Parables

My class this week has been working through the parables Jesus told his disciples.  I thought the picture above is appropriate.  While we might remember some of the parables of Jesus about the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son or the five foolish bridesmaids who did not bring enough oil or how the kingdom of God is like a tiny mustard seed - we have sometimes domesticated these parables.  

What we often do with parables is to turn them into good advice rather than the radical pictures of God's realm that we are invited to participate in right here and right now.  Jesus challenged people's understanding of what was kosher and stretched people's comfort zones.  You think you know who would do the right thing: a rabbi or priest...but along comes a Samaritan?  Really?  That was unexpected, shocking, and even offensive.

This week we've spent trying to reclaim and remember the jagged edges of these parables.  Not so we can hurt each other, but because at that edge we find God's presence calling us into a Kingdom that is not like the world we live it.  Yet, by listening to the power of the parables, we hear what God is like and what our communal life as the People of God is to be like.  

I invite you to think about and re-read your favorite parable.  Let it linger.  Ask where is God in the midst of that parable?  Where is that jagged edge?  Where does this powerful parable call us as God's people?  Those are the questions roaming around my mind this week and I invite you to join me in the prayerful and faithful pondering.

May the traces of God's grace sustain you and guide you.

Blessings!