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Today, Jesus is teaching again. Speaking of the kingdom of God, teaching in “parables.” In fact
we are told by Mark that in public, at least at this point in his ministry, Jesus actually did not
speak except in parables.
It is therefore important that we have some sort of understanding of what a “parable” is. I
suppose most of us know at least that a parable is a story, but beyond that what can we say?
You all of course will remember that last summer as we were wandering through the parables of
the kingdom as told by Luke I gave you a definition of parable, not once but twice.
So if you would kindly pull out a piece of paper and a pen—use the pencil in the pews if you need
to—we can have a little quiz on the definition of parable.
If you pass you will of course get into this kingdom of heaven of which Jesus speaks in parables,
but if you fail—like I did this morning when I realized I needed to look that the definition up,
again, for the umpteenth time—if you fail like I did, then take heart, for what Jesus seems to be
saying this morning is that you and I may also get into the kingdom of God, not by what we know
or can explain but by God’s will, God’s word, which as Isaiah prophesied goes forth from God’s
mouth to return not empty but accomplish that which God purposes, to succeed in the thing for
which God sends it (55.11).
How do you feel about that?
How do you feel about that?
The fact that the kingdom of God may not be dependent upon us, at least not in any essential way,
God’s kingdom not held hostage either to our strength or to our weakness.
God’s kingdom, contra Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live, is not reliant on our daily
affirmations: “I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And doggone it, people like me.”
Whether we be good enough or not, smart enough or not, popular enough or not, Jesus teaches we
don’t actually make or control the kingdom, but of its own accord it sprouts and grows like seed,
and even the master gardener “knows not how,” let alone a brown thumb like me!
The kingdom of God is much more akin to Kudzu, which spreads out, slowly but surely,
overtaking everything in its path.
So what then is a “parable”?
C.H. Dodd gives us this definition of parable:
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“At its simplest, the 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, Rev. ed (London: James Nisbet & Co.,
1961).
I’m not sure we could have a better example that the two stories Jesus tells this morning to teach
about the kingdom of God.
A metaphor or simile:
The kingdom of God is as if. . . . The kingdom of God is like. . . .
Bing! Two comparisons, both similes, one using “like,” the other “as.”
Drawn from nature or common life:
Seed scattered on the ground which sprouts and grows.
The mustard seed, the smallest of seeds growing to become the greatest of shrubs,
a hyperbolic and not literally true statement.
But bing! Seed, “drawn from nature.”
Arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness.
The farmer going about his business but having no real clue how the seed
becomes what it becomes and yet able to reap the harvest.
A noxious and invasive weed counter-intuitively become a haven.
Bing! Vivid, but strange.
Leaving the mind in sufficient doubt as to precise application to tease it into active
thought.
Seed not carefully planted but recklessly scattered, growing not because of the
farmer’s care, but even in spite of his ignorance, yet nonetheless becoming what it
is intended to become and yielding benefit.
Pesky weeds with redemptive purpose.
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Bing! What does that mean today? And how do we apply it tomorrow, that what
we hear with our ears and profess with our lips, we may show forth in our lives . . .
as a “new creation” by God’s will, by God’s word?
“At its simplest, the 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.”
Yep, it’s all there, isn’t it? The two parables about the kingdom of God that Jesus tells this
morning are drawn from nature, capture attention, teases our mind into thought, and leave us with
no exhaustive definition as to their meaning, for like the farmer “we know not how”!
But you may be thinking, “That sounds awfully nice and all, but I don’t feel particularly jubilant,
ebullient, exultant this morning. My joints creak. My heart aches. My soul sorrows. I may feel
broken and tired, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Angst is palpable enough to feel God’s
absence more than God’s presence, if there be a God at all.”
Hmmm. Hmmm.
As C.H. Dodd rightly understood “parable,” we don’t have a definitive explanation for “it” to
work! For God is doing the work, not we ourselves.
So while I don’t have an explanation, what I do have is an invitation, an invitation consonant with
each of our scripture lessons this morning.
Not an explanation but an invitation to realize that we are actually not in charge and God doesn’t
need us to pretend like we are in charge of God’s kingdom, for God and God alone ultimately
“will accomplish it.”
An invitation to accept our own impotence and even our spiritual clumsiness. An invitation to
“walk by faith, not by sight.”
An invitation to relax just a bit, like the ultimately ignorant farmer even to sleep, knowing that it
doesn’t all depend upon us, but the one who designed us like seed, that be there storm or drought,
has limitless potential to be brought to the fullness of all that God wants for us, wills for us,
purposes for us.
The good news is that we don’t have to understand it, we don’t have to make it happen.
Maybe we only need to we want it, this kingdom, this kingdom of God, in order to receive it even
now, so may God give us the ears to hear, the eyes to see, the hearts to desire, and the lives to
receive all that God is doing that we might be more and more a part of the kingdom of God, this
day and every day.