July 27, 2008
(Eleventh Sunday after
Pentecost; Proper 10)
The Kingdom of Heaven is Like a Game of Cards
by The Rev. Carol Sanford,
Priest Associate
Genesis 29:15-28 • Psalm
105:1-11, 45b • Romans 8:26-39
• Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
(From
The Lectionary Page)
In the early part of the last century, my mother’s grandfather was a preacher, church builder and something of a circuit rider in southern Missouri. He was by all accounts a good man, but a stern upholder of his Baptist traditions, even going so far as to tell his adult daughter, my grandmother, to leave his property because she had applied a bit of color to her cheeks.
I never knew my great-grandfather, but I am quite sure that he would not approve of what I am about to do, which is to link God with poker. So when I tell you that The kingdom of heaven is like a game of cards, it is perhaps just as well that the Communion of Saints is not sitting in the first pew.
We’ll get back to the card game in a minute; I’d like to start with this business in Romans about all things working together for good for those who love God. Looking through the ordinary, time-bound lens of our world, it seems evident that not all things are working for good. We have only to glance at the headlines or, for most of us, into our own lives, to see that things can go horribly wrong, even for those who love God very much.
Some who study the Bible have concluded that since bad things happen to good people, we aren’t loving God enough or that not everyone is called to abundant life or even that some of us have been left out of the salvation loop altogether. Oh dear. Please refer to the Catechism in your Book of Common Prayer where we are assured that “Christ promised to bring us into the kingdom of God and give us life in all its fullness.” That’s on page 851, by the way.
So, ghastly things happen all the time, and yet we absolutely insist that a loving God is present and can bring good out of anything. If this view seems weird, that’s because it is, at least compared with many other ways of looking at life. Christians can seem peculiar in our understanding of the world because we are looking through a very special lens. The lens, of course, is the cross of Christ, that holy meeting place of heaven and earth that demonstrates for us that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of God. God there transforms even evil and death into great good, gathering up the most shocking circumstances into eternal life, into the realm of harmony and peace.
And now we are back at the card table: the kingdom of God is like a game of cards …because God trumps everything. If you are a card player, you know that a trump is the suit of cards that is more powerful than any other. For example, if spades are trumps, a tiny three of spades beats even an ace of diamonds. An ace of spades beats everything.
I hope that all of you, and my great grandfather, can forgive me for playing this out to the very end, but I simply must point out that we have to play the hand that we are dealt. Evidently there are many ways to cheat at cards, but there is no way to circumvent where we are in life. It does no good at all to wish that we had a bigger hand or a better one, or to pretend that what we hold is other than what it is.
This applies to individuals, families, nations and Cathedrals. We start out where we are and see what we have to work with. Then we use everything God has given us to allow Him into the game: we worship and study Holy Scripture, we pray together, we come to the table seeking forgiveness and willingness to forgive; we do the best we can to love one another in our differences and to decline the many sins arrayed before us daily, including the sneaky little sins like gossip and ill-temper that are bound to tempt us in this sultry summer heat.
We practice the basics of our religious life together, and we play the hands we are dealt according to the purpose for which we are called. I refer you again to the Catechism, which echoes Scripture in reminding us that we are to love God with our entire being, and to love our neighbors as ourselves, as Christ loved us. In Christian life, love, of course, is primarily an action. What we learn is that over time all things work together for good for those who love God in the way God sets out for us to love, which is to care for one another.
I have witnessed over and over again how God can take anything, no matter how vile or unfair or tragic or painful, and bring out of it healing and transformation and great power for good.
Here are just a few examples: A terminal illness bringing a family together in forgiveness; the grip of a drug addiction shattered and made a means of releasing others from their addictions; a disease epidemic bringing an entire population out of the shadows and into new life; the murder of a prostitute inspiring a haven for women trapped in the life of the streets, and showing them a way out. The list is, pun intended, infinite.
Again: Our touchstone for all of this is a rather standard execution serving the political interests of the Roman Empire that has been transformed over time into Episcopal Relief and Development clothing disaster victims and Maison de Naissance nourishing babies and the Guild of the Christ Child encouraging new parents and the Building and Grounds Committee and Children’s Ministries making our campus a green delight for us and for others who know all too little of pleasant surroundings, and our greeters welcoming strangers and our Dean along with a group of parishioners providing dinner for Episcopal youth who are themselves serving others during Missionpalooza, and our musicians helping us to lift up our hearts to God and our Bishop Walking Witness in the streets of London for the poor and oppressed, and supporters of yesterday’s Dean’s Cup funding ministry and the many unseen labors and acts of kindness that flow throughout these hallways, and all of that is just us and just the tip of our one iceberg and just in this last week.
That one long-ago crucifixion, a most terrible hand of cards indeed, has issued forth in a flood of love and care upon this world that is still building two thousand years later and who on earth would have imagined that?
It is harder to grasp all this when in the midst of personal challenge, but we have the many stories and parables of scripture to keep us focused and remembering that neither the evil done to us or by us can separate us from the love of God. Surely this is the kingdom of heaven as most of us understand it at depth; being loved, no matter what, having hope, no matter what, and being guided and empowered for lives that bring us into the unimaginable joy and privilege of participating with God in the transformation of our world.
Absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God and from the power of that love to bring new life. No matter what hand we are dealt, be that illness, disappointment in love, financial worry, gas prices, discouraging political or church headlines, or the often mixed blessings of our families, such as a heritage of strong but rigid faith; no matter what the hand, God always stands beside us holding the ace. There is a catch: we do have to actually play the cards; we have to show up and participate and contribute to the game. But the payout is enormous.
One addendum: A few days ago, after I completed this sermon, I went to the new Batman movie. Imagine my surprise when one of the characters said that the Joker, the movie’s personification of evil, holds the ace. That is the great, sad lie of the world. Don’t let it fool you.
