Speaking in Parables

For those outside everything is in parables,
so that they may indeed see but not perceive,
and may indeed hear but not understand.
Mark 4:11-12

Perhaps you have asked yourself the same question which the disciples once asked Jesus: why do you speak in parables, rather than using plain speech? (cf. Matthew 13:10). Jesus’ answer is not reassuring. It would almost seem as though the purpose of parables is to create misunderstanding; see but not perceive; hear but not understand.

We naturally like clarity and simplicity. Although the word "fundamentalism" has acquired negative connotations, its original meaning was simply a view of religion in which everything is clear and simple.

The problem, however, is that life is not clear and simple, and when fundamentalists say, "The Bible says x, y, or z," they are often projecting their own views onto the sacred text. The Bible, like life itself, is not clear and simple, and to be Biblical Christians, in my view, doesn’t mean having a ready answer to every question, but rather being willing to wrestle, throughout the course of our life, with a difficult, complex text.

In composing The Book of Common Prayer Archbishop Thomas Cranmer intended to return to the original plan of the ancient Fathers, in accordance with which "the whole Bible (or the greatest part thereof) whould be read over once every year." Cranmer strongly objected to the medieval service books in which "when any book of the Bible was begun, after three or four chapters were read out, all the rest was left unread."

To have the exposure to the Bible that Cranmer wanted us to have, it would be necessary not simply to attend church once a week but also to attend the daily offices of Morning and Evening Prayer, where his plan for reading the whole Bible is carried out. Few in today’s world are able to do this. Indeed, there are few churches where the offices of Morning and Evening Prayer are said on a daily basis.

Nevertheless, regular attendance at Sunday worship exposes us to quite a bit of scripture, which we are then able to supplement by private reading. In this way, in Cranmer’s words, the people "might continually profit more and more in the knowledge of God, and be the more inflamed with the love of his true religion."

It is this saturation with sacred scripture which, over time, brings about a transformation of our minds, so that we see reality not through our limited human perspective but, as it were, through the mind of God. This does not mean that scripture will ever become easy. We will constantly be encountering things in the sacred text which puzzle or offend us.

Sometimes the lectionary tries to smooth over this problem, as in the first reading today, where the final verse in the story of the fall of Jericho is omitted:

Then they utterly destroyed all in the city,
both men and women, young and old,
oxen, sheep, and asses, with the edge of the sword.
Joshuah 6:21

Such attempts to expurgate the scripture are pointless. As a colleague of mine once remarked, the Bible is indeed "a horrible book," but it is also, paradoxically, the inspired word of God, written for our learning, the book which we, as Christians, are called upon to "hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest."

July 13, 2003