Christianity retold
The Big Parade is based on Matthew 25:1-12
This was one of the first parables I ever saw ‘retold’ – a minor updating for children, replacing the oil lamps with more modern torches (‘flashlights’ in US English). The oil that was carried by five of the girls became spare batteries.
[Read more…] about Commentary: The Big Parade (Matthew 25:1-12)The Big Parade is based on Matthew 25:1-12
God’s nation will be like ten girls from a girl’s marching band who were in the welcome parade for a royal visit. Now, five of them were thoughtless and five of them were sensible. The five thoughtless ones left their enormous flags in the band’s van, the five sensible ones took their flags with them.
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Counting the Cost is based on Luke 14: 28-33
This section of Luke’s Gospel comprises two mini-parables. We don’t know whether Jesus always told them together, or whether he sometimes split them up. Both are about the cost of discipleship – one about losing all our money, the other about losing our lives, families and homes.
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Counting the Cost is based on Luke 14: 28-33
Suppose one of you wants to build a gated community? Won’t you first sit down with your plans and your calculator and figure out an estimate for the cost? Won’t you see if you have enough money to see the project through?
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Between them, the gospels often include several versions of the same parable. The Flower Seeds and the Pots is a retelling of Luke 8: 5-8, but I could have picked the version told in Matthew 13: 3-8 (and elsewhere, I’ve retold Mark 4: 3-9). They’re all obviously the same basic parable – but with different flourishes.
This happens often enough that it suggests that (as I’ve said in other posts) Jesus varied his parables to suit the needs of his audiences. Varying (or retelling) parables to suit the needs of our modern audience follows in that Jesus-tradition.
[Read more…] about Parables that shouldn’t be retold?
The Teacher’s Voice is based on John 10:1-5
The country I live in has been shaped by over a thousand years of Christianity. One result is that the image of the shepherd-leader is very familiar. Another is that – even in an urban environment – the image of the shepherd is very popular. TV programmes about shepherds, for example, get reasonable viewing figures.
That creates a problem for parables about shepherds, because shepherding in the modern UK is very different from shepherding in Judea and Galilee. In the UK, like much of Northern Europe, pasture is easy to find. Like much of Northern Europe, wool was historically a major (and very profitable) industry. The Northern European shepherd doesn’t have to search for pasture; instead, they walk behind the flock, driving them in the direction they need to go.
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