Christianity retold
The Leaflet Distributors is based on Matthew 20: 1-16
God’s nation is like an employer who put out an urgent ad at 6 am one morning, to get people to come and leaflet for him. The first people who responded, he agreed to pay them £100 for the day, cash-in-hand. Then he sent them out with their boxes of leaflets.
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The Persistent Widow is based on Luke 18:2-8.
The judge’s job is to do justice, and by God, he will do justice by the time the widow is finished with him.
(Theology at Work Project: Persistence)
The judge in Jesus’ parable seems to be be someone who’d decide on disputes between neighbours. Other than that, it’s unclear whether he’s a ‘judge’ in the style of previous biblical judges, or a Roman appointee. The important points about him are that he doesn’t fear God (shocking, if he’s a biblical style judge) and doesn’t care what people think.
[Read more…] about Commentary: The Persistent Widow (Luke 18:2-8)The Persistent Widow is based on Luke 18:2-8.
A small town had an MP, an MP who couldn’t care less about God and didn’t respect his constituents. Also living there was a widowed mother, with two small children. She kept coming to the MP’s surgery, saying: ‘Look, I’m being victimised by the council. Help me get justice!’
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The Flower Seeds and the Pots is based on Luke 8:5-8.
This was the first parable I retold, rather than just updated. I was writing a book which had a modern Jesus preaching in a modern London. It became very obvious, very quickly, that Jesus wouldn’t tell a parable based on First Century Middle Eastern farming practices to a bunch of modern East Enders – not if they had no previous experience of hearing it. The meaning of the parable would stay the same; the props and setting would be reset.
[Read more…] about Commentary: The Flower Seeds and the Pots (Luke 8:5-8)The Flower Seeds and the Pots is based on Luke 8:5-8.
Once, a woman wanted a flower garden in her flat. So she bought some flower seeds, and planted them in pots the landlord had left. Some of the seeds fell out of her window onto the pavement below; of course, people walked all over them. Then pigeons came and scoffed the lot. Some of the pots she’d found were too shallow – the flower seedlings came up, but the thin soil, it didn’t hold enough water. When the sun shone, the plants dried up.
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