One Hundred Feathers
As we continue our theological dive into video games, the next thing to talk about is… feathers. But not just any feathers. One hundred feathers collected around Italy for which the reward is a cloak that when worn makes many cities’ guards try to kill you on sight. For that very reason, you may be asking why would anyone ever bother collecting all one hundred feathers? Like so many of the questions I ask in these articles, I will say once again I find this to be a fair question, but also one to which you shall have to draw your own conclusions.
The first answer is the briefest and least theological. Some people will collect the feathers because that is a part of the game. It is just another task to check off the list as complete. There is no deep, moral reason to collect the feathers. The playable character in the game, Ezio Auditore, collects the feathers in memory of his murdered younger brother who had asked Ezio to grab him a few feathers shortly before his demise. You can complete the game without collecting any feathers beyond the initial few. I’d also remind you the reward isn’t some great treasure but a cloak that will make you a target. This is why quite a few people just skip the feathers. They find it unnecessary or unimportant. Hmmm… maybe that is more theological than I thought. Some people do not think that spiritual practices or reading Scripture or embodying their faith daily to be important enough to put time and effort into it. Or when they do spiritual practices, they are merely checking off a to-do list. Definitely something to ponder if you are feeling disconnected from the Holy Spirit or like your soul has been grated down to a lump.
But what if you’re in the opposite space? What if your spirit is so full that your cup overflows? That all your pastures are green, your waters still, and your soul restored? What a blessed place to be. If you do find yourself in this place spiritually, then your reasons for doing a spiritual practice might be more like my reasons for collecting the feathers. When I had finished most of the game, I went back to collect all the things I had missed. Did every race, completed every assignment, and sought every feather. It was great fun… until it wasn’t fun anymore. When a spiritual practice becomes a chore, you may find that you tell yourself that it is optional, unimportant, and a waste of your precious time. When the very thing you are doing to give glory to God becomes the thing that makes you feel apart from God, it is probably time to repent and do something different. What is it that your heart desires when you sit down to pray? Is it all about the things that you want? Or are you seeking God’s will?
If we are to talk about desires in spiritual life, then I have to tell you about how things went for me in collecting these feathers. In my personal experience, the desire to find all the feathers was felt most acutely when I could not find one of the feathers. I had found over half just by playing the game. As I wandered hither and yon in the game, I had collected a fair few of the feathers, but not all of them. As someone who enjoys being a completionist for games, especially in the collectibles department, I was going to find all of those feathers. It is part of the fun for me and I would consider it an integral part of the game experience. So where was the last one?
This marks the point where this stopped being fun. It become a chore, a challenge, a needs must. I spent the better part of a week with a game guide and a map and a checklist hunting down that last feather. Things are always in the last place you look, yes, because at that point you stop looking, but in this case, it really was the last feather. I had checked it off in my brain as being found because I thought it was the last one I had gathered before I opened up the guide and started the hunt. In short, I had to cross off all ninety-nine before I found the one. That sounds… familiar.
For some, the why of collecting these feathers is the exact same question of going out to find the one sheep and leaving the ninety-nine behind. Why would you bother to take the time, the effort, the risk to go seek the sheep that has been left behind? Behind God’s love and abundant grace is for all people. The people you do not like. The people who are not like you. The people you think do not deserve it. The people who believe differently than you. All the people are invited to be in the flock. The lost, the found, the searching, the abandoned. That parable is coupled with others… with the prodigal son and the lost coin. The lost coin is lost in the house, perhaps representing those in a faith community or congregation who feel lost or abandoned even if they have not gone anywhere. The lost sheep is out in the wild, in the world. They have been disconnected from the community, from the flock. Which leaves the prodigal son. Believe me when I say, that one parable has enough content to do several sermons, but the point that fits with the topic today is that the piety of the older brother is not what makes the father rejoice. It is when that which was lost has been found that there is celebration, rejoicing, and joy. I would invite you to go back and give it a read. It is in the gospel of Luke chapter fifteen. And then I’d remind you that God is seeking you as fervently as ever.
