Sunday 30 July 2023
- Bible Book:
- Matthew
He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’ (v. 33)
Background
Today's reading offers many ways of thinking about the kingdom of heaven. Let me suggest that one is to think of God in a kitchen, baking bread. (v. 33) The woman in the story takes a small bit of yeast and mixes it with three measures of flour. That's Jesus' simple illustration: God is mixing yeast into the dough of our lives until the whole world has risen.
"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast," Jesus says. Yeast. It is an image with a cutting edge. Yeast bubbles, ferments, disturbs, agitates. Yeast is hard to control. Yeast is transformative. The kingdom of heaven isn't merely growing quietly in our midst; it is bubbling inside us, fermenting, agitating and transforming us into something new. The movement of God within our lives may well be disturbing and unsettling. This is counter to popular thinking, which runs: "I want God to make the world a safe and secure place for me and my loved ones. I want God to make my life easier, less stressful, more stable, and secure."
Three measures of flour are about 16 five-pound (2.2kg) bags. The woman in her kitchen mixes the flour with water in a tub, adds just a little bit of yeast, she kneads it, and she sets it aside and this little bit of yeast will transform the flour into enough dough to bake enough bread to feed 100 people.
It is partly the same point Jesus was making in the parable of the mustard seed. (vs 31-32)
What God is doing in our lives and in the world may seem, to all appearances such a small thing: we read of a baby in a stable, an itinerant lone teacher on a hill, 11 ill-equipped disciples, an anonymous cross. And yet today: orphanages, schools, hospitals, homes for the elderly, hospices for the dying, shelters for the homeless, community projects and places of worship are all scattered across the world in the name of the baby born in a stable who died on the Cross.
To Ponder:
- What do you find helpful and what do you find unsettling about today’s image?
- In what ways is the kingdom of heaven bubbling, agitating, and fermenting inside you?
- Do you dismiss the small thing too quickly or easily?
Prayer
God of all history, whose continuing presence in the world is beyond my words, help me to be open to your presence, able to be courageous as your Spirit bubbles away inside me and more able to see and rejoice in the transformation you bring to my life. Amen.