Article in Stretton Focus, April 2013
Sometimes just a few words, like the title of my piece, can start an interesting and even exciting train of thought. The Gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus’ teaching was only in parables (4:34). People had to ‘unwrap’ each parable and discover its meaning for themselves. This was his teaching method, and it is still the basis for true learning. It’s not what you are told to believe as true, but what you discover for yourself to be true, that will stay with you and influence your life.
The idea that ‘all things come in parables’ means that words can only be pointers to a truth that is greater than the words themselves. This is especially true in regard to Scriptures and all religious language. Religious language points to a reality that is greater than the words themselves. Words can never truly describe or contain the Reality that we call God. Indeed, the very word ‘God’ itself is only a pointer to (or parable of) a concept of God that is beyond our reach.
So it would appear that the value of Scripture and religious language is not that it gives us INFORMATION but rather that it gives us an INVITATION.
It is an invitation to be open to the spiritual dimension of life: to begin your own exploration of it, and discover its riches for yourself. It is an invitation to enter into a personal relationship on that level: your spirit interacting with God’s Spirit, and finding peace and joy and a wholeness that religion might call salvation.
But even if you don’t consider yourself to be ‘religious’, the invitation is still there, to find the meaning of life’s parables for yourself.
Donald Horsfield