John 8:32
June 6, 2009
Message shared by Rev. Donald Ng at the Chinese Christian Union Sports Kick-Off Event, El Camino High School.
I see that the grand door prize is a Wii. I don’t have a Wii myself but I do have a Mii! My young adult son who is into internet games created this avatar of me and named him, “Yeh Yeh.” My Mii looks old—not much hair, wears round glasses, slightly built, skinny legs and nothing intimidating. Now, my son created an avatar of himself with a full head of hair, this mean brow look, heavy built, and fierce-looking. So when I am playing Wii tennis with him, I am lucky to win a game! I claim that with a scrawny avatar, I can’t intimate my opponent! I’ve told my son “Wait until I get you out on a real tennis court!”
How many of you are Residents of Second Life? SL for short, created in 2003 by Linden Labs is the internet animated equivalent of “playing make-believe.” SL Residents create avatars—or virtual 3D characters—that represent them in the “inworld” or “on the grid”—the SL 3D world. Characters can teleport instantly all around the SL universe, from stores to homes to vacation resorts to entertainment venues. SL is not a game, it’s an online environment in which Residents live, play, have romances and in some cases work through their avatar’s second life. Maybe in Second Life, I can create a better Yeh Yeh avatar!
The economy of SL is powered by Linden dollars. For $45 real U.S. dollars, you can buy 10,000 Linden dollars, used to purchase virtual goods for use inworld, including land, buildings, cars, any consumer goods, as well as character enhancements such as custom clothing, hairstyles and jewelry. SL has its own time zone known as SL Time so that everyone inworld can be on the same clock despite their location in the real world.
In this SL virtual world, you can even find Christianity at a “church-meets café environment” called, Experience Island. The philosophy behind this ministry as expressed by the creator, “We desire to engage people where they are, and Second Life represents a new frontier in that effort. Because Second Life environment uses avatars, people are able to remain relatively anonymous. We find that this creates a less threatening environment where people are much more willing to explore and discuss spiritual things.”
While living like a rock star or having a Christian conversation might not be something an SL player would do in the real world, SL allows people to act out the character they’d love to be in the real world. The grid allows the “what ifs” of the imagination to be played out virtually. There’s something real happening here. People seem to enjoy playing out alter identities that they can’t live in real life.
Nicodemus
In the Gospel of John, Jesus meets up with a Pharisee named, Nicodemus. Listen to John 3:1-10. Nicodemus was acting like he was in the inworld of Second Life. At night, he snuck out to have a conversation with Jesus. It was like he was on that Christian Experience Island, a more comfortable setting to ask Jesus questions, questions that his real-world day job would have prevented him from asking.
Nicodemus was leading two lives. On the one hand, he’s a Pharisee and a leader of the Jews, meaning he has doctrinal questions about Jesus. Any Pharisee with Israel’s best interest in mind would be cautious toward Jesus at best, and would publicly oppose him at worst. But on the other hand, Nicodemus is privately curious about Jesus, recognizing that somehow his teachings and works come from God.
Like most people living two lives, Nicodemus pursues his more questionable ventures at night—out of sight of the public audience. It is like Nicodemus was leading this life in SL, anonymous and unnoticed.
Over time, we know that Nicodemus was changed by his relationship with Christ. In John 7, Nicodemus is still leading his two lives. He doesn’t publicly challenge the notion that a Pharisee could never believe in Jesus, but he does not defend Jesus’ right to be heard either (vv. 50-51). But by the end of Jesus’ life, Nicodemus seems to have ended his double lives. No longer coming to Jesus at night, he anoints and buries Jesus in the full light of day (John 19:39-42). Nicodemus has left the SL virtual world where he can hide his true identity and stepped into a true second life as one who believes in the Lord.
Playing a Game
When I went out for CCU Softball a few years ago, I imagined that I would be able to play second base or short-stop and turn a double-play! I can imagine that happening. That would be a SL virtual world reality! I noticed that batters would avoid hitting in my direction once they knew I was a pastor! They didn’t want to hurt me they said. They were making a bigger assumption that I could even turn a double-play! I was living in an imaginary world of being a real baseball player!
It’s great to see so many of you here tonight. Some of the referees, umpires, officials and players have been here since early afternoon, learning how to official a fair and clean game. Coaches and managers have been here to become familiar with the rules and regulations that govern the teams and the leagues. Many of you who are athletes on basketball, softball, and volleyball teams are here to pick up your team uniforms, meet other player friends and perhaps with the hope of winning the Wii grand door prize. Your season is about to begin and you are all ready to inbound the ball, throw out the first pitch, and to serve it up.
While we know that you’ll have a great season, playing sports can be a Second Life, a SL make-believe virtual existence unless you live out your Christian faith on the court or on the field as well as in real life. The way we play the game this season is important. When we play fairly that not only follows the rules but respect yourself when you respect others, you are not just playing a game but living a real life. When you are ahead in the game and as they say in Major League Baseball, allow “defense indifference,” you are respecting the humanity of the other players because ultimately, we are all really playing on the field of real life. It’s never nice to kick someone who’s already down because after the final inning or when the buzzer goes off, you still want to treat each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. After a hard fought game, one of the strengths of CCU Sports is the fellowship time afterward. You get the chance to hear the Word of God, share a few thoughts with the other players, and say a little prayer of thanks that no one was injured and that everyone played in a Christ-like manner.
What we do this summer in organized sports at its best is modeling for us in a positive way, how to live in our real life. We hope that you will learn from your coaches and officials what wisdom and maturity in life are like. We hope that you will develop strong and meaningful relationships with other players to last a lifetime. We hope that in your attentiveness and from the power of God working in you life that you would have a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Instead of escaping into the SL inworld, we hope that you will learn to live faithfully and productively out here in this real world of life.
It’s what Jesus did. He lived here on the same planet that we are on to show us that this world, not some alter state, is worth living for and dying for. Following Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Truth
CCU Sports has chosen John 8:32 as our theme verse for this season, “Know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Don’t be a Resident of Second Life and miss out on what the real life is all about. Don’t just play the game this season and overlook the importance of learning how to play the game of real life well in peace and justice. Don’t forget to know the truth in Jesus Christ because only in Christ, are we truly free—free from our sins and fears that cause us to not live up to our God-given gifts and potential.
Nicodemus left the late at night world of uncertainty and caution and stepped into a true second life as one who believes. There’s something Jesus did that caused a skeptic on the sidelines to become a devoted mourner of his death. Jesus promised Nicodemus a truly real second life by being born again in the Holy Spirit.
Jesus wants to transform our lives. SL is a way to escape real life, but the Second-Life Christ offers us a deeper reality which governs your first life—the life that you are living right now. The second life in Jesus Christ is a changed life, an inward and invisible reality that makes itself visible by the way you live your life on earth as a faithful disciple as well as how you practice that life on the court or playing field.
As you know by now, I like baseball and especially following the Red Sox. Whether it’s Fenway Park and the Green Monster left field wall or one of the wind-swept fields in South SF, you wonder how on earth does a hitter hit a homerun. Maybe it’s not on earth at all but it’s the wind. It’s the wind that may be blowing out toward left field that carries the ball to be a homerun.
Jesus told Nicodemus that he needs to be born again from above, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). We don’t see the wind but we do see the effects of the wind carrying the ball over the fence for a homerun.
We do not need to reside in the SL make-believe world when we can live in this real world that is so important to God that he has given his only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord to redeem us and the wind of the Holy Spirit to make every hit a homerun, every three-point shot a winning basket, and every set-up a winning spike.
Know the truth in Jesus Christ, and this truth will make you free. Let’s play ball and live in this real world in Christ, our Lord!
Let us pray.
Thank you, God for Jesus Christ who showed us how you love this world so much that you came to redeem us all. Bless our 2009 season of CCU Sports, protect us from injuries, and grant us the wind of the your Spirit to live out your peace and justice in the world. May we be born-again and receive the blessings of a new and second life in Christ. Amen.