{"id":25604,"date":"2025-08-06T10:56:55","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T14:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=25604"},"modified":"2025-08-06T11:12:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:12:01","slug":"25604","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=25604","title":{"rendered":"The Wisdom of Parables"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Word of God Speak - Mercy Me with Lyrics (High Quality)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W8cJQMU9Q-U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan describes how Jesus\u2019 parables invited listeners to find wisdom in their daily agricultural circumstances:<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we look afresh at the parables through the eyes of Middle Eastern farmers, fishers, herders, and orchard keepers \u2026 we can clearly see that Jesus was offering them both the intangible gift of hope and tangible options for survival. <strong>Jesus guided his hearers into rethinking for themselves how to survive and build community at the very moment that they felt overwhelmed by unprecedented pressures.<\/strong>\u2026\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The imagery and cadence we find in the aphorisms and parables of Jesus are those of a gifted storyteller who reached his listeners through colorful but cryptic symbols, curious riddles, and circular plots that <strong>engaged listeners as&nbsp;<em>participants&nbsp;<\/em>in the process of making the story whole<\/strong>. There was no need for Jesus to stand behind a podium or pulpit to pontificate. Instead, he interacted with his listeners\u2019 hearts and minds in a manner that became integral to the story itself.<em>&nbsp;<\/em><strong><em>The only way the story could be made whole and would make wounded listeners whole was by engaging them with deep participation<\/em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nabhan helps us hear Jesus\u2019 lively, earthy storytelling in his retelling of the parable of the Sower and the Seed<\/em>:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><em>Hey! Listen up, those of you who think you have ears!&#8230;<\/em><br><em>A farmer went out to sow,\u202f<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<br><em>and from his hand he would throw\u2026<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>[Jesus] gestured with his hand, as if flinging seeds out toward them in every which way.\u202f\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><em>\u2026a broadcasting of the seeds,\u202f<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<br><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;but most of them landed<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<br><em>far from the sower and too close to the barren road\u2026.\u202f<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<br><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Some of the seed they cast out<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<br><em>fell where bedrock reached the surface.<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>He knelt upon the stony ground before them, knocking his knuckles against the hardened earth to demonstrate its impermeability. They heard a low thud. They knew all too well that seeds cannot penetrate very far into compacted earth<em>\u2026.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><em>Others of the seeds he sowed<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<br><em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;landed among some thorny brush\u2026.\u202f<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>He grabbed a branch of spiny, tangled crucifixion thorn and forced his fist up through its barbs until the skin on his hand dripped with blood. The people themselves had felt their own arms and legs scratched and bloodied by the piercing of these thorns\u2026.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p><em>At last, the sower came to a place<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<br><em>where the earth felt welcoming, full of tilth,\u202f<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<br><em>where he could gently fling some seeds into sweet spots<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<br><em>where they made their way to deeper, richer soil.<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>He knelt down again and used his bloody hand as a trowel, but this time, he brought up fragrant, richly textured, glistening humus from beneath the stones on the surface. He raised it up, then he bowed to the fellaheen [food producers] who had gathered to hear him. He stretched out his other arm out toward them and opened his hand in deference, <strong>as if to remind them that they themselves were essential elements for sustaining the fecundity and generative energy of this earth.<\/strong>\u202f\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>Hey COfew. (from Andrew Lang) <br>A few years ago, my partner-at-the-time came home and found me sitting on the floor of our house with papers scattered all around me.I was curplunked on the ground, my face scrunched up, with a whiteboard&nbsp;<em>packed<\/em>&nbsp;with ideas and connections and names in front of me. Being new to the city we now lived in, I was making an elaborate plan for how to plug into the activist scene and who I needed to build relationships with to understand more about Tacoma politics.<br>        It was \u2013 to quote her, even though I hated hearing it in that moment \u2013 \u201ca lot of words.\u201dLooking back, that moment with the whiteboard illustrates a truth I still wrestle with frequently: <strong>I\u2019m often afraid of \u201cgetting out there;\u201d of doing the wrong thing; of not doing enough<em>;<\/em>&nbsp;of using my already-limited time, energy, and money in a way that isn\u2019t actually that&nbsp;<em>impactful<\/em>.And so instead, I ruminate, I whiteboard, I plan, I doomscroll, I simmer \u2013 and sometimes I boil<\/strong>.Does that sound familiar to you at all?It\u2019s a frustrating dynamic \u2013 a strange combination of wanting to act, <strong>while using planning, overthinking, and \u201cneeding to learn more\u201d to ensure I never do; of using my \u201clots of words\u201d to protect me from taking a step into the possibly-uncomfortable terrain of the unknown<\/strong>.And when I consider the broader societal forces that work to pull us away from our communities and collective action and toward individualism, saviorism, and the status quo, this <strong>analysis paralysis and drive to think too-big-to-be-actionable<\/strong> feels very much by design.For me, the way I\u2019ve learned to counter this is to <strong>1) prioritize actions that support folks already doing amazing work, rather than starting things on my own, and 2) look for daily actions in my own life I can take that are relational and community-focused.<\/strong>I\u2019m reminded of David Whyte\u2019s words from his poem \u201cStart Close In:<br>\u201dStart close in,<br>don\u2019t takethe second step<br>&nbsp;or the third,&nbsp;<br>start with the first thing close in,<br>the step you don\u2019t want to take.<br><br>Here are two questions I\u2019m working with right now to help me take these small, \u201cclose in\u201d steps that move me from my own thoughts and into action:<br><br>      <strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Who is already working on [the issue I care about] and how can I amplify, support, or join them&nbsp;<em>this week<\/em>?<br><br>    What action can I take&nbsp;<em>today<\/em>&nbsp;that helps move my community and myself toward healing?<\/span><\/strong><br><br>I invite you to work with these questions for yourself this week. Or if they don\u2019t quite connect, see if there is a unique question alive in you that might help push you into the discomfort of taking action \u2013 no matter how small.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan describes how Jesus\u2019 parables invited listeners to find wisdom in their daily agricultural circumstances:&nbsp; When we look afresh at the parables through the eyes of Middle Eastern farmers, fishers, herders, and orchard keepers \u2026 we can clearly see that Jesus was offering them both the intangible gift of hope and tangible [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25604"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25604"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25608,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25604\/revisions\/25608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}