Bizarre redemption
For those not up with the Australian swimming scene (i.e. about 99.9% of the world's population), the name Nick D'Arcy is probably meaningless. But he's a big name in the local papers. Why? Well, about a year ago now, in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics, D'Arcy was out partying with friends when he king hit one of his teammates, and left him with fractures to his jaw, eye socket, hard palate, cheek bone and nose. The police charged him, and he pleaded guilty. He was ruled out of the Olympic team, and has spent the last 12 months in the wilderness, so to speak. This week, at the Australian swimming trials, he broke his own national record for the 200m butterfly, and booked a place in the Australian team for the Rome world championships. The only hitch is that the judge will sentence him as he's been convicted of grievous bodily harm.
The reason for raising D'Arcy on this blog? The article in our local newspaper about his victory at the national swimming championships said this:
The controversial swimmer Nick D'Arcy has done all he can do. Now he must patiently wait until next week when a court decides his future.
Last night he took a private step towards redemption by winning the 200 metres butterfly at the Australian titles and, in doing so, earned himself a place on the team for the world championships in Rome in July.
Now is it just me, or is this a new use of the word ‘redemption’? It is certainly one that is becoming more prevalent in our world. Redemption, it seems, has nothing to do with justice or dealing with wrong or paying what we owe. Since when has clocking a national record in the 200m butterfly counted as redemption for leaving a guy with a broken face? Why is a sporting performance seen as a redeeming act?
It's a reminder of how badly our world needs the gospel of Jesus. In the gospel, God deals justly with sin and brings forgiveness. Justice isn't swept under carpet; sins are actually dealt with. Redemption isn't about public popularity, but about being acceptable to the holy God. How badly our world needs the good news of justice done and forgiveness offered! Without it, we live in a very shallow world, whether we're Christian or not.
I am probably one of the 0.1%you speak of. In the swimming world results are everything. And a comeback is big news.
I don’t reckon there are many people who ‘like’ Nick D’Arcy but if he swims fast who really cares?
As for redemption, the journo had no idea what he was talking about and neither did D’Arcy, it seems:
<blockquote>“When I was going to bed last night I tried to cleanse myself of all that, at least for today, because it’s not going to help anyone me thinking about that stuff,” D’Arcy said.<blockquote>
i saw an interview with him. he used the language of redemption - something like: “i’m now on my way to redeeming myself” (not verbatim)
It strikes me that in this context, redemption is entirely about internal feelings (“private step towards redemption”) and is nothing external or objective. In other words, he’s now feeling a bit better about himself having broken the record, and so the guilt has lessened. If the sense of Dave’s quote is accurate, then it’s also the sense of shame that’s lessening - entirely through doing something “good”. Without God in the picture, it’s not surprising the first person we feel we have to please or live up to is ourselves.
A shame the paper’s site doesn’t allow comments. I think the writer of the story needs to buy a dictionary.
Rotten pun alert…I noticed a number of sponsored links at the bottom of the page. One of them was “The Facial Club”.
Which came first, the bizarre redemption or the bizarre repentance:
“I’d just like to apologise to all the sponsors, all the fans out here, my family and my girlfriend especially,” Seymour told the crowd, which applauded him loudly. “This has been a tough week … and I just look forward to getting back on the paddock in a couple of weeks and repaying the faith of you guys.”
http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news/seymour-says-sorry-as-club-player-seek-closure/2009/03/23/1237656848524.html?sssdmh=dm16.367804
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