Saintly Encounters
A Hallelujah for God
Shoes
Two or Three
A Modern Christmas Carol
HealingAccording to Wikipedia, a parable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that illustrates a moral or religious lesson. This definition will do, but I would also add that a parable is a unique kind of story that can illustrate a theological point from many angles and can be interpreted in many ways. And parables, especially the ones Jesus told, were subversive, explored new ideas, and often ruffled feathers. "In the parable," Peter Rollins says, "truth is not expressed via some detached logical discourse that would be employed to educate us, but rather it emanates from the creation of a lyrical dis-course that inspires and transforms us" (Orthodox Heretic, p. x).
Inspired by Rollins, I began to write parables as a spiritual practice. I've found parables to be a very difficult kind of story to write, and it makes me dig deeper into the scriptures and my soul more than anything else has. Trying to put spiritual truths or insights into story form requires that I internalize, imagine, and wrestle. So, my purpose in writing parables is a personal one. I have found it to be a powerful agent of my own spiritual growth. The stories you read are not meant as objective criticisms of someone or something else but had their origin with something I have been personally convicted of. However, I also share them publicly on the off-chance that you as a reader might glean something from them as well. Perhaps it could lead you, as it has for me, to begin to explore what happens when we view our faith and our life through the lens of a story, and when we don't just read the Bible but let it read us.
I, like Rollins, am nervous about using the word parable for fear of the perception that I would compare myself to Jesus in some way. So we can call them "tales." It is just my feeble attempt at story-telling...with a purpose. Click on any of the titles above.
