Last week I suggested that the church reach out to family, friends and neighbors with the good news of God’s love shown most fully through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  I also suggested that the church embrace twenty-first century technology, using social networks available on computers and cel. Phones.  This is especially relevant for reaching out to younger generations.  So, this week, I have been busy on my laptop computer playing Angry Birds. 

Angry Birds is a video game you can play on your computer or on the new kind of cel phones such as smartphones, iPhone, Blackberry, and Droid.   I have been avoiding video games like the plague, but I couldn’t avoid Angry Birds.  Everyone was playing Angry Birds and references to Angry Birds were cropping up in TV Commercials, news stories, and comedian’s one liners.  There were reported some 250 million downloads of Angry Birds by June 16.  Well, so I had to check out this new phenomenon.  The first time I played it, I had to giggle.  Angry Birds is silly and fun.  There is a large slingshot stuck in the ground, and a ways away there are some green pigs usually hiding under some kind of wooden or stone structure.  A small round red feathery bird appears in the harness of the slingshot.  With the mouse on your computer, or with your finger on the touch screen of your cel phone, you can aim the slingshot and fire the bird at the green pigs.  If you are a good shot, you can knock down the fortification and destroy the pigs.  And this is a lot of fun. 

In fact millions of people are now addicted to Angry Birds.  Who knows how many work hours have been wasted by employees playing Angry Birds.  This could set back the economic recovery for decades.  And naturally, I have been spending as much time as possible this week playing angry birds.  I consider it one of my duties as a Lutheran pastor.   You see, as Lutherans, we have all been trained in Confirmation class to ask Martin Luther’s profound question, “Was ist das?”  or “What does this mean?” I wanted to know why Angry Birds is such a phenomenon and what that tells us about the culture in which we live.   

I remember playing a lot of Pac-Man in the 1980’s, and I remember thinking what an appropriate metaphor Pac-Man was for the Reagan Era consumer culture with its corporate takeovers, “trickle-down” theory, shopping malls springing up all over America.  Our consumer culture was running rampant.  We played Pac-Man, a game in which a little yellow disc hungrily moved through a maze eating up little dots and trying not to get eaten by red, blue or purple ghosties.  It was an eat-or-be-eaten race through a maze and so was the ‘80’s era economy. 

So what is it about Angry Birds that captures our imagination in this second decade of the twenty-first century?  Why is it so fun to catapult little red birds into wooden fortresses to kill fat green pigs?  Or, as Martin Luther would ask, “What does this mean?”   The birds are small and round and kind of feathery.  Their feathers stick out at odd angles and when they hit a beam of wood or stone, they  implode on impact with a flurry of feathers, or sometimes they bounce off and fall to the ground to disintegrate in a puff of feathers seconds later.  The birds are cute and fragile, and yet willingly act as missiles against seemingly impenetrable fortresses. 

It is easy enough to guess the symbolism of fat green pigs.  It wasn’t too long ago that we experienced near economic collapse at the hands of greedy mortgage lenders and “fat cat” bankers on Wall Street more concerned with their yearend bonuses than the ordinary citizens on Main Street.  We could extend the metaphor to our sons and daughters sent off to Iraq and  Afghanistan and of the general sense that many Americans feel of being somehow attacked, quite literally in 2001, and metaphorically by loss of old ways and the seemingly inevitable forces of change.  And how can we fragile individuals stand against those economic cultural and political forces that seem to threaten our lives and families and children?  The answer to Angry Birds lies in the obvious deeper question, “Why are the birds so angry?” 

It wasn’t until I downloaded the game onto my own laptop and began at level one, that I discovered the answer.  The Fat Green Pigs had stolen the bird’s eggs and fried them in a frying pan.  That is why the Birds are angry.  They are angry enough to hurl themselves against wooden beams and stones to vanquish the fat pigs that threaten their children. 

And do we not worry about our children?  We worry about our children’s safety.  We worry that our children won’t have the same opportunities we had when we were young.  We worry about their careers and about the challenges they will face in this often violent world.  And we worry about their faith.  And we would willingly hurl our bodies at the fat green pig evil forces that would devour our children if only we could see them, if only those forces were tangible enough to aim our catapults at them and fire.  The birds are angry because they worry about their children, and so do we.  And so we play Angry Birds. 

As Lutheran’s we ask Luther’s question “What does this mean?” of the culture in which we live, and of the basic tenants of our faith.  We ask, what does the Word of God have to say to a culture of fat pigs and angry birds?  How does God’s word address us in the midst of our fears and frustrations toward the world in which we live?  What does God’s word tell us about the fate of our children? 

In Luther’s Small Catechism, we have statements such as Luther’s explanation of the First Commandment, “You shall have no other Gods before me.”  Luther asks, “What does this mean?” and answers, “You shall fear, love and trust God above all things.”  Do we need to fear the fat pigs of the world?  Do we need to worry so much about our children?  Do we need to hurl our fragile bodies against the powers of the world in order to protect our families and children?  Does that do any good? 

Perhaps, God offers another response.  We trust a greater power.  We proclaim a deeper love.    We live a different way, a way that leads to life.  We follow Jesus who showed us a way of life that has to do with forgiveness, and peace, and trust and hope and love.   We live by the Spirit who forms us into a community not made up of fat pigs and fragile birds, but of brothers and sisters in Christ.  And Jesus sends us out to share the message of God’s love for all through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a message for fat cats and angry birds alike. 

And as we go about our mission to share this message, one concern we have is can we sustain ourselves our community and our children in the midst of this work?  The answer is, yes, if we actually do live the way God would have us live, the way Jesus taught us and showed us with his life.  Yes, we can stay in it for the long haul if we do not hurl ourselves against the powerful forces that seem to threaten our lives, and our children, but instead render those forces powerless by extending the welcome invitation of God’s love.  Perhaps the addiction to Angry Birds will be replaced by the intoxicating welcome of the Holy Spirit to come into the open arms of the true fellowship of community in Christ.  I’m not saying we shouldn’t play Angry Birds.  Keep playing because it is fun!  But let us live out the way of Christian community in a spirit of peace, love and confidence, and extend that invitation to fat pigs and angry birds alike.    Amen.