“Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable”

Fulfilling the words of the Psalmist:

“I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old –

what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their children;

we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.”

I was able to reunite with the family at Solomon’s Porch on Sunday night. I am so blessed by the company there. The music, sharing the ancient ritual of communion together. Studying the scriptures together. Being in the presence of the infinite God, wild goose.Spirit settling on our hearts and minds.

We talked about the kingdom of God that night. We looked at Jesus’ continual use of everyday life stories to describe what the kingdom of God is like. The challenge was to begin thinking about where the kingdom of God is entering into our everyday lives. In the normal stuff… the ordinary. Jesus came proclaiming that the kingdom of God is here… among us… available to all!! He told these stories of everyday life…. and Matthew writes that his doing this was in line with what the Psalmist wrote. Parables are nothing new to people. These things have been going on… maybe hidden… for thousands of years. Its everyday life! We are just to see it differently… and we are to share them with others.

I wrote something on my hand as I listened: “Things haven’t changed all that much…” As far as God’s presence in the world, what life in the kingdom looks like, the created way, what it means to be human, to be whole… these things have remained the same. But, they have been hidden since the beginning. They are hidden right in front of us… because we are not aware. We are the ones that change. We are the ones who are transformed into his image. We are the ones that become more alive and more awake in the presence of the great God. Perhaps Jesus was trying to get his listeners to see this, to hear this.

So maybe this… the kingdom of God is like a person playing Settlers, who loses again and again… but keeps playing because he loves the people he is playing with and knows that it is less about the winning and more about the company.