Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now we're

learning what it looks like to follow Jesus by working our way through the gospel of

Luke. The other day I heard a guy talking and he's like super into video games and he tells me about this thing called the video game canon.

Now as an ex English major I am familiar with the concept of a canon. The Western canon for example is all of the great

literary classics that you need to read to be informed on Western culture. So think of the

Odyssey, the Iliadliad the Bible Plato's Republic

Canterbury Tales and so on. Apparently this exact same thing exists in the world

of video games so I asked him for an example tell Tell me about a canonical video game. And he told me about one game, I honestly cannot remember the name, but this game became a classic for having an amazing sixth sense caliber twist at the end.

Apparently it's old so I don't think I'm going to ruin it plus I don't know the name so there you go.

Here's what happens at the end of the game the main character inside of the game realizes that he's not actually in control of his own thoughts, choices, or actions.

He learns that all along he's been mind controlled by someone else. And's the twist it's kind of meta level okay you the video game player

You are the one mind controlling him that you have become a character inside of the game. You, the player, have been

the one who's really acting in the story and unfolding it all inside of the video game console

okay it kind of sounded cool to me it's kind of a metal level thing

I guess if you're the player of the game that kind of makes you into the bad guy who's mind

controlling I don't know I'm out of my league here but here's the point. Many

masterworks of literature, film, music, they're considered canonical for

precisely the exact same reason, their ability to draw an audience into a story, to help them become a part of that story, and to even let their audience leave somehow change.

Maybe their audience even becomes an actor in that story as it continues to go

forward. This is one reason that all of the Gospels, whether or not you believe of them, are

towering literary achievements. Each of them draws the audience into a story, only to transform them

...