You are probably wondering what a parable is. That’s easy. “Parables are imaginary gardens with real toads in them” (M. Moore). In other words, parables are harmless little stories until they grab hold of you and rip your head off. To say it much more nicely, a parable is more than a narrative with some homespun wisdom. Instead, it is a weapon of mass disruption designed to make the hearers think or, maybe more accurately, make them rethink everything they believe. In short, parables intend to distract an audience so that when the audience isn’t looking, it can hit them with the truth in a way they didn’t see coming! See, parables are not simple stories. They are stories with teeth. But to do that, parables employ the “unexpected twist”—a twist in the story that no one saw coming, a twist in the story that was shocking, a twist in

What’s wrong with this picture? Robert Shurtleff (1760-1827) was a former indentured servant who enlisted in the Continental Army to fight against the British in the Revolutionary War. As a member of the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, Robert served with distinction. He acted as a scout behind enemy lines in New York. He led an attack against a Tory force and captured 15 enemy soldiers. And at Yorktown, while enduring heavy cannon fire, he stormed a British redoubt. His heroism was not lost on his friends, even though they often made fun of him for his boyish good looks (they even called him “Molly” because he could not grow a beard). During his time of service, he was wounded twice. He received a deep gash on his forehead from a British sword and was shot in the thigh (he removed the pistol ball from his leg by himself). However, in 1783,