Skip to main content

The Parable of Parables

"Sower with Setting Sun" 
by Vincent Van Gogh (Arles 1888)
from the Kröller-Müller Museum,
Otterlo, Netherlands
Had there been no such thing as Covid-19 I should have arrived in Holden Village yesterday to begin a fortnight of lecturing, this year on "Perplexing Parables." My plan had been to offer eight lectures over the course of  2 weeks looking at different parables or groups of parables, encouraging people to see them as they were originally intended, ie. as Eugene Peterson pointed out, something "subversive", sending our imaginations off in unpredictable spirals that will sometimes be unproductive, but ultimately result in miraculous harvests, rather than the simplistic "earthly story with a heavenly meaning" that sees them as little more than "sermon illustrations". As such the Parable of the Sower and his Seed, in Matthew 13: 1-9 and the subsequent "explanation" in v10-23 is widely regarded as a Parable about Parables (and frequently, in my not so humble opinion, misinterpreted) and that was where I was going to start each week, with a session I had entitled "How Not to Read Parables." And as is my wont I had planned to start every lecture with not only a reading of the text in question, but a "re-reading" of it in some form of dialogue or monologue. I hadn't gotten around to writing those, or indeed any of my lectures, but this is what had been percolating in my fevered brain for a while until I dashed this off this afternoon. If I have time on my fully fledged return to work in this "season of opening up" I will try to post other pieces associated with the lectures I would have delivered over the next two weeks.


Voice 1:    That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: 

Voice 2:    A farmer went out to sow his seed.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

Voice 1:    Hold on, has this farmer never heard of scarecrows? And why was he not more careful about where he was scattering his seed? Why scatter some on the path?

Voice 2:    Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

Voice 1:    Again why was the farmer not more careful? And what about taking a bit of time to prepare the ground?  Break it up a bit. Dig in some manure?

Voice 2:    Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.

Voice 1:    This is getting ridiculous… What sort of a farmer is that careless? And anyway, didn’t Jesus say elsewhere about leaving wheat and weeds to grow together? THIS is what happens if you allow that…

Voice 2:    Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Voice 1:    Och wise up! Who ever heard of wheat or any other crop producing such a yield! Was this some sort of miraculous seed!? It’s well seen Jesus was a carpenter and not a farmer. There are times when I don’t know why I bother listening to him at all… I don’t see the point in half of his stories…

Voice 2:    Whoever has ears, let them hear.

Selah
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that
2 comments
Read more

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more

Anointed

There has been a lot of chatter on social media among some of my colleagues and others about the liturgical and socio-political niceties of Saturday's coronation and attendant festivities, especially the shielding of the anointing with the pictured spoon - the oldest and perhaps strangest of the coronation artefacts. Personally I thought that was at least an improvement on the cloth of gold canopy used in the previous coronation, but (pointless) debates are raging as to whether this is an ancient practice or was simply introduced in the previous service to shield the Queen from the TV cameras, not for purposes of sacredness, but understandable coyness, if she actually had to bare her breast bone in puritan 1950s Britain. But as any church leader knows, anything performed twice in a church becomes a tradition. All this goes to show that I did actually watch it, while doing other things - the whole shooting match from the pre-service concert with yer wumman in that lemon-
2 comments
Read more