Parables

by Pastor Debra Bronkema | June 12, 2024 | connect.faith, Everyday Spirituality: The Blog

Mark 4:33 With many such parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.

Parable is not really a word we hear in our typical day-to-day life. According to the dictionary a parable is a story that teaches us a moral or spiritual lesson. We usually hear them coming from Jesus in the Bible. What I notice about parables is that they point out a truth that we might miss if we are not paying attention.

A very long time ago now, one of my nephews was visiting and came to the front of the church to listen to me do a children’s sermon on planting seeds. I asked if any of the kids had a garden, and he raised his hand to let me know that he didn’t have a garden, but he did have a plant inside his house, and he wondered if it would be okay to think of the plant when he listened to whatever I was about to tell them. And then he proceeded to translate sun into light, and rain into a watering can. He was four, and he was engaging in the kind of work that most of us don’t do often enough when we hear parables. Instead of letting them shed light on our life, we give them a title, like “The Good Samaritan,” and let them stay on the page. We might know the story, but do we hear it with ears that tell us what it has to say to us today?

Jesus taught in parables as an invitation to go deeper, to really ponder the lessons he was teaching, to see the truths that are right there for us when we make the time to pay attention. They can be a gift that give us the perspective we might have been missing.

Prayer: Dear God, Help me to learn the lessons you want to teach me today. In Jesus Name, Amen

Reflection Questions:

1) Jesus often looked around him and told stories based on what was illustrated right in front of him. What lessons do you notice when you look around you, about how God’s love works in the world?

2) The parables about seeds tend to be about how what is planted in us might look small, but can bear lots of fruit. Can you look at your life and think about what has been planted in you? What fruit do you see coming from that planting?

3) Can you think of any parables? Try looking at your Bible, or Google, and finding one to read to see if there might be something for you to learn from it today.