Early in the pandemic, which feels like it was a hundred years ago now, I jumped on the sourdough starter bandwagon. Armed with a kitchen scale and a bag of flour, I measured and mixed and divided and waited, attentively feeding my starter twice a day and eagerly watching for the tiny bubbles that signaled fermentation and growth. At times when it seemed like nothing was happening, I frantically searched the articles on the King Arthur Flour website – what was the right temperature? What was it supposed to look like, and smell like? Had I killed it? Would it really make bread?
Turns out, sourdough’s pretty hardy. It did, in fact, make bread. And even when I forgot about my starter in the refrigerator for weeks at a time, a few cycles of flour and water and warmth and time were all it took to revive it. With the most basic attention, it could last for years! There are bakers still working from starters passed down from their grandmothers, many hands faithfully measuring and mixing and waiting and sharing.
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| Photo by AnnieSpratt on Unsplash |
In the set of parables in our Gospel text today, we hear Jesus compare the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed, yeast, a treasure hidden in a field, a valuable pearl, and a net filled with every kind of fish. Taken together, these images describe how the kingdom of heaven is abundant and growing; at times hidden; and of great value.
The kingdom of heaven is the focus of Jesus’ preaching throughout much of the Gospels. Using a variety of metaphors and connections to everyday experiences, Jesus paints a picture for his disciples and the gathered crowds of what life with and in God is like.
The vision he describes is often at odds with our experience of the world here and now. Can we even grasp an existence where the first are last and the last are first? Where the poor and lowly are lifted, up while the rich and powerful are cast down? This kingdom is both already here and not yet revealed; it’s about life that’s abundant and eternal, not just in the future but also today.
It is often difficult to see the kingdom of heaven among us here and now. This is true even when we’re not in the midst of a global pandemic, political upheaval, and all the other things that demand our attention these days. We may find ourselves asking, is God really present and at work in the world? How do we know what to look for? Can we mess things up enough that God’s kingdom won’t come near?
The parable of the yeast offers some insights for us. Just as yeast is indistinguishable and inseparable from the dough once it is mixed in, so too is God’s kingdom thoroughly mixed in and present in the whole world. As we hear in Romans, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” No one! “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The parable of the yeast also reminds us of the abundance and growth brought about by God’s presence with and among us. Three measures of flour works out to about 130 cups, and adding water and yeast to that would yield just over one hundred pounds of dough. Somehow, the yeast mixes through all of it and does its work. Can you picture that giant mass of dough bubbling and growing, steadily creeping up the side of the bowl and spilling over the edge? We, too, experience life and growth, brought about not by our own effort, but by the leavening presence of God.
It was a joy this week to read about this parable in Robert Farrar Capon’s book Kingdom, Grace, and Judgment. Here’s his conclusion: “All we need to do, and all we can do, is simply trust that the leaven is, was, and always will be entirely mixed into the lump of our existence – and that it will infallibly lighten every last one of us. The job is already, if mysteriously, done: by the power of the Word who breathed out his life for us on the cross – by the might of him who, in the glory of his resurrection, forever whispers our reconciled names into his Father’s ear – we are as good as baked to perfection right now.”
Though the kingdom of heaven in our midst can be challenging to see, especially these days, we trust that God is present and at work. We rejoice to see glimpses of the kingdom, visible in the love of God that bubbles up and spills over from us to others. We give thanks for a God whose gifts are abundant and for all, and who raises us up with Jesus.
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