The Tour De France……… and the Body of Christ?

The World Cup is over and done with - along with a Murray-less Wimbledon (or at least one without Andy) – and even the return of Tiger Woods to something like his former glories at the Open, has also passed us by. In the Bashforth household however, most of these did not get much of a look in - because July is the time of ‘Le Tour’.

I ponder sometimes when and how Mrs B became somewhat addicted to the annual French extravaganza and I think it simply began with one of our many French holidays. This one was to a little place called Entrechaux, in the Vaucluse, which has the distinction of sitting near the foot of Mt Ventoux, one of ‘Le Tour’s’ most famous climbs. Taking your car up Mt Ventoux is likely to put your temperature gauge in the red zone, to cycle up its 1915m, you need to either be very dedicated, or slightly mad, or perhaps somewhere between the two.

In any event, the year we drove up there, we then watched the peloton of ‘Le Tour’ go up there on TV when we returned home - and through the years we have become hooked. Lis made pilgrimage to Yorkshire when the ‘Grand Depart’ started there a few years ago and when we have been in the Alps in June a couple of times, we have been to see a stage of the ‘Criterium de Dauphine’, which is a shorter prelude to ‘Le Tour’ that happens in late May and June.

If I was completely honest I would have to say that I probably prefer the TV viewing because standing on the roadside can be a bit ‘here comes the Tour De France’ followed almost immediately by ‘and there goes the Tour de France’ as they all speed by at around 30 mph.

You might also think that for those involved it is simply a matter of who gets over the finish line first but with 20 stages or so to choose from, that person might be a sprinter, a climber or a time trial specialist or someone trying to complete the overall distance in the shortest time and win the ‘General Classification’ the famed ‘Yellow Jersey’. Which one of these features on the day will depend on the terrain covered by the particular stage, but also the tactics and aims of the team.

And that’s where this gets just a bit theological – because without a good team around them any sprinter will probably not find themselves in a position where they can win the stage - and anyone who ends up with that ‘Yellow Jersey’ will only wear it, if they have around them people prepared to ride for them.

Of the eight members in any team one will probably be going for the’ Jersey’ while another may be the team sprinter, but the rest glorify in the title of ‘domestique’- a domestic - whose purpose in the race is to sacrifice themselves on the road for the benefit of their team leader.

So, it will be one of them that rides into the headwind so that the leader does not have to – it will be one of them that sets a ridiculous pace up a mountain that they know that they will never be able to sustain, in order to help their leader leave others behind, and it will even be one of them, who if the leaders bike is damaged, who will give the leader their own.

And their leader might win and might get the glory, but it is tradition that when the prize-money is split it is split 8 ways, and each member of the team gets their share.

Members of a team working for their leader – members of the Body of Christ working for the greater purposes of the church and the world – each showing something of their commitment to serve – something of agape and the idea of self-sacrifice offered for the benefit of others.

The question from ‘Le Tour’ this year is who in the end will be the righteous self-giver – will it be Thomas or will it be Froome?  

As a Christian I might simply pray ‘Lord, help me to follow your example, lay aside self and through your grace work for others’.