I think it was Emily’s idea of a joke when she gave me for my birthday on 17^th March one of these – a mini rugby ball with ‘England’ written on the side! (Yes, I am a year older since I last saw you!). Although we scream at the television when Ireland play anybody, they have great delight at home when my own family remind me that I was actually born in England and therefore I must be an Englishman; so the theory goes. An accusation all started and now fuelled by a so-called friend of mine. So my riposte is, if I’m an Englishman, then that makes them half English. That tends to shut them up!

It’s hard not to mention rugby the day after the Six Nations is all over, and it’s an excuse to get across something which I have maintained for a long time; that rugby is much more than just a game. If you could ever quote me on anything, you could quote me on that. To non rugby fans I apologise for all of this, but consider for a moment (as an example to bolster my argument) the game Ireland played against England in Croke Park on 24^th February 2007. The England team visiting the bastion of the GAA, a ground and a stadium which was built to represent everything that wasn’t not just ‘British’, but ‘English’ (Hill 16 is but an example) and considering the history that surrounded those grounds, the playing and singing of ‘God save the Queen’ on that day, and then beating England 43 points to 13...and yet some people still say that rugby is just a game.

I want you to listen to this little poem by William Ernest Henley:

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquered soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced or cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

 

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley wrote that poem in 1875. It originally had no title, but one was added when the poem was included in the ‘The Oxford Book of English Verse’ and it was called ‘Invictus’- ‘Unconquered’!

Some of you may know where I am going with this. Invictus is also the title of the film released last year, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, the captain of the post-apartheid South African Rugby Team that won the Rugby World Cup in 1995.

It is based on the book by John Carlin which was called, “Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation”. I remember before 1995, South Africa always claimed that it wasn’t a proper Rugby World Cup because South Africa wasn’t in it! It is a film well worth seeing, and Morgan Freeman’s portrayal of Mandela is masterful.

Henley’s words inspired Mandela during his 27 years of imprisonment, Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquered soul.

The words were originally written from a hospital bed in 1875. At the age of 12, Henley became victim of tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later the disease progressed to his foot and the physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. He was 25 years old. He survived the operation and despite his disability, he led an active life until his death at the age of 53 in 1903. He was a friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, and Stevenson based the character ‘Long John Silver’ on William Ernest Henley.

What is it about the human spirit that gives people the energy and the power and the vision to look beyond their human plight?

On St. Patrick’s Day, I couldn’t help noticing that the epistle came from 2 Corinthians 4, verses 1-12, “We have this treasure,” Paul says, “in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

Paul says, then, that this ‘power’ is God-given, and yet it’s not a particularly Christian phenomenon. What we call the ‘human spirit’ exists in believer and non-believer alike; of whatever race or colour, and from any creed and from none.

We believe we have been created by a loving God. He is the one we believe who has given us what we call this ‘human spirit’ to fight adversity and circumstance. Paul is very clear that this power is not from us, but from God.

It seems to be a question of whether we choose to acknowledge that this power is not from us, but from God. Being a Christian is perhaps as simple as making a decision to believe.

Anthony Flew, the philosopher of logical positivism, once described two men walking through a forest. They came to a clearing where some flowers were growing up. The believer immediately pointed to them and said, “Look! There’s been a gardener here. Look at all the flowers!” The cynic said, “There has been no gardener. Look at all the weeds!” The argument went on and on and on! The point is that the man who wanted to believe in the gardener had ample evidence to support his claims, as did the man who refused to believe there was a gardener.

What is your choice? We’ve gone from rugby to adversity and poetry and all our straining and struggle come down to a simple question? I believe because I choose to believe? Perhaps it is, for Jesus himself asks, ‘Who do you think I am?’ It’s our choice, and I hope we choose well!