Why Parables Now?
This week Roots is starting a new teaching series on the parables of Jesus called “Ears to Hear.” We’re going to be taking another look at these enigmatic stories with an ear for what they might be saying to us now. Jesus told these parables as a way of drawing people in, and as a way of shifting paradigms. You see, not only are we daily being formed by the practices in which we participate, we are also daily being formed by the stories which we inhabit. The story that Jesus’s parable invites us into is the story of the Kingdom of God breaking into this world through Jesus himself. He is the Sower who goes out to sow the seed that is the word of God. We, collectively, are the soils. Those who have ears to hear are caught up in God’s love, united with Jesus in the Spirit, empowered, and sent. Perhaps now more than ever we need to be reminded of the story of Jesus renewing all things, so that we can resist all other narratives that compete for our allegiance.