World Cup Blogs 32: Uruguay

Uruguay may be last in the English alphabet in this World Cup but in two important ways they are first.

They were the first nation to host a World Cup (in 1930) and the first to win it that same year.  They have also won it again, and finished in the top four three times too.

The qualification of Iceland at this tournament was remarkable for, as we noted in an earlier blog, it is a country with the population of a single London Borough.  Uruguay has arguably achieved something more remarkable because its achievements span 80 years of World Cups.  

Every other nation that has won a World Cup has had a population at least 10 times that of Uruguay, usually 20 times or more.  And remember, Uruguay has won it twice and sustained some success right through to the 21st century.

Perhaps more than any other country Uruguay ARE the World Cup.  Certainly Brazil are closely identified with it, but we all know other things about Brazil (beaches, rainforests, coffee, nuts, carnival).  Every European country has other associations than World Cup football that readily come to mind.  But Uruguay?  I've never even met anyone whose visited Uruguay, or if they have then they couldn't be bothered to tell me about it.  In my experience if I think of Uruguay I think of the World Cup.

It reminds me of the man who, in Jesus' parable, received the one talent.  The man whose master had given him five made five more, the one given two made two more and alike they are pleasing.  The man with only one talent did nothing with it and incurred his master's deep displeasure.  

Life, population, or whatever, does not offer equal opportunities to all.  Uruguay ends my blogging on this year's World Cup by reminding us to do something with what life offers us - and especially with the gift of grace that is offered in the Saviour of the World, the Lord Jesus.

World Cup Blog 31: Tunisia

Tunisia, not unexpectedly, had a quiet World Cup.  As a land, Tunisia has had a quiet few centuries relative to some neighbours.  It has figured in the many Mediterranean, European and North African changes and challenges - two recent examples were the Arab Spring and the Second World War - without being much remembered in the longer term history of either.

Tunisia takes on a different perspective when we travel further back. Before Tunisia was so called and before it was largely Arabic it was the site of Carthage.  This might seem remote from the World Cup but the Tunisian's nickname is Les Aigles de Carthage so in its way Carthage turned up at the World Cup after all.

Most famous of the sons of Carthage, which in its day dominated the Western Mediterranean, was the great general Hannibal - yes the one famed for the elephant over the Alps.

Carthage had other famous sons too, and two of them - who both were born and died in Carthage - were Tertullian and Cyprian.  By their days, 150 - 250 AD, Carthage was not as great as it had been but was still significant within the Roman Empire.  When Christianity arrived in Carthage it arrived big-time and thus their stories which overlap through the 100 years, reflect the battle between the Roman Emperors and the emerging faith.

Tertullian is remembered for his turns of phrase and his lack of moderation.  He was never canonised by the church because he was mildly heretical regarding the Trinity - but he invented the word Trinity as irony would have it. He is loved for his pithy, bold, even aggressive statements.  Cyprian was the model of moderation (and he in turn was criticised for that) but you will find churches called St Cyprian's but not St Tertullian's.

Tertullian's memorable phrases includes the oft-quoted The blood of the martyrs is the seed by which he meant the seed that grows the church.  Cyprian, for all his attempts to keep the church unified and his moderating between warring factions ended up as one such seed some years after Tertullian's natural death.  A series of plagues was blamed on Christianity and so Cyprian, then the Bishop of Carthage, was beheaded in response to local anger. He was martyred in 258 AD.

Maybe Cyprian would not have been surprised or distressed by this, however.  In a famous - though less famous than Tertullian's frequent sound-bites - quotation he had previously written:

It is a bad world, Donatus, a very bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and good people who have learned the great secret of life. They have found a joy and wisdom which is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are Christians. . . and I am one of them.