continue to "tease our minds into active thought,"
as the renowned 20th century parable scholar C.H. Dodd has taught us.
Oftentimes these stories of Jesus draw us into thinking about the contrasts (and connections) between the miniscule and the magnificent in our lives.
For instance, Dr. F. Scott Spencer, former professor of New Testatment and Biblical Interpretation at Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, proposes that "the parables of the Mustard Seed (Matthew 13:31-32) and The Yeast (Matthew 13:33) convey elements of mystery and hospitality integral to God's economy. The mystery angle relates to the amazing growth of God's kingdom (or kin-dom) from seemingly trivial beginnings. The mustard seed, proverbially known as "the smallest of all seeds," sprouts first into a "shrub" (NRSV) or "garden plant" (NIV) and then "becomes a tree": a remarkable product from and inauspicious source."
This coming Sunday's lectionary gospel text includes no fewer than SIX (6!) parables!
Treasuring the distinctive possibilities of each parable to "tease our minds into active thought" (Professor Dodd), I have often created a summertime sermon series rooted in parables, seeking to hear God speaking to us afresh in each one, no matter how short or seemingly insignificant.
With this in mind and heart, our reflections this week will appear as a series, from today through Saturday, exploring these shorter parables and their various themes, including in relation to our human context, such as the challenges we face to our faithfulness when we are under siege from autocratic threats, deceptions, divisions, and violence.
We'll look at how, in the time of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he saw the calling of teachers and preachers as, mysteriously, "to be made small and insignificant in order to be a faithful witness to God's Word," and he understood that "the Word suffers to be despised and rejected by people" since "for the Word, there are such things as hardened hearts and locked doors. The Word accepts the resistance it encounters and bears it."
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer, quoted in Connections: A Lectionary Commentary, Year A, Volume 3, page 190, in a reflection by Michael Pasquarello III, Beesom Professor of Methodist Divinity at Beesom Divinity School, Samford University at Birmingham, Alabama.)
More tomorrow!!