Story time, Unitarian Universalist style! In this week’s video, I read Jesus’s parable of the empty jar, from the Gospel of Thomas (one of the books that didn’t make it into the official Christian scriptures). Then I talk about a few possible interpretations of the parable, but since I’m a Unitarian Universalist minister I refuse to come up with one final correct interpretation. (5:05)
Note to nitpickers: Yeah, I know I’m posting the “Friday Video” on Saturday. Before you start picking nits, remember that I do this as a hobby, and sometimes life makes it difficult to keep to schedules.
I admit, the first thing I thought was that vague parables such as the parable of the empty jar may have been the reason why the Gospel of Thomas was excluded from the official Bible. None of the explanations of this parable really fit, though – left me wanting more. Perhaps we would need to look deeper into Gnostic Christianity in order to properly understand what the Gospel of Thomas meant by this parable.
– John
http://www.thepagelessbook.com
Lovely story! Now where’s the video-story about Buddha? Or of the Darshan?
John — Or maybe Thomas doesn’t carry with it two millennia of commentary which colors our interpretations of it. When you really read the canonical gospels, there is always room for additional interpretation. Think of the rich man who is told that he must go and sell everything he has in order to enter the kingdom of heaven — we are told that he walks away, never to enter heaven — but if you read the text, what it really says is that he goes away “grieving” (Mt 19.22 NRSV), and for all we know after he grieves he sells all he owns. After all, in Mt 19.26, Jesus says, “for God all things are possible.” Part of my point here is that today we bring a huge weight of tradition to the gospels, tradition which may or may not have something to do with what the gospels say. My $.02 worth.
Dani — Stories about Buddha are coming soon. I don’t know enough about the Darshan, so you’ll have to wait a while for that.
It’d be really cool if you did it with puppets, and Divine-like voices. For you know, as an educational tool for kids.
Dani — Yeah, except not with the kind of puppets I own. I mean, I can’t see Buddha played by Plush Cthulhu….
But I can!
Thanks for this! I’m preaching on the parable of the mustard seed Sunday and your video was food for thought about where to take it.