to be the best in the world BUT to be the very best that we can be in all of our daily tasks and to aim to ensure that the tasks we choose to do are those that reflect His love for us and our love for Him.

Being the best Christian that we can be is not about finishing first or best or greatest or about being fastest or strongest once in a while but about always and in everything helping our fellow brothers and sisters along the way and living, working, loving and maybe finishing in the best place that we could be: having overcome all of life’s threats and not been weakened or defeated or conquered.

With God all things are possible. Be opened to Him and let Him lead us to our victory.