When a Story Is the Best Response...Continued from page 2
D. Bruce Seymour
The City on a Hill (Matthew 5:14)
The Defendant (Matthew 5:25-26; Luke 12:57-59)
The Doctor and the Sick (Mark 2:17)
The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37)
The Lamp and the Bushel (Matthew 5:15; Mark 4:21; Luke 11:33)
The Master and the Servants (Luke 17:7-10)
The Plowman (Luke 9:62)
The Salt of the Earth (Matthew 5:13; Mark 9:50;Luke 14:34-35)
The Servant in Authority (Matthew 24:45-51; Luke 12:42-46)
The Storeroom (Matthew 13:52)
The Talents (Matthew 25:14-30)
The Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13)
The Tower Builder (Luke 14:28-30)
The Weeds (Matthew 13:24-30)
The Workers and the Harvest (Matthew 9:37-38; Luke 10:2)
These parables clarify or reinforce the role expectations of a disciple.
Here is an example of a parable attributed to Rabbi Akiba, which he told to reinforce the importance of studying Torah.
Once the wicked Government [i.e., the Romans] issued a decree forbidding the Jews to study and practice the Torah. Pappus b. Judah came and found R. Akiba publicly bringing gatherings together and occupying himself with Torah. He said to him: Akiba, are you not afraid of the government?
He said to him: I will parable to thee a parable. Unto what is the matter like? It is like a fox who was walking alongside a river, and he saw fishes going in swarms from one place to another. He said to them: From what are you fleeing? They replied: From the nets cast for us by men. He said to them: Would you like to come onto the dry land so that you and I can live together in the way my ancestors lived with your ancestors? The fish said to him: Art thou the one that they call the cleverest of the animals? Thou art not clever but foolish. If we are afraid in the element in which we live, how much more in the element in which we would die.
So it is with us. If such is our condition when we sit and study Torah, of which it is written, "For that is thy life and the length of thy days" (Deut. 30:20), if we go and neglect it, how much worse off we shall be.3
R. Akiba clearly expects that devout Jews would continue to study Torah regardless of what the Romans decreed. The parable seems intended to clarify or reinforce a role expectation ? devout Jews study Torah.
Modern-day pastors also tell stories to reinforce role expectations. I read Leith Anderson's story about "parish poker" years ago, and it has helped me to make better leadership decisions. Here, Anderson tells the story and helps us apply it.
Becoming a pastor is like joining a poker game. Although I am neither a gambler nor a poker player, I know that at the beginning of a game each player has a limited number of chips to play with and must use them strategically to win.
Churches generally give new pastors 50 to 100 "chips" to get started. After that, they either gain chips or lose what they have, depending on how well they learn the catalog of rewards and penalties their church runs by (which of course, no one bothered to tell the new pastor about). For example: