Humans are creatures of story. We are a story people. Like a stirring crescendos or a heavy beat in music, or the pigment and movement of a brushstroke on canvas, a good story reaches parts of our being in ways that nothing else can. This is why the vivid visions and dreams of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King still convict and mobilize us. Perhaps this is why the medium of radio or podcasts and experiences like Poetry Slams, Ted Talks, and The Moth persist. Spoken word holds tremendous power. Jewish Rabbis have a rich tradition of teaching through storytelling. The faithful art of Midrash crafts contemporary stories and places them alongside scripture to point toward truth that can’t quite be captured in one dimension. These are creative narratives that are rooted in biblical imagination. Jesus is part of this tradition. He is often teaching in parables, a type of story-telling that is…open. It leaves space for multiple meanings. It is open ended so that the meaning is made through its hearers and the community, in the space in between. The word parable means “cast alongside.” When our reading of the Bible is chopped up into tiny disconnected pieces, just looking at a couple verses here or there, we miss what is offered here where we see multiple parables cast alongside each other. Perhaps there is richer meaning to be made in the connections between them.

Sometimes we can think of the parables as a code to be cracked, and the parables next to one another as a cipher that will break open God’s secrets. We yearn for things to be clear, to know ultimate truth. And this translation doesn’t help us resist that very human tendency. Mark’s portrayal of Jesus turns to the disciples and says “to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God.” But the word “secret” is better translated as “mystery.” “To you is given the mystery of God”, which isn’t necessarily the same thing as understanding or intellectual mastery. It is clear throughout the Gospels that even the disciples who walk alongside Jesus don’t ever fully understand, but that doesn’t mean that they are far from God or lacking in faith.

I wonder…if given the opportunity to explore these stories… to try ideas on about their meaning, holding them loosely as a living thing, giving them space to move and shift, and even setting them back down if need be…what truth might we discover about God, God’s kingdom, ourselves, and our communities?

Click this link to read today’s passage again, and then ponder these questions:

What did you see or hear in these stories? What meaning did you notice?

Did one of the four parables we heard today seem to particularly grab hold of you in some way? Capture your imagination and wondering? Connect with something that you bring alongside this story?

Sometimes having a story told visually can be another tool that helps us think expansively about these stories. Pastor Ashley told the story of the “Parable of Parables” through Godly Play this Sunday, and you can watch the video from our Facebook page OR click this link to watch this story be told by another Godly Play Story teller.

I wonder what stuck out to you while you watched that story? I wonder what the perfect parable for you would look like? Amen.

Parables: The Power of Story