AfterWords: Parables of Jesus – All In

 

Matthew 13:44-46

As we come to the end of our series on Parables, Jesus gives us a doublet—two parables that are related…yet oh so different! We recall that Jesus takes something common and ordinary in a parable and infuses new meaning and a deeper understanding.

Both of these parables are about the “kingdom of heaven.” Matthew uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” because he writes primarily to or for Jewish Christians…something he reveals by his many quotations from the Jewish Scriptures/Old Testament. Because this is his audience, he is by tradition reluctant to even write the word “God” because God is so respected, so he uses a common literary device—the metonym. Just as we might say, “Washington is certainly keeping life interesting these days” in reference to our federal government, so Matthew uses “kingdom of heaven” in place of “kingdom of God.” Now, on to the parables!

The first parable opens with “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure….” Someone stumbles upon the treasure…realizes they want this in their life, they have to have it…and they sell out everything to have this treasure. The treasure is the kingdom of heaven or the reign of God in their lives. The treasure includes the peace, wisdom, grace, and love of God. Determined to have this, the person who makes the discovery sells out and goes “all in.”

Going “all in” looks different in different people’s lives. “All in” is not about t-shirts, bumper stickers, hairstyles, or affected speech. When we look in the Gospels, being “all in” for some means leaving their nets and family, for some it means selling everything they have and giving their wealth to the poor, and for some it means walking away from being with Jesus to go home and tell their community about the goodness of God. While there are no hard and fast rules for what “all in” looks like on the outside, we do know that Jesus makes it clear to us what going “all in” is about: Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” We let go of our self-centeredness, recognize that we have to live today, and learn from Jesus. That is how we go “all in.”

The second parable is a bit trickier. In fact, most people miss it. They’ll say, “Yeah, the kingdom of heaven is like a pearl.” But, that’s not what Jesus says. He says, “…the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant….” And that changes everything. Four other times in “kingdom of heaven” parables, Jesus compares the kingdom to a person—to a man, a landowner, a king, a farmer. Every time he does this, that person represents God. Every time. So, why would we presume Jesus is doing something different here? The merchant is God. And God goes looking for the pearl of great value. In the Old Testament (Malachi and Zachariah), the people of God, the “saints of God,” are compared to jewels, so does it not make sense that the pearl stands for us? God finds us—and God lets go of everything. God leaves heaven, lets go of omniscience and omnipotence, and allows himself to be born as a frail human in a dingy manger—God goes “all in” for us.

In effect, these parables are mirror images of each other. In one, we are moving towards God…even stumble upon God. In the other, God is moving towards us. In fact, while we’re stumbling around looking for life and purpose and meaning, God has already gone “all in” for us…determined to have us.

What a beautiful way to come to a close for this sermon series as we move towards Advent. Even in the parables, we are reminded of the best news of all: God’s love for us and God’s action on our behalf. May we go “all in” for the God who has gone “all in” for us. Amen.

Sunday, November 23, 2025
“Parables: ‘All In”
Watch/Listen: HERE

AfterWords: Parables of Jesus – Faithful & Wise

 

Matthew 24:32-25

Today’s parable comes about in a different way in that it is part of a larger discourse—the “Olivet Discourse” that we find fills chaps. 24 & 25 of Matthew. His disciples have heard about the end of the Temple, and they ask Jesus to tell them more about the “end of the age.”

Jesus begins with descriptions rivaling the Old Testament prophets or John’s visions from the Revelation—famines, earthquakes, persecution, “the abomination that causes desolation,” false prophets, and more. Then Jesus tells the parable (“lesson”) of the fig tree. Jesus uses the fig tree—one of the last trees to get its sap up after the cold of winter. Just as the fig tree is late in budding, so the coming of the “end of the age” will be late in coming. But, Jesus indicates we’re to keep our eyes open for that time.

Jesus then tells three parables in a row to drive his own point home. He tells the parable of the ten virgins (or bridesmaids), the parable of the talents, and the parable of the sheep and goats. The first focuses on the five wise and five foolish virgins. The second considers three servants who have the opportunity of make the most of their time…and one is fearful, unimaginative, and overly careful—and suffers for this behavior. Finally, the sheep and the goats actually relates to the “end times,” to a time of judgement. Those who do the good work of feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, caring for the sick, visiting the imprisoned are received into the Kingdom…and those who do not are “cursed,” expelled from Kingdom.

Interestingly, in Jesus’ response to his disciples’ questions about the “end of the age,” Jesus talks very much about the here-and-now. This long discourse shows us that we find our place at the end of time through how we live today. While some in modern Christian culture have thought of “professing their faith” as assuring their place in the future reign of God, as a sort of ‘fire insurance,’ Jesus teaches us that our place in the future is assured by how we live today. Living faithfully and wisely now means we don’t have to worry about our place with God in the future. Or, in other words, a profession of faith without a life that reflects that faith is useless.

Today, Jesus does assure us once again that this life and this world is not the end. Something more awaits us…a world set right, a world of justice and goodness and God. But, we do not need to sit around thinking about that. Rather, Jesus tells us to live today…to live faithful and wise lives. That “eternal life” of the Gospels, that “life to the full” Jesus talks about—these are not some far-off, future realities. They are the realities we begin living now…today.

Sunday, November 16, 2025
“Parables: Faithful and Wise”
Watch/Listen: HERE

 

AfterWords: Parables of Jesus—A Godly Invasion

 

Mark 4:30-32

When Jesus talks about “mustard,” he and his culture have nothing around that compares to what we find in our French’s bottles or Grey Poupon jars. For them, the seed is used for cooking…as are the leaves of the plant. These things (seeds and leaves), the people know all about. And, as Jesus does in his parables, he takes something common, everyday and infuses new meaning.

At the beginning of this parable, Jesus makes very clear what he’s talking about:  “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?” (v.30). This is about the kingdom of God, not about mustard at all. In the Greek of Mark’s Gospel, the phrase is “basileian tou theou” – a phrase that can be translated “Kingdom of God,” “Reign of God,” or “Rule of God.” While we have traditionally translated the phrase with “kingdom,” “rule” might be a better, more helpful way to understand God’s activity on earth. After all, God has not established a kingdom as we often think of kingdoms—walled cities or geographically defined areas (ex. United Kingdom). Rather, God’s reign is beautifully fluid, undefined, able to go anywhere and everywhere. The reign of God flows through hospitals and prisons, through our lives, and through our communities—regardless of language, culture, or location.

Jesus says that reign of God is like a mustard seed…a seed that falls into the soil, puts down roots, and bursts through the soil surface to become “…the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade” (v.32).

In our own lives, when we allow God to enter—just a small seed planted in the soil of our lives, the reign of God begins to grow in us. Jesus’ teachings take root in our lives, and soon the rule of God in us bursts through in the forms of good works and good words.

The mustard plant (brassica nigra) is an invasive plant…a plant that soon pushes other plants aside and begins the fill the space. The reign of God is just as invasive—it soon begins to push aside the anger, anxiety, fears, and discontent of our lives. As the reign of God grows in us, loving kindness, joy, and peace begin to take over the garden of our lives.

We nurture and water this new growth in our lives—the reign of God—by taking time to be with God and with God’s people. When we make time for prayer, or Bible study, or inspiring music, or worship time with others—when we do this, the reign of God is able to grow and flourish within us.

May we nurture God’s reign and rule and kingdom within us. When we do, our lives become a place of shade…or rest and renewal for others.

Sunday, November 2, 2025
“Parables: Preparing the Soil”
Watch/Listen: HERE

AfterWords: Parables - Shine!

 

Mark 4:21-23

Light. We crave light in our lives most of the time. And, we have a lot of light around us in 21^st Century North America. Our houses are lit, our offices are lit, our stores are lit. Our cars have lights, our streets have lights, and our sports fields have lights. In fact, we have so much light that many people have to install “blackout” curtains so they can sleep. Yeah, light is not something we’re running short on.

But in the 1^st Century AD, as Jesus walked the roads of Judea and talked with his disciples, the world was a very dark place. As soon as the sun went down, the world was dark. Yes, they had oil lamps, and they could build a fire outside, but that was nothing like the light we know today. When Jesus told this parable about lamps, his disciples knew immediately the foolishness of putting a lamp under a basket. The world was already dark enough, so why would anyone put a lamp under a basket?

So, let’s just think through all of this, shall we? First, if it’s dark out, and we put our lamp under a basket, the lamp is not doing what it needs to do, what it’s made to do: Give light to the room or the house (houses were much smaller back then). Then, if we light a lamp in the middle of the day—in daylight—it makes no difference...it’s kind of useless. But, if we are in darkness and light the lamp (and don’t cover it!), the lamp does what it’s supposed to do. I know—this is sort of common sense…but we have to remember that Jesus is not talking about just any lamp or just any light.

When we come to Jesus, when we say “yes!” to God, when we are baptized into the Church, God gives us his Spirit—effectively, God places his Light within us. We become lamps—the Flame of God burns within us. Yet, we tend to do just what Jesus talks about in his parable today—we hide our light, we put ourselves either under a basket…and we just hang out with other lamps.

When I taught at the John Wesley Methodist Seminary in Monterrey, Mexico, I asked my ministerial students about their non-Christian, pagan friends. They assured me they did not hang out with non-Christians. So, I asked them, “How do you share the faith if everyone you know is a Christian?” How do we shine any light if all we do is hang out with other lamps? Didn’t Jesus, the light of the world (John 1), spend his time in the darkness—with drunks, prostitutes, tax-collectors, and sinners?

Jesus calls us to be lamps in the darkness…so we better find our way into the darkness around us—into the lives of those who are wandering without purpose, those who are desperately looking for something solid and constant to hold on to, those who are feeling so alone. Let us look for ways we can step into the darkness of others lives…and there let us allow our light to shine…rather, let us allow God’s Light to shine through us. Shine!

Sunday, October 26, 2025
“Parables: Preparing the Soil”
Watch/Listen: HERE

AfterWords: Parables - Preparing the Soil

 

Matthew 13:1-9

Jesus tells a parable in today’s reading that focuses on two things: 1) the seed—the message of the Kingdom, the Good News of the Kingdom of God…that message of God’s love and grace and 2) the soils of our lives. How is our the soil of our lives? Is it hard-packed soil of the path, the shallow rocky soil, the weedy and thorn-choked soil…or the good soil? From what little I know of farming and gardening, I do know that having the soil prepared is important. Whether it’s the soil of our gardens or the soil of our lives, we need to prepare the soil for whatever seeds may come—whether tomato seeds or the seeds of the Kingdom.

Sometimes our life soil becomes hard-packed…like a path. And, like a path, our lives become hard from people walking all over us, from people hurting us. We protect ourselves by becoming hard. Like the old Simon and Garfunkel song, we become “a rock, and island” to avoid the pain of life. We sacrifice something important when we become hard—we give up compassion, empathy, care and concern. Jesus says we can’t be hard-packed soil and have the Kingdom seeds grow within us. Like farmers and gardeners who use tools to break up the soil, we need God’s Spirit in us to help break up the soil of our lives.

Sometimes our life soil is thin and rocky. We have no depth and Kingdom seeds cannot grow in us. We put on a show for a Sunday morning…and forget God the rest of the week. When we’re challenged, when our faith is put to the test, we fold and fall away. Some of the rocks in our lives have been there since childhood…and we didn’t know they were there—family hatreds, family secrets, family disfunction. As we find the rocks in our life soil, we ask God’s Spirit to help us remove them.

Sometimes our life soil is choked by weeds and thorns of worry or a false confidence in wealth. If we worry, we are not trusting God, God’s goodness, God’s power, God’s Word. When worry hits us—and it will—we must stop and ask God’s Spirit to help us weed out the worry and to trust. At other times, we think that if we have enough money (or power) everything in life will be fine. Yet, we cannot trust in money or wealth. We trust God, and allow God’s Kingdom to be rooted in our lives. Again, we ask God’s Spirit to help us trust in God rather than riches.

The “good soil” receives the Kingdom seed and God’s love and grace grows well there. Thankfully, God is a sower of seed who comes often and sows liberally, throwing seed all over the place. We have time to prepare the soil of our lives. We have the Spirit of God to help us prepare the soil. We will be ready next time the seeds of the Kingdom fall into our lives. The seeds will fall in good soil, sink in deeply, germinate, send roots down, and sprout and grow within us. And the Kingdom of God will spill out of our lives through words and actions of grace and hope and peace and loving-kindness. Let’s tend to our soil and be ready for the Kingdom seeds.

Sunday, October 19, 2025
“Parables: Preparing the Soil”
Watch/Listen: HERE

AfterWords: Parables--Patches & Wineskins

 

Luke 5:36-39

As we begin this series looking at parables of Jesus, we do well to remember that parables tend to leave “the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.” That’s what C.H. Dodd says about parables, and we do come to Jesus’ parables first with an “Oh, yeah…” and then quite quickly with a “Wait…what?”

As with most parables, today’s comes as a response to a question or challenge. In this case, the Pharisees are getting on to Jesus for not being “rabbi-y” enough and the disciples not being “disciple-y” enough. Jesus and his band are breaking all the rules. And the Pharisees are calling Jesus on this. So, Jesus tells them a parable.

This parable about “patches & wineskins” is about old and new, and we find that the Pharisees are not real big on embracing “new.” In fact, most of us kind of wince at the idea of change—good or bad change. We—like the Pharisees—become very comfortable in how we do things, in what we have. But, Jesus is bringing about something new, something fresh.

The Pharisees should not be surprised. Some 600 years before this time, Jeremiah the Prophet had already tipped God’s hand—God was going to do something new. These Pharisees should have been on the lookout for it: “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah” (Jer. 31:31). A new covenant, a new promise, a new deal was coming…and it comes through Jesus. Most of us are reminded of this each time we take Communion, when we hear those words of Jesus: “…after the supper [Jesus] took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you’” (Luke 22:20). “New covenant…”

With all of this talk of new and change, we do need to remember that the Good News of God in Christ Jesus is unchanging, the call of Jesus’ to love God and neighbor is unchanging. The truth does not change, but how we share, express, live out the truth does change. One of the most amazing and most beautiful aspects of the Christian faith is its ability to adapt to any culture, any language, any people, any time, any “style” and not lose the message of God’s love for us or Jesus’ call to us be a people of faith, hope, and agape love.

So, the parable of “patches & wineskins” is really the parable of “new garments & new wine.” Jesus doesn’t want to be a patch on a small, ripped piece of our lives; Jesus wants us to put on a whole new garment—Jesus himself. Jesus doesn’t want to try to pour his way of thinking and doing into a dried out, rigid old wineskin; Jesus wants to pour his new wine—his way of thinking and doing—into our renewed, flexible lives. Jesus knows we’re comfortable with the old; Jesus wants us to try out and embrace the new. Jesus offers to bring newness to our lives…renewal, refreshing. This is good news for us!

Sunday, October 12, 2025
“Parables: Patches & Wineskins”
Watch/Listen: HERE

AfterWords: Stories that Shape Our Lives—God Provides

 

Exodus 16:1-5,13-18

We come back to these stories of the ancient Israelites again and again because these stories serve as a mirror—we find ourselves in these stories.

Today’s reading has the Israelites “starving to death.” Not really, but they think they are, and they’ve already managed to forget everything God has done for them. They have forgotten the miraculous plagues that led to their freedom (frogs, flies, locusts, and more), they have forgotten that they were able to simply walk out of Egypt to begin their journey to the Promised Land, and they have forgotten that God has just recently saved them from the Egyptian army as they walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. Do they really think that the God who brought through all of that would let them die now?

This spiritual amnesia is rather common among God’s people. We today forget about God’s provision and care just as our spiritual ancestors over 3000 years ago did. Even the people who walked with Jesus lost sight of God’s provision and care. Jesus sat them down and taught them again:

“…I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? … So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ … But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. (Matthew 6:25-34)

Jesus’ message for them and for us is simple: 1) Get your eyes off of yourself; look to God and look to others as you strive to live the Kingdom life. And, 2) Trust God—trust the God who made this world, who made and cares for the birds and the flowers; trust that the One who created you will sustain you. Trust is the opposite of worry. So, when we feel ‘worry’ creeping up on us, we need to stop, take a breath, and determine to trust God—in everything! After all, when has worry ever helped us effectively deal with any issue of our lives?

Let us set our sights on God and God’s Kingdom…and let us trust the One who made us to sustain us. Yes, that’s a better way of living.

Sunday, October 5, 2025
“God Provides”
Watch/Listen: HERE