Parables

I have preached the last two weeks and led Bible studies on the parables of Jesus.  Today Audrey is preaching on 4 of them.  Parables are stories that we struggle with - not allegories - but stories that we turn around in our minds and allow to surprise us as we relate them to our lives. 

Audrey sent me her sermon yesterday and includes a parable that she wrote.  It goes like this:

The kingdom of heaven is like a novel corona virus in the world.  It starts out with a cough and is spread from person to person.  As it spreads across the world, the world must re order itself and focus primarily on the weak and the vulnerable.

And I realize that this Pandemic has really been about re-ordering our lives.  Figuring out what is safe and what is not, what is worth the risk and what is not?  It is living with the specter (like a ghost) of the unseen illness that may be present and we do not see it.  And it can have serious consequences.  I read today about an older clergy colleague who is now in hospice after having the virus twice.  That certainly gives me pause.

The parables are also bout the hidden and unseen quality of the kingdom of God.  Comparing to an insignificant mustard seed or the leaven in the bread.  There is this miracle of growth that defies an easy explanation.  So I walk around with two images of what I can't see:  the unseen growth of God's love and spirit and unseen presence  (and growth?) of corona virus. They are both present.

Two other parables were  of the pearl of great price as well as the treasure hidden in the field.  In one the person looked for it and in the other, they found it.  With these parables there is surprise and great joy.  I've been slowly reading through The Interior Castle.  The third chapter starts with these words:

Blessed are those in awe of God. 

My prayer practices are always somewhat scattered and sporadic.  I sit here at the computer sometimes, or on my back porch and read and pray and write, or on my front porch and just watch birds.  But the one consistent part of my morning "devotion" is getting to that place of AWE.  I am awed by God who created this amazing world in which I am blessed to live.  I am awed by the word of God and the way it continues to speak to humanity for centuries.  I am awed by the words of the faithful that can touch my deepest pain and joy.  I am awed by the blessings - the many blessings - of my particular life as I work at church and play pickleball and love my friends and family.  Yes, there is evil in this world and sickness in the air.  But God's spirit will not be stopped from bringing life and new life and healing and growth.

I believe that.  I bet my life on that.

Here is a wonderful poem by Mary Oliver

The Summer Day

Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean-- the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down -- who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do With your one wild and precious life?