Calling a parable fiction – it really
won’t do; fiction has a commercial tag,
or some other motive of selfish gain;
a parable is for morality.
In the discussion this morning, some guests
were quick to point out the New Testament
was ‘full of fiction – in the parables’,
but moral teaching cannot be called fiction.
The parables stand for reality,
a fiction mimics it, it loses it,
as though to create an alternative,
to commandeer real forms for its own ends.
The parables are as real as the people
they are preached to, fiction but appeals to
imagination, usurps providence
in its plot, and throws God out of the window.
