China's Babel

The TV sportswear advert runs again and again, throughout the hours and hours of Olympic coverage. The advert shows an athlete on the top step of the winner’s podium, the gold medal position, and all around him people bow in worship!

‘We are building a new tower of Babel’, my friend Dan tells me. Man is designed to worship and the Chinese people, most living in a spiritual vacuum, are worshipping the new China. Their athletes are the latest recipients of that worship.

I am told by my Chinese friends that the Chinese people are desperate for a China like the old China of the Tang Dynasty. It was then that China was at its zenith – advanced, enlightened, wealthy, confident and powerful. Modern Chinese believe that the Tang Dynasty China was respected and feted by the whole world. They long for that time again; for the sense of self-worth and meaning they believe will accompany it, and they will do almost anything to achieve it. The Olympics showed us this. What a show! And as the Chinese won gold medal after gold medal, the Chinese pride, self-confidence and self-worth soared and soared. And then …

‘It’s like someone has died’ a western friend working in Beijing said to me. The atmosphere in the office is unbelievable. The cause? – Liu Xiang, the 110m hurdler, China’s superstar, had pulled out of the race. The focus of Chinese adoration since Athens, where he won gold and equalled the world record, had failed. There would be no gold medal. No playing of the National anthem. No euphoria. The worship bubble had burst and the accompanying feeling was one of devastation. China had learned again how fragile man-made gods can be. She and her people had learned again that man-made gods are no gods at all. Many learned the same lesson with the fall of Mao in the 1980s.

But man will worship something or someone.

Let us pray that the many Chinese students, scholars, professionals studying and visiting the UK will have an opportunity to hear the Gospel and discover that there is something, someone, worthy of their worship, who will never let them down; someone on whom they can build their lives and who will give their lives meaning and fulfilment. Let us pray Christians in this country will take up the challenge to share the good news of Jesus Christ with our Chinese friends. Why not take up the challenge yourself?