Being a Parable

 

A Sermon preached on 30 July 2023 (Pentecost IX) at St. Augustine’s, WI

Genesis 29:15-28 Romans 8:26-39, Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Jesus is putting a lot of parables before us today, 6 in total in just a few short paragraphs! This is a teaching technique he uses a lot, and there are over 30 parables of Jesus recorded in the Gospels. What are parables for and how should we interpret them? Traditionally, they were seen as allegories, which the dictionary (OED) defines as “a story ….  that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.” Each word or term stood for an idea and the parable had to be de-coded term by term. The interpretations we find within scripture, which we think were added when the Gospels were written down, tend to be allegorical, just like the rather truncated explanation of the dragnet parable that we heard today.

St. Augustine (of Hippo) famously interpreted the parable of the Good Samaritan allegorically, and in great detail: The man who went down from Jerusalem (= the heavenly city of peace) was Adam, Jericho was the moon and signified our mortality, the thieves were the devil and his angels, and when the man was beaten, he was persuaded to sin and when stripped, it was his immortality that was being taken away. And so, it goes on …. And does not sound to me anything like Jesus was thinking!

C.H. Dodd, a Welsh New Testament scholar wrote a very influential book about the parables in 1935: “The Parables of the Kingdom.” He defined a parable as “a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting its hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.” Paula Gooder, in her more recent (2020) book[1] makes a similar point: “They begin with the known but point us to the unknown. They challenge us to think and think again …. All in all, parables are hard work. They require us continually to ask questions.”

I think that’s what makes them both attractive and challenging. We are not presented with a strict teaching to do this or not do that, but with stories in day-to-day settings: families, farming, fishing, trade, households, weddings, feasts. They are stories that we are invited to enter into. They are offered to help us not only understand something, but also live into it: What is the kingdom of heaven like? Who is my neighbour? Who is a sinner? Who is God’s messenger? They often have an element of the unexpected and they almost always provoke questions.

All of today’s parables are about the kingdom of heaven or the reign of God. What is it like? It is like a mustard seed, yeast, buried treasure, a pearl, a dragnet, and those who speak of it are like the master of a household. But is it the seed or the fully grown tree that is like the kingdom? Is it the yeast or the leavened flour? Is it the net or the varied catch? And the kingdom the parables are referring to, is it already here, or still coming, or in the future? To which my answer is simply, yes! God is not either / or. God is one and three. God is unknowable and yet fully revealed in Jesus Christ. Jesus is fully human and divine. All of the interpretations are possible, and more, and which one we choose will depend on our context, which is very different to that of Jesus’s first listeners or the early church that wrote them down.

The first two parables, about the mustard seed and the yeast, form a pair. Both are about something very small that becomes something huge. The end result is a tree that offers shelter and protection for all the birds of the air and leavened flour to make enough bread for 100 people! But both the mustard seed and the yeast also have negative connotations. The mustard plant is a weed that grows quickly and spreads, it is very invasive, and not something that you would usually sow in your garden. And while yeast or leaven was needed in baking, it was not seen uncritically. Some bread had to be allowed to rot to make leaven. And when Jesus wants to warn his disciples, he compares his enemies to yeast: “Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.” (Mark 8:15)

All of these meanings can be relevant. When Jesus began teaching, his motley crowd will have been seen as suspicious, certainly unwanted by the authorities, often ignoring the boundaries of ritual cleanliness, and consorting with the outcasts, the rejected, and the unloved. In his 1954 book, “The Parables of Jesus,” German theologian Joachim Jeremias wrote: “Could Jesus’ wretched band, comprising so many disreputable characters, be the wedding guests of God’s redeemed community”? The two parables could almost be an illustration of Paul’s teaching (Romans 8), that, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

For the early church, the idea of something as small and insignificant as they felt themselves to be, growing into something so large would have been very reassuring. And for us? As we struggle with decline and worry about whether our message of love is getting across, the comparison of the kingdom of heaven to an invasive plant that is constantly and inevitably growing and spreading or to yeast that is contagious, almost infectious can also be a source of reassurance. I think the idea that the kingdom and the church that teaches it will not always be welcome or acceptable is also valuable! The Church’s opposition to the recent “Illegal Migration Bill” in the UK is a good example. 

The next two parables, the treasure and pearl, also pair off. In both, something wonderful is hidden or not immediately recognised. The discovery is a surprise, finding them causes great joy and fills the hearts of the finders with gladness. The treasure and pearl are of such inestimable worth, that both the one who finds the field, and the merchant sell everything they have to buy them. Many of those following Jesus will have recognised themselves in this parable. They had given up everything, their jobs, their wealth, their place in society to follow him, seeing in Jesus something so good, noble, precious and beautiful (all meanings of the word kalos) that they could not do otherwise. Have we lost that excitement? What would make you sell all you have? Is your, my vision of the kingdom of heaven, of God’s reign attractive and joyful enough?

The parable of the net – a dragnet – is similar to the parable of the wheat and tares that we heard, and that Linda already talked about, last week. It is the only parable about fishing. Matthew’s own interpretation, and that of many commentators, is that it is an allegory of the Last Judgement, with the focus on the sorting.  I’m not sure. Four of Jesus’ disciples were fishermen and will remember Jesus calling them to fishers of people. They will have understood that when fishing with dragnet you cannot expect to select your fish. Apparently, there were 24 different kinds of fish in Lake Galilee, and not all were kosher. The word for every kind, genos, also means class, kind, race or kin. It is also a call, when fishing for people, to cast the net widely and reminds us of the parable of the great banquet: When those who were invited, do not come, the king sends his servants out into the streets where they “gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.” (Matthew 22:10) Dodd writes: “The mission of Jesus and His disciples involves an undiscriminating appeal to men of every class and type.” (Dodd’s ideas are not dated, but his language is!).

There is no premature separation. Often – as Jesus’ followers experienced – the process of selection happened during Jesus’ ministry, when some turned away because the demands were too strong. And we can leave the final judgment to the judge.

The final parable is about those who document and interpret parables, and other scripture! The scribe – the scholar - trained for the kingdom of heaven brings out of their treasure – their knowledge, their witness, their records – both old and new. Jesus was probably referring to his own teaching, which combined the old: Hebrew scripture and Jewish tradition, with the new: His vision of the kingdom, his idea of a life in relationship with God and one another.

For us that also means combining the old: Scripture, now including Jesus’ teaching and other traditional interpretations, with the new: new understanding and new contexts. We might even need new parables – although most of the modern ones I looked at online were pretty awful. Jesus had a unique talent!  

Just this last week I came across an article about the Taizé community appointing a new prior, Brother Matthew an Anglican from Yorkshire. He will only be the third prior since Taizé was founded by brother Roger, a Swiss Protestant, and then lead by Brother Alois, a German Roman Catholic. In his statement, Brother Alois said that he had “complete confidence” that the new prior would ensure Taizé remained “a little parable of communion” according to “the intuition of its founder.” 

Not only stories, but real communities and lives can be parables! What is the kingdom of heaven like? It is like the church that opens its doors in welcome and offers shelter and protection to the needy, to the outcast, to the refugee. It is like the people who give generously out of their own abundance. It is like the congregation, so filled with the Spirit that their own joy and wonder about God and God’s Son is contagious. The kingdom of heaven is extravagant, unexpected, contagious, uncomfortable, surprising, joyful, inclusive, innovative …. Can we be like the kingdom, so that others see the kingdom in us?

Amen

 

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[1] The Parables, Paula Gooder, Canterbury Press 2020

Sowing and Growing

A Sermon preached on 16 July 2023 (Pentecost VII) at St. Augustine’s, WI and St. Christoph, MZ

Genesis 25:19-34, Romans 8:1-11, Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Over the next few weeks, we will hear a whole series of parables in our Gospel readings from Matthew. Jesus is in Capernaum, on the shore of lake Galilee, where Peter came from. The house Jesus leaves to go down to the beach to teach might even have been Peter’s. The first parable is most often called the Parable of the Sower, that’s what Jesus calls it in his explanation. It could also be called the Parable of the Seed or the Soil. We will have a look at all three perspectives! 

The parable occurs in all three synoptic gospels. Matthew uses it to begin his set of parables about the kingdom. In Mark (chapter 4) it is followed by more parables with a focus on growth, and in Luke (chapter 8) it is embedded in a section in which the disciples have been sent out to proclaim the kingdom. So, it seems to serve to help them overcome any disappointment that their message sometimes falls on deaf ears! This is of course not the only use of the seed image in Scripture. Later in this chapter (Matthew 13:31-32) Jesus will compare the kingdom to a mustard seed, and in John’s Gospel (12:24) Jesus uses the image of a seed or grain of wheat – as a symbol of resurrection: “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

In 2 Esdras (one of the books of the Apocrypha), the author declares that just as not all the seeds a farmer sows survive or put down roots, so not all people will persevere to eternal life, (2 Esdras 8:41) a comparison that itself bears a strong resemblance to Jesus’ parable, but without the generous sowing and scattering!

You would be amazed at the things theologians and Biblical scholars argue about! There is a great debate about whether in the ancient world ploughing preceded sowing (which is the modern practice) or followed it (which seems to be what is happening here, if the farmer ploughed at all), or even if ploughing both preceded and followed the sowing! While we are at it, let’s also discuss how many angels fit on a pinhead! The point of the parable is that the seed fell in different places – and the parable would lose its point if those different places were all later ploughed, because then they would become the same. What we do know about agricultural practice in those days, and what makes sense, is that the seed was thrown and therefore would land both in expected and in unexpected places.

Is the parable about the sower, or about seed or the soil? All three perspectives have something to offer and can teach us something.

Who would the sower be? God, Jesus, or those Jesus sent out to preach, teach, and heal in His name? Jesus could certainly be talking about himself, and he will certainly experience the sort of reactions to the word of the kingdom that he describes. More about that in a moment. But it seems more likely to stand for anyone sent to share the word of God, to spread the Good News. The sower’s motivation is to have a good harvest and to trust in the power of the seed to grow, and so it is scattered generously: the seed falls where it falls. For a sower of the word that means not pre-judging who might be more receptive (or more worthy) and therefore not restricting our mission to a particular group, nationality, ethnicity, gender, or orientation! And just as the sower does not only sow within the boundaries of his field, so we cannot only proclaim the Good News within these walls. As St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians (9:6): “The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”

Another thing to note is that the focus is not on the one who sows / proclaims, but on the one who receives. If we focus on the sower, then this becomes a call both to trust in the power of God’s word as well as a call to humility, not to make ourselves too important! To quote Paul again, this time from 1 Corinthians (3:6) “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”

If we look at the parable from the point of view of the seed, we note that fruit from the good soil more than makes up for any seed that might be considered to have been wasted. The yield – 30-, 60- or even hundredfold – is fantastic. Usually it would be 5-fold, at best 15-fold if all the conditions – soil and weather - were optimal. It is also always the same seed that is being scattered, any difference in yield is due to the soil. And so, if the word of the kingdom is not accepted, that does not mean that the message needs changing, that it needs to be made more comfortable. We don’t need a “prosperity gospel” replacing a call to serve, share and sacrifice, and we do not need an “exclusionary gospel” replacing a call to seek and serve Christ in all persons. We just need to carry on, patiently and faithfully, and visibly preaching transformation.

And finally, to the soil, to those who receive the word. The seed that is God’s word takes root and bears fruit only when it has an impact on the lives of those who hear it. To hear and understand the word is to want to live a life of discipleship. Not everyone who hears the word can and does, at least not at once.

We find examples for each of the groups that Jesus’ identifies in his interpretation of the parable within Scripture. In John’s Gospel we meet those who hear and do not understand in those disciples who said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” and who “turned back and no longer went about with him.” (John 6:60, 66) Judas would also be a classic example for “the evil one having come and snatched away what is sown in the heart.” (Matthew 13:19) When I hear rocky ground I think of Peter – Petrus, the rock, who did fall away and denied Jesus three times “when trouble or persecution arises.” (13:21) Judas would also be a good example for someone “distracted by the cares of the world or lured by wealth” (13:22) as would the rich young man who wanted to follow Jesus, but: “When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.” (Matthew 19:22)

These reasons are also all relevant today, perhaps even more so. Where there is no idea of the divine and no spiritual awareness, there is no soil to take root in. Where there is no depth, just superficial and brief enjoyment, there is no time for the roots to grow. With so many things to worry about, and so many more desires than life in Jesus’ day offered, it is much easier to be overwhelmed.

The Good News is that everyone gets a second chance, actually we get as many as we need and want. The sower does not sow only once, the sower goes out to sow every season. That’s another reason why we should not give up proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Circumstances can change, and we can change them. The seed might not have taken root or lasted long the first time, but we might still have made that person more receptive for the next time they hear the gospel – or see it lived out. Peter repented and was forgiven. Paul changed from being a persecutor of Christians to an apostle for Christ.

The image we get from this parable is that the kingdom of God is a place of overwhelming and constant generosity and abundance, and that generosity does not just apply to the yield or growth, but also to the sowing, which is as extensive, and plentiful, and as frequent as is necessary. God gives the growth! Amen.