ABOUT PARABLES

PARABLE= “A comparison; a similitude…any saying or narration in which something is expressed in terms of something else…Also, any kind of enigmatical or dark saying.” (Shorter Oxford Dictionary)]

1.       [IN THE GOSPELS, the parables are

A)     short narratives told by Jesus

B)      using familiar imagery and language

C)      for the purpose of subverting and challenging the assumptions and world-view of his hearers

D)     demonstrating the modus operandi of the kingdom of God and proclaiming the Good News of its coming

2.       [From notes on a lecture by The Rev. Rob Voyle, summarizing the ideas of New Testament scholar Dominic Crossan

MYTH= STORIES TOLD TO UPHOLD AND REINFORCE AND EXPLAIN AN ESTABLISHED WORLD VIEW

PARABLE= STORIES TOLD TO SUBVERT AN ESTABLISHED WORLD VIEW AND SUGGEST AN ALTERNATIVE.]

4)[Parable= “a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting to the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.” C.H. Dodd]

In using parables as his principle way of teaching, Jesus makes an “end run” around the resistance of his hearers, avoiding their objections and suggesting an entirely new way of approaching the world.

5) “If Scripture has a single subject at all…it is the mystery of the kingdom of God.” Robert Capon, kingdom, Grace, and judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus. P.15

6) “…the question immediately arises, ‘How does God get the job done? What does the Bible say about the way he uses his power to achieve his ends?...If God wants to turn this messed-up world into a… kingdom, why doesn’t he just knock heads together, put all the baddies under a large, flat rock, and get on with the job? …After [the story of Noah and the Ark] – the Bible becomes practically a rhapsody of indirection… as Christians believe… God did eventually show up on the property… In the person of Jesus…for the express purpose of completing the project…But at the end…he simply disappeared, leaving… no effective kingdom able to make the world straighten up and fly right. The whole operation began as a mystery, continued as a mystery…and continues to function as a mystery. Since Noah, God has evidently had almost no interest in using direct power to fix up the world.”

7) “…a phrase from Luther, left-handed power… is guided by the more intuitive, open, and imaginative right side of the brain. Left-handed power…is paradoxical power: power that looks for all the world like weakness…. (Capon, pp. 16-19)

8) A Liturgical Example of a Parable  …when we had fallen into sin and become
subject to evil and death, you, in your mercy, sent Jesus
Christ, your only and eternal Son, to share our human
nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the
God and Father of all.

9) How did this sentence "subvert/challenge the commonly held assumptions ("myths") of his own time? It turns out that Jesus doesn’t just SPEAK in parables, Jesus IS a parable.

10) How does Jesus “subvert and challenge” the assumptions/world view of our own world? Of our own lives? …Discuss

11) PARABLES DO NOT PROVIDE A TIDY, CONSISTENT “SOLUTION” TO THE DIFFICULTIES RAISED. This gives an unfinished, work-in-progress aspect to all Christian discipleship (some would say an unbearable degree of ambiguity). How might the words cited above come as "Good News" to us?