parables

Stories Are the Gifts of God

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. Matthew 10:8 NIV

Jesus loved to teach with stories. When asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered with the story of the Good Samaritan. When teaching about God’s kingdom, He often recounted stories of fishermen and shepherds, merchants and farmers. One of my favorites is one about a merchant looking for pearls. He must have gotten up early each day and made his way to the docks in order to meet the fishermen as they came in with their catches. Among those who cast their nets for nice kosher fish, were others who dove to harvest shellfish to sell to the Gentiles. Every day there would be some would discover pearls of various sizes among their harvest and this astute businessman wanted to be the first to swoop up the best of the day. One day as he made his way among the unruly and smelly crowd of tired fishermen, he came across some men who had just begun unloading their catch and there in a small basket containing a few common looking pearls he spotted one whose size and luster took his breath away. “This must not be real,” he thought. So, he called out to those fellows and asked to have a closer look. On closer examination he could hardly believe his eyes. ” Trying not to show his excitement he asked as calmly as he could, “And how much for this one?”

The captain of the boat, with years of experience haggling with the merchants, smiled, knowingly. The rest of these you could purchase for a few denarii, but that beauty…he paused here for both effect and a quick calculation for how much he might get, that one will cost you one talent of silver!”

In shock the merchant drew a breath, and replied, “You must be joking. An entire talent! That is worth several years wages!” Who has that kind of money on these docks?” The captain smiled. and replied.

“Along these docks I have no doubt that you are right. But in Jerusalem, there are kings, generals and governors who could easily pay twice what I am asking today.”

The merchant paused, carefully calculated that he would have enough if he sold his entire inventory. He also realized that he could also make a handy profit in Jerusalem if he was willing to take the risk, and then quickly answered. “Done! I’ll be back in the morning!”

Though the price seems ridiculous, when we sellout for Jesus, it’s always a good deal!

Winter Wheat

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments 
He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. 
Matthew 13:37-38 NKJV

Did you know that around 70% of America’s wheat is planted in the fall and then spends the entire winter sitting around under drifts of snow? Boy, that reminds me a lot of how things are in our neighborhood. We invite folks to church, share our testimony of how God has worked in our lives and yet not much seems to come of it. It feels discouraging to keep planting in what feels like a frozen field. But then I came to today’s verses, and something clicked. Though I have loved, read and reread this passage, multiple times, I didn’t think it important, because it appeared as if Jesus was simply repeating the parable of the four soils from the beginning of the chapter. But when I looked closer, I discovered that this story is completely different. In the first, Jesus is the farmer who plants the seed of His words. In today’s verses, Jesus is a farmer planting people. Who were those people? Well, we can start with Matthew, Mark, John, Andrew, Peter and the rest of Jesus first disciples. They are the ones who received His word in good hearts. But Jesus didn’t just whisk them away to heaven. Instead, he planted them in the hostile and corrupt world that they lived in. Later an enemy (we know who that is!) planted other folks with different messages. Some preached conquest and war, others the lure of prosperity, sensuality or political power. From Mohammed to Joseph Smith, the list seems endless, the fields of the world look like a mess, and the harvest a total loss. But Jesus tells us that God is not worried. His wheat remains wheat even when planted in fields filled with tares. Our job as Christians is not to separate ourselves into spiritual ghettos, but to continue being the seed sown where God plants us and to keep planting His message even when the ground is frozen. Why? Because winter is the best time to plant! Good seed has power under the snowbanks of indifference, hostility and rejection, because soon it will be spring. Then when the rain falls and the sun warms the soil, some of that seed will grow in the hearts of those who today are dormant and sleeping. Our job is not to pull up the weeds, but to keep on planting and trusting God. He will gather His wheat into His barns. When Jesus comes, He will do the sorting out at harvesttime, and we and all those who love Him will be with Him forever!

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What is Your Treasure?

/ pastorpete51 / 5 Comments

And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” Matthew 13:52 ESV

It may surprise you to learn that I began Bible story telling, not with my special friends at nursing home, but with 5-8 year old boys at church. Royal Rangers was a program similar to the Boy Scouts, that our denomination offered and one day I came to sign our son up for class. Now I am not the parent who just drops his kiddo off, so I stayed to see what was going on. The man who leading the group was so delighted to have another adult around to help, that he disappeared on the third week and ta-da, I became their new leader!

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

Needless to say my transition from, hey I want to help, to “Whoot there it is!” you’re in charge, was rough. Kids climbed up walls, bounced off each other and in general made me crazy. But in the midst of the mayhem when I was getting ready to tear out my hair, God began to teach me how to get and keep their attention with stories. In today’s scripture, Jesus gives us the inside scoop on how to teach others about His kingdom, and He calls it giving away our treasure.

So what makes something our treasure, and who are those scribes instructed in the kingdom? Now, I’ve been to college and have a piece of paper somewhere that will prove it, but what I really treasure is those lessons learned from when God answered my cries for help in the storms of life. He seems to specialize in using our problems as His classroom and in each one He gives us a treasure of grace to share with others. Also notice that Jesus points out, we need both new and old treasures. So don’t get too comfortable where you are because life is rarely smooth sailing for long. The Biblical weather forecast is for new storms on our horizons because each one offers us a new gift of God’s grace. So whether you are trying to keep the attention of a classroom full of eight year old’s, or are having a zoom session with seniors who can’t seem to figure out where to click so they can see the video, God wants to use you in ways to spread His treasure around. So what is your story? I know there are lots of great teachers out there among my readers, so why not share one of your treasures with us today?