Christianity retold
The Rich Idiot is based on Luke 12: 16-20
A best-selling author’s latest book sold much, much better than expected. The author thought to themselves, ‘Uh, what am I going to do with all this extra money?’
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Churchwarden and Salesman is based on Luke 18:10-14
People retell this parable a lot and it generally ends up being set in a church – mainly because, for Christians, ‘church’ is shorthand for ‘God will be listening,’ as well as ‘a holy place’. Another place to set the parable might be a cathedral; a place that both very pious and less pious people might end up being together.
The original setting of this parable is the Temple, in Jerusalem. In Jesus’ time, the Temple was the place where Heaven met Earth; to go to pray in the Temple was to go to pray in the presence of God. The parable doesn’t mention the daily sacrifices, but the original audience would be well aware that the Temple was also where you made sacrifices to God for your sins. That holy Temple was deliberately destroyed by the Romans; the only part that’s survived to modern times is the Western Wall.
[Read more…] about Commentary: Churchwarden and Salesman (Luke 18:10-14)Churchwarden and Salesman is based on Luke 18:10-14
Two people went to a church service, one a churchwarden and the other a door-to-door salesman. After the service, they both stayed behind to pray.
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The Leaflet Distributors is based on Matthew 20: 1-16
Nowadays, there are very few situations where someone would wait all day in a public place to be hired. Employers find employees by job ads, by advertising with an agency, by putting it their vacancy on an app.
The parable of the Workers in the Vineyard is a ‘kingdom of heaven’ parable. Not only is it introduced as one, ‘Come and work for me in my vineyard’ is quite blatantly building on the Old Testament’s frequent use of ‘vineyard’ as a metaphor for ‘Israel’. That metaphor is partly why I decided to change the job to ‘leafleting’; it’s quite common in mission work to go out leafleting. The other reason is that there are relatively few commercial vineyards in the UK; most of them are located in the South East of the country, where the climate is marginally suitable for grapes.
[Read more…] about Commentary: The Leaflet Distributors (Matt. 20:1-16)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.
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