1. The document discusses the parables in Luke 15 and their meaning when understood in their proper historical and Jewish context. 2. It emphasizes that the parables were meant to challenge and afflict listeners, not just comfort them, and that interpreting them allegorically can lead to problematic readings. 3. The parables reveal that God celebrates and searches for the lost, welcomes all to the table, and invites all to join the celebration.

1. Prayer
O God of light and peace, whose glory,
shining in the child of Bethlehem,
still draws the nations to yourself:
dispel the darkness that shrouds our path,
that we may come to kneel before Christ
in true worship, offer him our hearts and souls,
and return from his presence to live as he has
taught. Amen.

2. theCHURCH
CALENDAR

3. Part 1: Luke 15
PARABLES and the EPIPHANY

4. Jorge Cocco Santangelo

6. Out of ignorance many pastors and
religious educators strip Jesus and
Paul from their Jewish context and
depict that context in false and
noxious stereotypes. The Jewish
Annotated
New Testament represents an effort
to redress this problem.
AMY-JILL LEVINE

8. Now, it's some slight manipulation
But it's what we've gotta do
See, we need some confrontation
Or your message won't get
through
So if you want your sales to soar
It's not enough for folks to love
you
CLINT BRIGGS

9. Studying this week (both for Vintage
and Ottawa), led me to an
unfortunate but inescapable
conclusion: just as I’ve
previously participated in negative
tropes/misrepresentations about
human sexuality/marriage in the Bible,
I have also unknowingly-but-
undeniably
participated in reinforcing negative
stereotypes about Judaism that

10. Part 1: Luke 15
PARABLES and the EPIPHANY

11. Religion has been defined as
designed to comfort the afflicted
and afflict
the comfortable. We do well to think
of the parables of Jesus as doing
the afflicting. Therefore, if we hear
a parable and think, ‘I really like that,’
or worse, fail to take any challenge,
we are not listening well enough.
AMY-JILL LEVINE

12. A text without a context
is a pretext for whatever
you want it to mean.
BENWITHERINGTON III

13. If we get the context wrong,
we’ll get Jesus wrong as well…
When the historical context
goes missing or we get it wrong,
the parables become open
to problematic and sometimes
abusive readings.
AMY-JILL LEVINE

14. The question for each parable is:
how did Jesus seek to change
attitudes and behaviors (and, I’d
argue, perspectives) with this
parable?
(The early Church) did not base
doctrine on allegorical exegesis…
allegorizing is not a legitimate
means of interpretation.
KLYNE R. SNODGRASS

15. 1.Allegorizing each
word/phrase/image
2.Taking them out of context
3.Treating them as literal history
4.Reducing to harmless children’s
stories
5.Asking them to carry more spiritual
or theological weight than
intended
how NOT to read PARABLES

16. Now all the tax-collectors
and sinners were coming near
to listen to him. And the Pharisees
and the scribes were grumbling
and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes
sinners and eats with them.’
So he told them this parable:
LUKE 15:1-3 (NRSV)

17. Just so, I tell you, there will be
more joy in heaven over one
sinner who repents than over
ninety-nine righteous people
who need no repentance.
LUKE 15:7 (NRSV)

18. Just so, I tell you, there is joy
in the presence of the angels
of God over one sinner who repents.
LUKE 15:10 (NRSV)

19. Then the father said to him,
“Son, you are always with me,
and all that is mine is yours.
But we had to celebrate and
rejoice, because this brother of
yours
was dead and has come to life;
he was lost and has been found.”
LUKE 15:31-32 (NRSV)

20. 1.God as shepherd/woman/rich dad
2.The nature/meaning of repentance
3.Jesus speaking negatively about
his own Jewish faith, or the practice
of all Jews seeking covenant
faithfulness
what LUKE 15 is NOT about…

21. Were the parables called
“The Shepherd Who Lost His Sheep”
or “The Woman Who Lost Her Coin,”
we might be closer to an earlier
meaning (as 1st Century Jews
would have understood it.)…
Thus (the last) parable (in Luke 15)
too might be named, “The Father
Who Lost Two Sons.”
AMY-JILL LEVINE

22. When was the last time we
took stock or counted up
who was present rather than
simply counted on their presence?
Will we take responsibility
for the losing, and what
effort will we make to find
it – or him, or her – again?
AMY-JILL LEVINE

23. 1.God celebrates with those God made
2.God searches for the unrepentant
3.God welcomes everyone to the table
4.God invites everyone to join the party
5.God challenges us to do the same,
but leaves the decision up to us…
WHAT does LUKE 15
REVEAL about GOD?

24. Closing Prayer
Radiant Morning Star,
you who are guidance and mystery:
visit our rest with disruptive dreams,
and our journeys with strange companions.
Grace us with the spirit of hospitality
that we would open our hearts and homes
to visitors filled with unfamiliar wisdom
bearing profound and unusual gifts.
Amen.