Dear Faith Family,
For those who are counting, today marks the 12th and final day of Christmas! The light in the east has been followed, and like the wise men of old, we arrive at the appearance of God-With-Us in full humanity! Our Savior and King's manifestation in the unexpected place of a common boy born to common parents.
Epiphany is the name given to days recounting the "three kings'" search for wisdom. Epiphanytide, is the name of the season after Epiphany, after we discover God-With-Us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, when the Church focuses her attention on the revealing nature of Jesus' life, teachings, death, and resurrection, as well as our role in reflecting his light to all peoples, tribes, and nations.
Our faith family joins in this global rhythm by starting each year off entering into kingdom stories told us by Jesus himself. Jesus' parables are Kingdom Epiphanies, stories with intent meant to disarm our (mis)understandings of life with God and one another, crafted narratives designed to engage our minds and hearts as they give shape to our daily living.
Now here is the thing about parables, they don’t define, diagram, or systematize; they describe something, usually something just as real but more challenging to see than the familiar elements of the short stories themselves: things like our souls, our hearts, our relation to the world, how God relates to us, and that reality we call "the kingdom of God."
Eugene Peterson once said that “Parables trust our imaginations, which is to say, our faith. They don’t herd us paternalistically into a classroom where we get things explained and diagrammed. They don’t bully us into regiments where we find ourselves marching in [moral, unthinking conformity].” Parables are crafted to foster relationship with the communicator and the "deeper" reality he describes as we find ourselves immersed in the stories themselves. Parables don’t do the work for us; they require us to put in work, imaginative or meditative work. Effort we could call the work faith. They train us to hear the voice of the Lord and see with the eyes of the Spirit (see Matthew 13:11-17).
So, as we begin a new year together, let me encourage you to join in the work of faith by immersing yourself in Jesus' parables throughout the week. Do not just wait until the Gathering to jump in, but walk with Jesus into these stories with intent at least twice a week during January. To help, we’ve put together a schedule along with some questions to ponder along the way. You can access the entire parable schedule for the month here, but I've included this week's parable and practices below.
May we be blessed with eyes to see and ears to hear what the prophets and righteous of our faith have longed to experience!
Love you, faith family. God bless!
THIS WEEK
Pick two days this week, perhaps today and Friday or tomorrow and Saturday, to read and reflect through this coming Sunday's parable: The Parable of the Sower. Use the instructions below to guide your time.
Day One: Read “The Parable of Sower” in Matthew 13:1-9, and then the disciple's questions and Jesus’ response in verses 10-23. Then re-read the parable and write down any thoughts, observations, and questions that come to mind.
Day Two: Re-Read Matthew 13:1-23, and then consider the following questions:
Who is the sower?
Who or what is the seed, “the word of the kingdom”?
What does the seed consistently do on each of the four “soils”?
Sunday: Re-Read Matthew 13:1-9, asking for eyes to see and ears to hear what the prophets and righteous have longed to experience.