The Light that can't be extinguished!

On Sunday there were amazing scenes in London as the Olympic torch made its journey across the city. Protests over China's human rights record and the recent violence in Tibet, disrupted events. Police arrested thirty-seven people. One protestor tried to snatch the torch from the hand of former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq. At another point someone tried to put out the flame with a fire extinguisher.

The story was similar in Paris on Monday. Despite a large police presence to protect the Olympic icon, officials were forced to extinguish the flame in order to escape anti-China protestors. The pattern has been repeated in San Francisco and looks set to continue in other parts of the world too.

The Olympic torch has generated such strong feelings that many would love to extinguish it.


It reminded me of a less than successful illustration I used at one Christmas Day morning service. I'd come up with a clever idea to show that Jesus is the Light of the World - a large non-extinguishable candle that I found in a local party shop. I lit the candle and then asked Seb, one of the teenagers, to join me at the front. As I spoke about Jesus' death on the Cross I invited Seb to blow out the candle. 'But'...I exclaimed...'even death could not extinguish the Light because three days later he rose again'...(at this point the candle was supposed to re-ignite) but it didn't. So, hoping it was just a little slow, I tried again - 'three days later he rose again'. Still nothing. 'Three days la...' It was a total failure - time to improvise! I asked Seb to stand in front of the candle, quickly re-lit it and triumphantly repeated the line as he moved aside again. The congregation were laughing and clapping at the Tommy Cooper-style trick - being Christmas Day they were in a charitable mood!

Jesus said: 'I am the Light of the World' (John 8:12) and no amount of protesting will ever extinguish that Light.