Sermon - June 13, 2021

<p>I do not know the origin of this phrase, but it has been said that “<em>Jesus told so many parables he became one.”</em> Jesus truly embodied everything he taught.  And, those parables, the stories he told, are continually breaking open our understanding of the reign of God.  In his use of parables, Jesus seeks a shift in our imaginations, a shift in the way we see ourselves, see God, and see others. I think far too often we misunderstand what Jesus’ parables are meant to do because we are people who like to solve problems. And, as we look at the parables of Jesus, we often find <strong>interpretations</strong> of these stories presented as problems to be solved – problems that once solved can offer us “instructions for living.”  However, as Pastor Nadia Bolz Weber suggests, “Parables are not neat little moralisms dressed in narrative. They are meant to be swallowed whole. Parables are <strong>living things</strong> meant to <strong>mess with our assumptions and subvert things we never even thought to question</strong>.”  And, as I have mentioned to you before, theologian, Eugene Peterson says, “Jesus’ parables are like explosive, <strong>narrative time bombs</strong>.”  We hear Jesus’ stories, and they are <strong>designed</strong> to tick away in our minds as we <strong>wonder</strong> about their meaning.  We may <strong>think</strong> we finally understand it, yet it stubbornly continues to tick away and make us ask more questions.  We walk away, but over the course of the next day or so it just continues to tick, tick, tick away.  And then, suddenly, the truth Jesus meant to convey strikes home and kaboom, it explodes in our mind!   The parable explodes, opening new pathways of understanding as we are surprised and almost overwhelmed with its implications.</p> <p>Well, in today’s gospel reading Jesus is again teaching, using the storytelling device of parable.  Jesus is describing the reality of the kingdom of God, the reign of God, God’s dream for this world, that is unexpectedly breaking into our lives