Dear Partner in Preaching, What’s the difference between a fable and a parable? I think answering this question is crucial if we are to preach this passage. You see, a fable is primarily didactic, a clever story meant to offer some insight into and instruction about life – think Aesop’s Fables for a moment. A parable, on the other hand, is intended to be disruptive, to interrupt what you thought you knew and not just teach you something but actually to confront you with a surprising and often unwanted truth. Fables are handy when you want to give kids some good advice or teach them some moral or practical lesson. Who doesn’t remember...

Dear Partner in Preaching, In a remarkable little book called How to Do Things with Words, philosopher J. L. Austin makes the claim that, contrary to conventional wisdom, words don’t simply describe things but actually make things happen. Words, that is, aren’t merely descriptive but are evocative, even creative. When two persons say, “I do” in the context of a marriage ceremony, for instance, they are not merely describing the relationship they are entering into but actually creating it. And when some says “I love you” or “I hate you” we don’t only hear those words but actually feel the force they exert upon us. Words, in...

In this week’s column I write for Working Preacher I suggest that the simple parable of the mustard seed – which is the gospel reading for this Sunday – is not so much a cute maxim or fable about great things having modest beginnings, which is the way I usually hear it preached. Rather, and as I talked about in a recent Daily Bread devotion, I think it’s a warning that the kingdom of God, once it takes root, will spread like an unruly weed (which is what mustard was considered in the ancient world). Of course it’s only a warning to those who are satisfied with the status quo, those who benefit from the way the...