Dear Friends,

A parable teaches a single, simple truth. Its wisdom is uncomplicated. Its application to life is immediately apparent and life-changing.

I’ve been a long-time student of the parables of Jesus. I love many of them. I do not love some others, either because I don’t understand them, or I do not like what they teach. But they’re always worth the struggle to imagine what God is still trying to say to the Church.

In July and August I will preach a series of seven sermons informed by a book by Alyce M. McKenzie, a professor of Homiletics at our United Methodist Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, entitled The Parables For Today. You can buy a paperback copy in our church library if you’d like to study along with me.

Here’s the series:

• July 5-6    Parable of the Sower,  Mark 4:1-9
• July 12-13  Parable of the Mustard Seed,  Mark 4:30-32
• July 19-20  Parable of the Good Samaritan,  Luke 10:29-37
• July 26-27  Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector,  Luke 18:9-14
• August 16-17  Parable of the Rich Farmer,  Luke 12:13-21
• August 23-24  Parable of the Dishonest Steward,  Luke 16:1-9
• August 30-31  Parable of the Unforgiving Servant,  Matthew 18:21-35

I invite you alongside me in study and worship, seeking the single, simple, uncomplicated, immediately applicable, life-changing biblical truth in each of these stories. We will have fun.

Steve Langhofer  •