Stories Jesus Still Tells
by Jack Cabaness
Many of the sermons in September and October will be based on Jesus' parables in the Gospel of Luke
The late New Testament scholar C. H. Dodd once offered this definition of a parable. :"At its simplest, a parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting 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, The Parables of the Kingdom, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961, p.5)
I've always loved that definition. On the one hand, parables are simple stories which seem to present familiar situations. But on the other hand, a parable leaves us thinking, "Wait a minute! That's not what farmers usually do! No father would act that way! That's not how plants really grow in nature!" Or as C. H. Dodd put it, our minds are left in "sufficient doubt" so as to be teased into "active thought."
I once heard someone say that preaching the parables was a "young preacher's dream and an experienced preacher's nightmare."
It is true that early in my ministry I relished any opportunity to preach one of the parables. I would seek out multiple commentaries looking for fresh, innovative interpretations which I hoped that no one in the congregation would have heard before. I would work hard to try to make the sermon as surprising and suspenseful as Jesus' parables, themselves. I was obsessed with teasing minds into active thought I had fun at the time, but now AI wonder whether such preaching was more clever than helpful.
Now, that I have more experience in ordained ministry, I can begin to understand why seasoned preachers would counsel that preaching the parables is an experience preacher's nightmare. The parables are challenging enough without having to seek out innovative or creative interpretations. I can relate to the elder in a Sunday School discussion who said, "Jesus' teachings are not hard to understand. They are hard to do!"
Jesus' teachings about forgiveness and how to handle possessions (and many other topics) are indeed challenging enough on their own. But these challenging parables are also full of grace. Somewhere in our lives there is a loving, surprising, and extravagant God who is beckoning us to join the party and begin again. (See Luke 15).
See you in worship on Sunday,
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Jack
Taken from the September, 2010 issue of the Broadcaster.