Stephen
Terry, Director
The New Covenant Life
Commentary
for the June 26, 2021, Sabbath School Lesson
"Now to each one the manifestation
of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the
Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the
same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing
by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to
another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds
of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are
the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just
as he determines."
1 Corinthians 12:7-11,
NIV
For centuries, game
players have striven to bring battle tactics to the tabletop. Perhaps the
earliest form of that exercise, still widely played, is chess. Highly skilled
players, competing on a global level, represent their countries at tournaments
where they hope to become the next World Champion. I have played the game since
my teen years, even playing varsity chess in high school. To this day, I still
play several games per day against a computer AI. Although I am nowhere near
champion caliber, I find that as I am nearing the end of my seventh decade, it
helps to keep my mind sharp.
Over time, some wanted
more complexity than chess could provide, and miniature war gaming came into
being. Perhaps one of the earliest devotees was the fantasy writer Robert Louis
Stevenson, author of "Treasure Island," "Kidnapped," and "The Strange Case of
Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde." Using toy soldiers, he developed rules of battle
that allowed him and others to go to war in his parlor. Another fantasy writer,
H. G. Wells also contributed to early war gaming, even publishing a rule book,
"Little Wars."[i]
Eventually several branches
of war gaming evolved with appropriate rules for each genre. Large scale
conflicts were designed, and for those who wanted a more intimate experience,
engagements at squad or small group level were developed. Within these two
basic genres, two world views developed. Some did their wargaming based on
historical armies and the battles they fought. Others chose instead to explore
the "what ifs" of fantasy and developed rules for fantasy engagements where the
armies and individual soldiers had attributes not found on a conventional
battlefield. While fantasy and history may be seen as opposites, even
historical battles can have a certain amount of fantasy, where a player can
envision a tactic never before exploited and meet
victory conditions in an otherwise seemingly impossible scenario.
For example, in a tabletop war game I played in several years ago, Allied
armored units were faced with slowing the advance of a superior German armored
assault through uneven, wooded terrain. Realizing we could not fight it out
face to face with the enemy due to their superior armor, we tried to devise a
way to exploit the weaker armor their tanks had on their rear. We managed to
maneuver some of our tanks to their rear with our movements being hidden by
hills and trees. This allowed us to disable several of their tanks with our
first shots. However, once we fired, they knew where we were and quickly
knocked out our tanks one by one. But to their surprise, even though they wiped
us out, we had delayed their advance long enough to meet the victory
conditions, and we won the game. Our opponents learned that one should never
become so intently focused on what the enemy is doing that they lose sight of
the actual goal.
Perhaps one of the
best know of the small group fantasy games is "Dungeons & Dragons." When
this was first published in 1974 by TSR Games, it sparked wide-spread protests
from the evangelical Christian community, triggered, perhaps, by the
correlation between the word "dragon" and the serpent of Genesis, chapter three
and Revelation, chapter 12. This is not without reason, as the game often
portrays both dungeons and dragons as intrinsically evil. But the players are
often tasked with creating and playing characters that will hopefully confront
and defeat the evil. The characters they create are endowed with their personal
gifts by the roll of several dice. They are given attributes of strength, wisdom,
dexterity, charisma, and other abilities at high, medium, or low levels. Later,
during the game, when faced with a situation that requires that gift, they may
have to do a "critical roll" of a die. If they do not role a number within that
attribute's range, they fail in that skill. Once a player has determined all their
character's natural abilities, they will decide what class their character
should be. For instance, a character with high strength and endurance will
often be a warrior, capable of withstanding a lot of physical damage while
protecting the group from assaults. On the other hand, a character with high
wisdom and dexterity might become a healing cleric. Typically, groups will form
for these role-playing adventures using characters of various classes to be
able to face the widest possible array of challenges.
One might ask what all
this has to do with a new covenant life? When one enters a relationship with
Jesus Christ, they are facing life as they have never faced it before. Like an
adventurer standing before the door of a dungeon, not knowing what threats or
rewards lay beyond, faith in the ability to persevere and overcome provides the
ability to move forward through that door. The gamer relies on their
attributes, their armor, and their weapons to face what may be lurking in the
shadows.[ii] The new Christian must do
the same. Our verse from Paul's 1st letter to the Corinthian Church
at the beginning of this commentary lists some of the gifts a Christian may be
able to call upon as they work their way forward toward heavenly realms. Some
of these are the same as those given to the gamers character, wisdom, knowledge,
faith, or gifts of healing, for instance. But just as one character
in the game may have rolled a high wisdom score, and another a high knowledge
score, the intent of these gifts is not to make a perfect character, but
instead to create a well-rounded team.
Paul warned the early
church that all these abilities are important.[iii] As each character plays
their part in the role-playing game, it enhances the abilities of the group
overall. In the same way, as each Christian uses the gifts God has given them,
the body of Christ is enhanced as well. While some suppose because they have
received a special title or a privileged task to do, they are elevated above
those with different gifts, performing different tasks, such an attitude
weakens the overall body. These kinds of attitudes in role playing games often
lead to infighting and the failure of the group to carry out its mission. For
this reason, while some may vilify these role-playing games, they are excellent
tools for teaching the importance of teamwork and what happens when a team
falls out.
An advantage of
role-playing games is that they allow players to act out various personalities
and scenarios that allow growth and character development without typical
real-world risks. Several decades ago, I had the opportunity to play an evil
character in an online game. This was back before such games had graphics.
Everything was in text. It is surprising how intense a game can become when it
is all text, and the only images are in your head. Anyway, I was successful at
playing this character and rose to a high level with powerful equipment. I
learned a lot about the mindset of evil and what such a life was like, always
running, never trusting anyone. What finally brought me down was when
high-level, good-aligned characters teamed up to hunt me down and defeat my
character. None of them was able to do it alone, but together they were able to
seal off all exits and end my evil career. This taught an important lesson
about good people working together as a team. None of us alone is a strong as
all of us working together as Paul said we should.
When we repent and are
baptized, receiving the Holy Spirit,[iv] we receive special gifted
attributes according to the needs of the church. Just as the gamer cannot control
what numbers come up on the dice when generating their role-playing character,
we are not able to control what gifts God gives us. But we can know that
whatever those gifts are, they are designed for a special purpose that enhances
the church. If we fall out among ourselves, we will instead diminish it. It is
to the benefit of all to recognize the gifts we each bring to the mission and
receive them with grace and gratitude. Our past does not decide our place in
the kingdom. The woman at the well, despite her complicated past, was called by
God to bring many into fellowship with Christ, and this almost immediately. Our
worth to God's team is not decided by how long or for how many generations we
have been attending the same church denomination. It is not decided by how many
material blessings we have received. If we are using our gifts to enhance the
accomplishment of the mission, we are of great worth, even though our part may
seem small to us. But if we are using our gifts to make ourselves appear to be
something we are not, we may find that our worth to the mission is negligible
and unable even to bring ourselves home to God. That would be a tragedy.