The Kingdom Is a Weed: Parables, Biblical Animism, and Ecological Storytelling

Mustard Seeds and fig trees and lilies and birds. Jesus’ primary mode of teaching, parables, were dominated by nature metaphors. The Jewish tradition, within which Jesus was raised, had a profound sense that land was sacred and inhabited by God. The Biblical King David watched the wind moving through trees for messages from God. Elisha saw divinity in a rain cloud the “size of a hand”. Joseph of Egypt “dreamed” with plants in order to predict droughts and crop failures. Second Temple Period Palestine was a richly biodiverse landscape, home to deserts and jungles, lions and leopards, beloved trees and holy mountains and home to a people who honored and depended on plants and animals for their livelihood. It was from these very real kin that Jesus drew his most powerful metaphors and teachings. By reweaving the rabbi back into his web of relations, how can we understand parables as a mode of ecological storytelling? How can we use this mode of storytelling to come into relationship with our own locales?