I’m on vacation from work, reading, and this website. See you after Labor Day.

According to the parables of Jesus, is everybody included except those who exclude themselves with unbelief? Or is everyone excluded until they are included on the basis of belief (faith)?

I’m back from a time of study and reflection at a nearby lakeside cabin owned by some folks from my church. I try to go and do this kind of thing every 3 or 4 months. I usually go just before I begin a new series to map out the number of messages I’ll be doing in the series and get the scholarly lay of the land by reading through a couple of commentaries on what I’m studying.

This week I spent some time reading Blomberg’s Interpreting the Parables, Bailey’s Poet and Peasant, Longenecker’s The Challenge of the Jesus’ Parables, and Capon’s Kingdom, Grace, and Judgement.

By far the most entertaining read was Capon’s. It was full of lively prose, off the wall humor, and interpretations of the parables I most likely won’t be relying on very much as I prepare my messages. If you have never read one of Capon’s books, you should, but don’t tell anyone it was me who turned you on to him.

Bailey and Blomberg were extremely helpful. I plan on getting David Wenham’s book on the parables soon.

Time and time again I was reminded this week that Jesus’ parables were shocking and troublesome to his original hearers. The Kingdom he came proclaiming was not what they were expecting and everytime they thought they had him and it figured out he slapped them in the face with another parable.

Sometime yesterday, as I watched some fat guy get tossed off of the innertube he was riding behind a boat, I realized that being faithful to the message of the parables in my preaching is probably going to get me into some trouble.

I’m preaching the parables, not teaching them. If I were teaching them, I would explain to my class why Jesus’ original audience was scandalized by what he said. Since I’m preaching them, I feel compelled to try to recreate the scandal of the parables for my congregation. I’m quite sure we’ve misconstrued the Kingdom of God in some fundamental ways and we need our postmodern world rocked by some good old fashioned parabolic preaching.

How am I supposed to do this? Is there a way to recontextualize the parables of Jesus so that we not only understand why they crucified him then, but also why we would crucify him now if he pulled on us what he pulled on them?

Does the parable of the Good Samaritan become the parable of the Good Muslim? Instead of the Pharisee and the Tax-Collector going to pray, should it be the preacher and the homosexual?

How am I supposed to say anything about the parable of the unjust steward when some folks don’t believe I should use video clips in my sermons because I’m glorifying Hollywood?

This is going to be a fun series.

After reading what I just wrote, I’ve decided I’m never posting this late at night again, and I’m never again going to read Robert Farrar Capon on an empty stomach.

I’ll be away from the computer for the next few days as I immerse myself in the parables.

“Christ has no body but yours,
no hands but yours,
not feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which
Christ’s compassion must look out on the world.
Yours are the feet with which
He is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which
He is to bless us now.”

St. Teresa of Avila