What's a parable?

Yeah, we all know what a parable is: a story that is not really a story, but sort of a riddle -- with a point we may or may not get.
Half-right.
A parable is a story, from everyday life, which tells of bigger meaning in everyday life, using the things and people of everyday life.
For Jesus, parables seemed to be his favorite way of talking, his favorite way of telling. And, he was ALWAYS telling stories about one thing: the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven. He was ALWAYS trying to illustrate what it IS like (note present tense, as in PRESENT REALITY, as in "the KINGDOM IS AT HAND"). This Sunday's scripture is from the section in St. Matthew's Gospel that is almost nothing but Jesus telling parables, chapter 13. There's just one after the other, after the other, and they are all about the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven, what it looks like, what it feels like, what it IS like. A couple of times in all this telling, the disciples get perplexed because to them (and to us) those parables seem like riddles. But he calms them, and explains, giving answers to their confusion. This week, Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23, he explains about how the Kingdom is based on the Word of God, which is like a farmer who sows seeds indiscriminately in his fields. Some seeds land where the birds come and eat them. Some seeds land on rocks and thus get no root. Some seeds land on soil that is not deep and they can't grow. Some seeds land where the sun parches them and they die. But a few, just a few, land on fertile soil with all the right conditions for growth. And these few provide a rich and bountiful harvest, a harvest so great it is hard to even imagine.
Later he explains:
God is the sower, and God's word is the seed. It is out there, provided for us richly and lavishly. God's word either takes root, or it doesn't.
But here's the clincher: God doesn't just sow once, but again and again and again and again through every season imaginable, every harsh condition for growth, including flood and drought . . . God is tireless and relentless in pursuit of us, no matter what. And God's word is eternal. It will not die.
Jesus tells a nice story here with the sole purpose of giving hope and meaning to our everyday lives.
THAT'S a parable. A good one.
a.