Parable

Christian Dallavis hits a home run!

     Christian is the assistant superindendent of Partnership Schools and is directly working with our two schools in Cleveland:  St. Thomas Aquinas and Archbishop Lyke.  Anyone involved in education is asked daily about what are we going to do about going back to school.  Christian first emphasizes the mission that we share.  Whatever we do, and a month from now is in some ways an eternity, must be driven by our mission. Here is the link to his response, gaining national attention:  click here.

Time to renew our buildings!

This Wednesday, Partnership Cleveland in conjunction with Dominic Ozanne and Ozanne Construction

is beginning what I call the "Spruce up!" campaign.  First activity will be a fresh coat of paint for the interior of both schools.  1535 gallons of Sherwin-Williams paint is going to cover the schools (pardon the play on Sherwin-Williams tagline, Cover the Earth). I am gathering up a plethora of "before" pictures!  If anyone wants to take a quick tour of either building, I will be your socially distant, masked guide.  Just give me a shout on email!

Pardon me, at heart I am a theologian!

Today's Gospel contains a well known parable about mustard seeds and grains of yeast.  I met Dominic Crossan when I was in graduate school at Loyola University Chicago.  He was the guest of one my best professors of all time, Bob Ludwig . He introduced me to another way of looking at Jesus' parables.  They are portrayed in the Gospels of Mathew, Mark, and Luke (sorry, no parables in John) as riddles, moral stories or allegories.  Crossan's contention was that the work of a parable as told by Jesus was that "parables challenged their hearers to step back and reflect on the world and on God in new, counter-intuitive ways. They invite their hearers to ponder “whatever is taken totally for granted in our world."

Walter Brueggeman also presented this idea in his idea of God's abundance.  If you are looking for a reflective book for Advent I suggest Celebrating Abundance.   Whenever God initiates change in the scripture it is through the least likely suspects:  David, the youngest of seven, is named king by-passing his six brothers; Moses, the exiled Egyptian master with a speech impediment; Jeremiah-too young; and his biggest surpise, a baby from the hinterlands!  In many of these parables there is a theme of something small, often insignificant, planted or mixed in and then the magic happens!  

Another theme is someone is faced with the "impossible."  Storms swamp the boat.  An exiled traitor is told to go to the most powerful man on earth and say, "Let my people go!"  A woman is told that her daughter is dead, so don't bother Jesus anymore (his classic response is "Diregard the message.  Just have faith!").  Walk on water!  Fish again after coming up empty all night, and go out into the deep this time!  Go fight the 9 foot giant with a sling shot!  Bringing a paralysed man to get cured by Jesus, only to find a house so full they can't get in (ok, climb the roof, take off the thatch and lower him in!)  Andy, my thought partner, introduced me to the idea of wicked problems (no he's not from Boston), which is a theory of problems in planning and policies. One characteristic of wicked problems is that "The problem is not understood until after the formulation of a solution."  Let that sink in!

Saint Ignatius wrote that the greatest temptation is to think that a problem is so big that there is nothing I can do.  I am throwing my lot in with the Partnership Schools model.  Nine schools in the entire world are following this model.  Sounds like a mustard seed!