Excerpt from an article I am writing on the parables of Jesus

To make sense and intensify the relevancy of some of the issues present in the parables of Jesus, we must also think about the problem billions of people in the world face today; those people who live below sustenance level in often marginal conditions with inadequate nutrition, insecure shelter, no housing, no access to education and health care, etc. Poverty is a global problem and the most devastating social problem with numerous ramifications in the ways it affects society. As such, any study at the heart of social justice and the biblical narratives must address the staggering socio-economic disparities between various living segments of society and the inhumane living conditions of millions in the world, and most importantly, such study must seek to find ways to procure and develop practical plans with solutions to end poverty. The parables are solid examples of ancient narratives that disclose how social-economic disparities and social ills were at the core of systemic oppression and the marginalization of other human beings. Some of these narratives reveal an alternative vision of a new society and a new way of being that although it is for this world, it does not share the socio-economic values of this world. This new way of being is what is conceived as the realm of God in the parables.