Pastor's Page: "Jesus the Storyteller"

October 25, 2009

Jesus of Nazareth was an itinerant preacher, prophet and wise man who traveled from village to village in Galilee, northern Israel. The villages he frequented, with his headquarters in Capernaum, were small backwater settlements with 100 to 200 inhabitants compared to the holy city of Jerusalem with as many as 100,000 during the Jewish holy days..
     As he traveled, Jesus told stories, and repeated many of them on numerous occasions. The Gospels frequently offer us two or more versions of the same story. The stories that Jesus told, scholars tell us, often had political overtones. They were grounded in current events from which Jesus would offer a theological message. At times the story had two or more main points.
     Jesus did not come to give us moral values, but a way of living that will fulfill our human potential. He proclaimed a complicated concept called "the kingdom of God" using stories, wisdom sayings, proverbs and parables that cause the listeners of his time, and hearers of his words throughout the centuries to wonder about life's meaning and lead to truth.
     As God's prophet, Jesus confounded listeners and observers of his behavior, forcing them to think and reflect about God and the world in which they lived. His table fellowship with sinners and outcasts extended the understanding and boundaries of God's love from conditional to unconditional; cosmic in its proportions. His parables were meant to startle and shake the world of the listener. Parables reveal what it means to live in the kingdom of God.
     The kingdom of God is like... a treasure buried in a field, a pearl of great price, a lost coin pursued by a poor woman, a sheep lost in the wilderness brought home by a Shepherd, and much more.
      If we wish to live in the kingdom of God that we must take on the transformative love of God and model our lives on it. We must pursue this self emptying way of living with tremendous zeal and concentration. For in living this life of love we will find happiness and the presence of God.
       Christian stewards place God first in their lives. Their spirituality recognizes God in people, places and events. Their giving of themselves is generous, planned out and sacrificial in nature.
"Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all else will be given you besides."

Peace, Father Bruce