Cast your minds back to last year and you will remember the extensive coverage of the 100th anniversary of Christian Eric Liddell’s glorious victory at the Paris 1924 Olympic Games.
As I wrote last summer as the games returned to Paris, Liddell, a down-to-earth Scottish runner from Edinburgh, aimed to win gold medals in the 100 and 200 metre sprint races, only to discover that the 100m heats were due to be held on a Sunday.
As can be read in last year’s piece, this was a huge problem, as Liddell took the observance of the Lord’s Sabbath Day seriously, in line with the fourth commandment, and he declined to run in the race, instead eventually running in and spectacularly winning gold in the 400m event, having not previously trained at that distance.
Many column inches gloried in the Scot’s principled stand and successes of a century ago, but unfortunately few seem to have considered the seemingly long-abandoned importance of the observance of Sundays as God’s Day, which was more important to him than the result he achieved in the race.
This was summed up rather poignantly by The Chariots of Fire Beach Race, recently held at West Sands beach in St Andrews; the five kilometre running event gave runners the chance to run along the same sands used in the opening title sequence of the 1984 movie and also featured a ‘fun run’ for kids, music, food and beer, and a charitable collection, an excellent day out on initial viewing.
However, look a little closer and you will discover that the event, which celebrates the legacy of the two runners Liddell and Harold Abrahams in the 1984 film, was held on a Sunday. Now, as far as I am aware, this was not a Christian event, but it is emblematic of the attitude towards the issue which Liddell made very public long ago.
While society apparently admires Liddell’s personal convictions and sporting achievements, it has unfortunately opted to ignore his costly religious stance, deciding that while admirable, it has no application to anyone else.
Now, while you might not expect non-believers to care much about why he did or did not run on a certain day of the week, I would like to suggest that Christians should care more than they seem to about the choice he made and should be more impacted than they apparently are.
Liddell’s stance was costly for him and I cannot help but wonder if many believers choose not to take inspiration from him because they would prefer to take the easier option when it comes to the issue of the Sabbath Day, preferring to perhaps miss the odd church service for family or sporting events rather than cause offence.
Unfortunately, Liddell’s story, despite much media coverage, did not seem to make much impact on how people view the Lord’s Day 100 years on. Hopefully year 101 will be the one which sees church attendance and the worship of God reprioritised as the bedrock of the week’s first day once again, and not just something that is done if nothing else is on, taking inspiration from the greatest and most genuinely impactful aspect of Liddell’s story.
