Parabolic Preaching
Jesus' mission in pictures
Dear Saints,
First, a few announcements:
Sunday's 11:00am Mass will be outside, in front of the church (bring your own chair or blanket, and even an umbrella for shade).
Registration for Masses in the church is no longer requested or required. Please join us when you are ready to return.
Our two 9:00am Sunday Masses are still on: a drive-in Mass (Walmart) and one in the church.
Adoration is back! We will expose the Eucharist after 8:00am Mass every FRIDAY morning, with adoration ending SATURDAY morning before the 8:00am Mass.
The Outside Confessional is now open on Saturdays only, 8:30-9:30am and 4:00-5:00pm.
Please be in touch with me with any questions or concerns.
This weekend's Gospel passage begins the third of Jesus' five main teaching blocks in the Gospel of Matthew. The peculiar feature of Jesus preaching in this central section of Matthew's Gospel is that he communicates himself almost exclusively in parables.
It's a bit of a sidebar, but consider how compelling a storyteller Jesus is. 2,000 years on, and we're still pondering his words, still puzzling over their meaning.
Getting parables right is a bit tricky, so let me give you a push in the right direction.
The parables aren't exactly, as you might have heard, earthly stories with heavenly meaning. They're not a clever way Jesus taught moral or ethical truths. The parables are not a symbolic version of systematic theology.
The parables, rather, are part and parcel of Jesus' Kingdom of God announcement. They're not simply stories that give voice to the fact that the Kingdom of God is coming to life in and through King Jesus. The stories themselves help Jesus' hearers to grapple with, accept, and embody God's loving rule.
When Jesus cries, "Whoever has ears ought to hear," he intends his audience to struggle with what he's saying, to think through the implications of his parables. So for now, let me leave it at that. Take a look at the Gospel passage again. Pray with it and puzzle on it.
If you'd like to talk it through, send me a note. Otherwise, we'll pick it up again at Mass.
I love you, my friends, and I look forward to seeing you very soon.
Christ's Peace,
Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ
Preparing for Mass?
Check out this weekend's readings:
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Parable of the Sower
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1557