Looking ahead to 2025, I look back to the summer worship series we did on some short stories Jesus told. I enjoy learning new things about familiar stories of Jesus. In particular, I like the parable of the yeast or leaven in Matthew 13:33-35.
Dr. Amy-Jill Levine writes, “leaven in antiquity is what we today call sourdough starter…it is essential for baking…the starter serves as the leavening agent when it is subsequently mixed in with more dough” (short stories by Jesus, 108, 111).
Yeast expands what it is added to. Leavened bread or congregations are the expanded product of the process, not the sum of their ingredients. There is a multiplying and transforming effect with the addition of yeast or sourdough starter.
And then there is this description of the sourdough starter. “Wild yeast and bacteria occur naturally in flour and also in the air we breathe. By creating a sourdough starter you are essentially cultivating a concentrated source of wild yeast and bacteria which you can then use to make bread and other baked goods” (https://pineapplefarmhouse.com/how-does-sourdough-starter-work/).
While I have more baking aspirations than actual baked goods to show, I like the spiritual insights here.
In the Kingdom of Heaven, God cultivates concentrated sources of grace for us to grow in faith.
These are some of my concentrated sources of grace:
- Study — Loving God with my mind, and looking into ideas, messages, or opportunities with curious and critical perspectives.
- Prayer — I experience this as a spiritual gift and as safe & honest time with God.
- Grief — This has been a positive element in my life and ministry. I affirm Susan Piver’s observation in “The Importance of Sadness” that “Despair is what happens when you fight sadness. Compassion is what happens when you don’t.”
Another fascinating insight for me is the amount of flour. Again Dr. Levine writes, “Three measures, in first century terms, is not synonymous with three cups. Three measures of flour is somewhere between forty and sixty pounds (see the New International Version). The dough would be far too much for one woman to knead on her own, and the yield would be far too much for one person to consume” (short stories by Jesus, 121).
The Kingdom of Heaven is social and communal, more than any one individual experience or life. It involves all of us.
What are your concentrated sources of grace? What has slowly grown and gradually transformed your life and faith? Are you adding these concentrated sources to your spiritual and social lives? What has transformed our congregation?
Let’s be ready to join those larger-than-any-one-of-us baking efforts that God has already started as we give thanks for the slow and powerful and nourishing presence of the Kingdom of Heaven as 2025 begins. Amen.