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Parables: Rethinking EverythingJesus is known for telling short stories called "Parables."
Some of them seem quaint, others confusing. But what are they? And why does Jesus teach in these stories? We'll explore five of Jesus' parables and see how Jesus' words might "get under our skin." I'm sure we'll find something new and think in ways we've never thought before. |
February 11, 2024 - "Like a Grain of Wheat" (Annual Meeting)
"Part of the work of the church is contemplating what death we are called to die, what loss we are being invited to embrace, what soil our seed is meant to fall into so it can stop being one thing, and emerge into something else."
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February 4, 2024: "Lazarus and Some Rich Guy" (Luke 16:19-31)
"Faith isn’t about what we get; it’s about how we see…how we live.
If our Christian faith is just about us, is just about adding a bit of comfort to our own lives, or helping us to cope and manage our own lives. If our Christianity allows us to overlook these questions of wealth and poverty and look right past the people who serve us in thousands of ways every day, then there is a chasm forming. There is a mindset forming that it’s all about us, that I am the center and the standard and the norm."
If our Christian faith is just about us, is just about adding a bit of comfort to our own lives, or helping us to cope and manage our own lives. If our Christianity allows us to overlook these questions of wealth and poverty and look right past the people who serve us in thousands of ways every day, then there is a chasm forming. There is a mindset forming that it’s all about us, that I am the center and the standard and the norm."
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January 28, 2024: "What are you talking about, Jesus?" (Luke 16:1-14)
"Maybe what we think of as squandering is God’s radical generosity. Maybe there is a different purpose for our religion than maximizing investments. Maybe God is a squanderer who lavishly distributes abundance to the unworthy and the unwelcome. Maybe squandering grace, easing burdens, and investing in eternal relationships IS the Master’s work."
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January 21, 2024: "The Mustard Seed" (Matthew 13:31-34)
"Jesus is not just giving us life hacks for how to live a moral, successful, ethical life. Jesus is teaching us how to recognize the movements of a creative, liberative, patient, generous Divine presence in the midst of a world that can be messy, corrupt, disorienting, and strange."
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January 14, 2024: "The Implanted Word" (Mark 4:1-20)
"The crowds hear a story about the agricultural capital and the successes and failures of life on the farm…maybe inspires them to think about how life is like that too. But the disciples, those who draw near, and lean into the discomfort, confusion, danger...they get a picture of what kind of Messiah Jesus is and what it means to follow him."
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