For those who may not know leaders within the Emergent Church movement do emphasize a truth that Jesus Himself was a Master storyteller. However, it is better put this way: our Lord is the Master Who often used stories and parables as He would teach.

Men within the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church like Rob Bell and Brian McLaren and Dan Kimball will tell us that Jesus used these parables in order to help people understand the truth about “the kingdom.”

However, in direct contradiction to these emerging Hollow Men this is actually not what the Master Himself told us:

“The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’ In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.’ ”

“ ‘For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.” (Matthew 13:11-16)

Ah, but this is a discussion for another time. Some of you may have originally seen me allude to the idea contained in this postmodern parable in my article Another Perspective For You Consideration. Perhaps the Lord has helped me to flesh it out as it were:

Once there was a strong tree made in the image of the Maker of all trees. One day, growing tired of the forest he emerged to the bank of a quietly flowing brook. “This is where I personally wish to experience the Tree Maker,” he said. So by some shiny rocks near the edge of that brook the tree spread out his roots in the soft moist soil.

Then one day the sun shone brighter, the heat became more intense and the tree looked up to Heaven and asked God to fill him with relief. And finally as cooling rains came, the tree closed his eyes, concentrated upon the waters surging within, and drank his fill. But he did not notice that the brook had now started to flow even more quickly.

Ever so slowly as the rains came down the waters started rising and running more swiftly carrying away with it larger and larger pieces of earth out from beneath the slumbering tree. The other trees in the forest tried to get him to come away from the edge of the brook as the waters continued rising higher and running even harder, but the tree was too centered down into his own pleasant experience within and simply refused to listen to their warning.

Until one day it was too late for him to move back away from the bank and into the safety of the forest. You see the ground had been cut completely out from underneath the tree until there was nothing left for his roots to hold onto anymore. And so suddenly he fell with a loud crash into that brook, which by now had become as a raging river, that immediately swept the tree away to be seen no more…