Pokémon Go

Recently, Basil has become interested in Pokémon. Though the seed of this interest was planted and nurtured by an uncle, both Caitlin and I are true 90's kids with a deep well of Pokémon knowledge and experience. In case you need a refresher, Pokémon was created in Japan in 1996, first as a video game, then a tv series, trading card game, and movies. It explores a world where humans live alongside, capture, and train creatures—pocket monsters—with unique powers and abilities. I grew up with the original 151 Pokémon species, but now there are well over 1,000 of these critters running around several different continents of the Pokémon world. Most of these additions have simply expanded the same concept, but in 2016, a unique experience was created. A new game, called Pokémon Go, was released. This game uses virtual reality to overlap the "Pokémon world" with our own world. We were in seminary in Waco, Texas when the game was released and suddenly the city was full of kids of all ages (and maybe some adults) walking around holding their phones up trying to find Pokémon in classrooms and park benches, in zoos and stores. Through the lens of the phone, what once existed as a game pulling someone away from their world now invited players to see something fantastical in the mundane around them.

This past Wednesday night, we began a study on the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. In it, Jesus seems to paint a picture of life in the Kingdom of Heaven. Looking at history, however, Christians have struggled with how this heavenly existence can play out in the world around us. That tension is one we will explore over the next several weeks, but I wonder if the Sermon on the Mount functions a bit like Pokémon Go—or rather if following the teachings of Jesus from the sermon makes us a bit like Pokémon Go. Perhaps living in this way is the gateway that helps each other to see the reality of heaven laid across the world we interact with day in and day out. We are used to reading about what this heaven looks like and having it exist in a 2D reality, but perhaps if we walk around in the shoes of this Sermon—and we watch those around us doing it too—we will catch glimpses of fantastical realities dwelling among us. I hope Basil continues to enjoy Pokémon and to use his imagination to live in the worlds the rest of us cannot see. I believe those may be skills that will serve him well in the Kingdom of God ahead.