Matthew 13

The kingdom of heaven inspires devotion, commitment, and downright unreasonableness.

The Parable of the Sower gives the preacher an opportunity to teach about the gift of parables.

If so, what did he mean?

“Jesus was preaching to people who were in the middle of the worst farming and fishing crisis yet.”

And that conversation’s inevitable limits

The people come, bringing something of themselves. Then they leave.

In God's kingdom, sometimes less is more.

The religious world we know was formed between 250 and 50 B.C.E.

If it were easy, we would have it all figured out already.

We can be joined by our suffering, not just separated.

The sower just seems to hope that the seeds will find the right kind of soil, while doing little to ensure that is the case.

Christians didn’t baptize Aldo Leopold’s land ethic after the fact. They got there years before his work.

I have come to realize how mysterious a thing a seed is.

I have come to realize how mysterious a thing a seed is.

Two recent books testify to the difficult but hopeful work of forgiving in the most trying circumstances.

To be a follower of the one who promised that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed is to expect a blessed in-breaking of peace.

The Prodigal Son is often read to mean that God loves sinners, whereas the Jews thought God only loved the righteous. This makes no sense.

I was startled earlier this year when news anchor Peter Mansbridge called someone a Good Samaritan on The National, the flagship nightly newscast of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. I was surprised that in our secularized, multifaith society, newswriters assumed that listeners would understand an allusion from the Bible.

On second thought, I was less surprised.

Six words of scripture always transport me to an amazing place: “The kingdom of heaven is like . . .”