Raise your hand if you’ve played Wordle. Better yet, hit share and show us your squares.
For those who haven’t gotten on board the global word craze, Wordle is an online word game that gives you six chances to guess a five letter word, with hints along the way about what letters you got right and which you got wrong. Even the New York Times and others have noted the game’s “meteoric rise.”
The game’s popularity has been fueled because of its end-of-game option to click share and send out a visual representation of you Wordle board and your score to the rest of the world. You’ve probably seen these squares popping up on Twitter or Facebook. In my own family, we have a Wordle group text where we share our squares.
So Monday, as I was doing my daily Wordle (it was a tough one; took me all six tries), I got to thinking about how this game has become popular and how it’s a model of sharing the Gospel. I know: a word game and the Gospel. Strange. Stick with me.
How did this little, no-frills word game gain its recent popularity? Undoubtedly, it’s the big green “share” button. Through the power of showing our results to others, people have become intrigued. What is this game? How do I play it? Can I beat my friends? So, our friends give it a try and they find out what a fun thing it is. And then they share it with others.
It’s all so similar to what we see in the accounts of Jesus early in the Gospel of John. “Come and see,” Jesus tells his disciples. And then his disciples repeat that same phrase to others: “Come and see.”
Isn’t that what we’re doing when we play Wordle? Come and see this cool game.
We don’t have to convince people of anything. We don’t argue people into it. We don’t study it and then tell people the depths of the theories of Wordle. No, we invite them to experience it.
Pastor Jon has been pressing this point home as we’ve begun our slow walk through the Gospel of John. We do what Philip did with Nathanael: We invite people to come and see.
Come and see what Jesus has done in my life. Come and see what He is doing in the world around us. Come and see what He has done in history. Come and see what he can do in your life.
There’s a word for that, you know. G-o-s-p-e-l.