The Gospel According to Angry Birds

My name is Tony and I am an addict.  I admit it. I love Angry Birds.

From the moment my daughter sat next to me on the couch one evening last winter and said, "Dad, you've got to try this new game. It's awesome!" I was hooked. I just couldn't get enough of sling-shotting those little angry birds through the air to destroy whatever impregnable pig fortress stood in their way.  The other night, my wife came over to where I was sitting at my lap top,  and asked, "what are you working on so intently? Something for work? A new blog post?" I sheepishly looked up at her and mumbled, "...uhh...Angry Birds."

I think what appeals to me most about the game is it's simplicity. It hearkens back to a simpler time.  I grew up in the day when video games typically had two controls, a joystick to maneuver and a button to fire. Packman, Tron, Tanks, Pong, Centipede. These were the games of my youth. These are the games I mastered.  Unfortunately, they are old school now. They've gone the way of eight track tapes and record players.

Sure, I've tried playing the new-fangled games with my teenage son. He just laughs at me. By the time I figure out which of the the umpteen buttons or knobs to push, each performing different functions depending on the order or combination in which they are supposed to be manipulated...it's too late, I'm toast. It's way too overwhelming and confusing for my forty-five year old brain to handle.

In II Corinthians 11:3 Paul tells the Corinthian brethren, "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

Paul was warning the Corinthian brethren about becoming confused by false teachers coming among them seeking to complicate the simple message of the Gospel.  These teachers were trying to persuade the brethren of the necessity of mastering a bunch of unneeded rules and a bunch of different knobs and buttons while ignoring the one button that was most important to "winning."  As a result the brethren were becoming confused and frustrated.

A few weeks ago, on Pentecost weekend, I sat next to a lady on a three hour flight to Dallas. When she learned during the course of polite conversation that I was travelling to speak at a church congregation in Big Sandy her eyes lit up. "I attend a church not too far from there in Gladewater," she said.  "What are you speaking about?"  While I was tempted to launch into a dissertation on the meaning of Pentecost and it's relationship to the Spring and Fall harvests, I chose another tack.  "I'll be speaking about the importance of letting Jesus Christ live His life within us."  "Oh!", she said excitedly, "That's wonderful! I'm reading a book on that very topic..." and off we went talking for the next two hours about our shared belief in Christ. We talked about faith. We talked about the importance of walking the walk, not just talking the talk. She was a Sunday school teacher so we talked a great deal about how critical it is to teach children a love for God and His way of life. Then, with a tear forming in her eye, she began sharing with me the ache in her heart for some of those children she had witnessed grow up and wander away from the faith and her deep concern that they will be condemned to a future in hell. It was then and only then that I began to share with her the hope of the resurrection and God's plan as revealed by the Holy Days.

I feel it's important to mention that  I have no reason at all to brag.  Although I'm sharing one of my few successes, there have been many more opportunities that I've botched miserably. Times when someone merely asking, "so why do you attend church on Saturday?" caused me to excitedly launch into a treatise on everything from the influence of Constantine on the doctrines of the Church to the prophesied ultimate destruction of the beast in the bottomless pit. Can you say "over the top?"

I think all of us who are passionately convicted about the things that we feel have been lost by so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ would do well to remember Paul's example. 

In I Corinthians 2 he writes, "And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."

At the risk of overdoing an analogy, Paul is basically saying that he refused to get lost in all these complicated buttons and knobs on the controller. Though he had mountains of knowledge and years of experience to share, that's not where He started. Instead, he kept it simple. In his sharing of the gospel, he focused on the majors, not on the minors.  In doing so he let people be drawn to the clear, pure core message of the Gospel, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Nothing else has any meaning, any relevance, aside from that. 

How much more effective would our witness be if we adopted Paul's approach? If, when presented with an opportunity to share, we'd step back, take a breath, set aside for a moment all of those tempting buttons and knobs, and lead with the one button that really matters, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 

It's not an easy principle to keep in mind, especially when your in the heat of the moment and your bursting at the seams with excitement and passion for the truth.  If there were only something to always keep us reminded of that simple principle.

Hmm...anyone for a game of Angry Birds?