Re-Imagine the World

Our church recently hosted a book study on Bernard Brandon Scott's book Re-Imagine the World: An Introduction to the Parables of Jesus. Scott is one of the world's foremost parables scholars, and I had read his more scholarly work Hear Then the Parable in seminary years ago. I heard him speak at a Jesus Seminar on the Road event on the Oregon coast last April, then met him personally when he was one of the presenters at a Jesus Seminar on the Road event at my home church last October. It was interesting to see that his mannerisms were very typical for an Oklahoman, but his insights were anything but.

I was asked to lead the last two sessions after missing the first two sessions due to business travel, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and dissecting the last few chapters with a group of six or so people. We discussed Scott's compelling interpretations of the Unforgiving Slave, Shrewd Manager, and Dinner Party. Then we delved into the final two chapters that attempt to tie all the parables together.

The title of the book gives some clue as to his perspective, and the next-to-last chapter carries the same title, "Re-Imagine the World." He describes the parables of the Jesus tradition as falling along three "coordinates":

1. God is unclean, exemplified by the Leaven. Leaven is said to represent the empire of God, but at the time it was considered unclean, and even worse, symbolic of evil. This radical concept says that God is not aloof and "otherly," but rather is best seen through society's most unattractive.

2. God is present in absence, exemplified by the Empty Jar parable found in the Gospel of Thomas. This notion would have been no less radical than the first one to Jesus' original hearers, and it says that the best indication of God's presence is God's absence.

3. Cooperation, not contest, exemplified by the Samaritan. In a world in which one's whole being and identity was tightly intertwined by one's class, one's social level, the Jesus tradition emphasized collaboration, cooperation, and undeserved love--rather than warfare and competition.

In thinking through these concepts, I thought of how distorted those ideas have become in much of today's Christianity. Today, many believe that the Chrisitan charter in this age is to help build an (American) empire, whereas Jesus' parables indicate that God's empire is anything but imperial. And yes, Jesus was a very political figure--something I'll write on further in a later post.