Matthew 5: The Beatitude Game

I remember being taught a card game once involving spoons. I am not entirely sure of all the rules now because I only have played it once many years ago. The basic idea is that there are a number of spoons put in the middle of a circle of people playing cards, one less spoon than the number of people playing. You then pass cards around the circle to each other until someone notices they have four-of-kind. Once someone has four-of-kind, one subtly grabs a spoon. Then everyone, once they notice the spoons are disappearing, tries to grab a spoon. The last one to notice that the spoons are going, the last one to grab a spoon loses. You play this game, eliminating one person each time, until only one person is left. (S)he is the winner. Of course it is easiest if you are the one who has the four-of-kind because then you can grab the first spoon and thus not be eliminated.

The one time I played, I was blessed to be one of the last two people in the game. We need one person to have four-of-kind so that we could try to grab the last spoon. It got to the point where I knew that Sheldon had picked up 3 Aces and he knew I had one Ace. That is when Sheldon spoke up and announced that we can never have a winner to this game because, "Michael is holding onto one Ace and will not want to part with it because as soon as he does, I will have four Aces, grab the spoon and win." It is then that I pass him a card and I grab the last spoon. Someone in the crowd of spectators who was obviously looking at my hand says to me, “Hey! You can’t do that you don’t have four-of-kind.” To which I reply, “Sheldon does”, which of course he did. I gave Sheldon the last Ace but by the time he realized it and reached for the spoon I, of course, had already taken it and won the game. The strategy changed here when there are only two people. Instead of trying to get the last card yourself, you give it to someone else. In order to win this game you need to interact with the world in a new way. This is not unlike the God’s Kingdom as expressed by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is saying that as we belong to His Kingdom, we need to interact with this world in a new way. Citizens of Heaven will act according to the ways of Heaven even while we are living and working in Canada or wherever we happen to be.

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