Introduction

Friends, the season after Pentecost is Green season, a time of growth. Living our questions is a helpful tool to deepen our experience of faith; thus, the congregation is invited to submit questions that we can all reflect on. The following points explain my approach:

1. Following Anglican tradition, I frame a response to each of these questions using three main sources of theology: reason, Scripture and Tradition. A fuller explanation of reason, tradition and Scripture is offered in the previous week’s bulletin and on the blog and I entrust the reading of this to you reflections/2020/7/20/QnA.

2. I do not imagine that what I offer is a definitive response, I hope instead to provide architecture for you to think about your response.

3. In this spirit, when assertations are made I invite you to receive any these as questions.

Question 1:

It is often extremely hard to understand the meaning of parables, why would Jesus have chosen this way to explain things? They have often been misunderstood and the true meaning lost.

Godly Play is a process that equips people (adults and children) with skills in spiritual praxis, rather than information only. Materials for each parable are contained in a gold box.

Parable from godlyplayresources.com 1

Godly play introduces parables with the following words:

“Look! It is the color gold.

Something inside must be precious like gold.

Perhaps there is a parable inside.

Parables are even more valuable than gold, so maybe there is one inside.

The box is also closed. There is a lid.

Maybe there is a parable inside.

Sometimes, even if we are ready, we can’t enter a parable.

Parables are like that.

Sometimes they stay closed.

The box looks like a present.

Parables were given to you long ago as presents.

Even if you don’t know what a parable is, the parable is yours already.

You don’t have to take them, or buy them, or get them in any way.

They already belong to you.

You need to be ready to find out if there is a parable inside.

It is easy to break parables.

What is hard to do is to go inside.

I have an idea.

Let’s look inside and see what’s there!

I wonder what this could be?

(from Godly Play Volume 3 by Jerome Berryman)

The above is a poetic way to introduce people to the truth of parables, let us now reflect on the reason for the use of parables in Scripture, our Christian Tradition and reason.

Scripture

Simply put the word parable means to through alongside. In Scripture, different types of parables are offered. In other words, a parable is not a single genre, but there are several ways in which a parable is used. Some parables challenge and provoke (e.g. the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son). Some parables offer examples of Jesus teaching (e.g. the parable of the mustard seed, pearl. Most importantly, Jesus’ actions are parables. For example, on Palm Sunday, he travels into Jerusalem on a colt or on a mother donkey that has just given birth to a colt that is walking next to her. Jesus’ action is parabolic, it is a challenge to the status quo where rulers would ride triumphantly on a stallion. Moreover, the parable is saying something about the sort of Messiah Jesus is.

In Godly Play when we reflect on the Faces of Easter, we recognize that “the work of Jesus was to come close to people through healing and telling parables. Then Jesus realized that he would have to become a parable.” What Godly play is communicating is that in addition to saying parables and acting in parables, Jesus was himself a parable.

A purview of parables in Scripture should make clear that a parable is not an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. The reason we can be confident of this is that Jesus died a political death. If Jesus were merely a spiritual teacher who told ethical and moral stories, he would not have offended the Roman and religious leaders of his day who organized his execution, clearly, he was more than an ethical and moral teacher.

As we turn from resources in Scripture to influences in our Christian Tradition, we plumb the writings of scholars who answer the question as to why Jesus spoke in parables.

Tradition

Several contemporary scholars are worth consulting including John Crossan, William Hertzog III (Parables of Subversive Speech), Marcus Borg, Ched Meyers and Richard Horsely. For our purposes, the reason Jesus uses parables may be summarized as follows.

Technique

Firstly, a parable is a technique that forces people to participate in the story. In this way people remember the story. The parables lure listeners into argument. The parable provides a type of hook that reels people into the subversion Jesus proposes through his kingdom of God campaign. Think about your own reaction to the story of the Prodigal son (read Luke 15). Are your feelings about the elder son, the younger son and the father’s response to both completely academic? Or does the story invite some emotional response such as irritation, a feeling of unfairness or discomfort? I imagine that you know the story of the prodigal son well and that even the mildest reaction to the story points to the powerful technique that the parable is in allowing participation. I would suggest that unless the parable annoys you, it is likely that you have not even scratched the surface of its meaning.

Turn the world upside down

The second reason Jesus uses parables is that his aim was never to maintain the status quo. Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God is provocative, it turns the world upside down. The parable invites you to see the world as Jesus sees it, upside down. The upside down world view of Jesus is summarized in Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), a type of Constitution for the kingdom of God: blessed are the poor (not the rich), blessed are the peacemakers and blessed are the meek who inherit the earth. The parables both illustrate the upside-down worldview of Jesus and are a tool to enlist your participation in the subversion of an unjust society.

Transformation

Thirdly the most important reason to use parables is that for Jesus the kingdom of God is about a transformation in perception. The point of the parable is that it creates in the listener a change in thinking, a paradigm shift A paradigm shift is a fundamental change in approach to underlying assumptions. Many are familiar with the illustration of a paradigm shift where the viewer sees either the old or young woman. In order to see one or the other, a change in perception or a paradigm shift is required.

Transformation is a critical factor for the kingdom of God which is why it is so necessary that Jesus adopt the approach. The questioner comments that parables are at times misunderstood. I suggest that the degree to which parables are misunderstood is the degree to which we (or preachers) resist participating in the parable and resist the transforming the parable wants to do to us.

Further, failure to understand parables is often when we (or preachers) force the parable to fit our perception of reality, rather than allowing the parable to do what it is designed to do, namely interrogate our perception which could lead to transformation. An example of forcing a parable into our perception of reality is when we insist on reading the parables from the perspective of the wealthy citizens we are, instead of being cognizant of the economic and political oppression behind the parables.

Having reflected on our Christian tradition we determine how relevant the parable is for our experience of the Kingdom of God.

Reason

Reason as a source in theology includes experience. The power of the parable is that although it is culturally and historically specific, the possibility of participating in the parable is timeless. Throughout the centuries the parables have formed the basis for deep prayer and a way to experience the immediacy of God. One example of this is the Benedictine tradition of Lectio Divina. Lection Divina (divine reading) is a slow, prayerful, repetitive, reading of short parables. Would you like to participate in one such experience?

1. Read any short parable a few times.

e.g. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

2. Read the parable slowly now again listening in the silence for any word or phrase that shimmers for you, an image or word that stands out for you.

3. Write this down.

4. Read the parable again asking if what you have written down is inviting you to anything. Write this invitation down (if any).

5. Read the parable again. Would you like to respond to the parable or invitation in anyway?

Reflections, resources and more…read on