August 1, 2010: Yeast: How do you bring Jesus to Life?
Posted on : Jul 29th, 2010 | By office | Category: This Sunday's Service
This Sunday we will have a delicious, mouth-watering, fresh baked-bread, aroma filled service! Even in our carb-conscious culture, this is worth savoring!
There is a two sentence parable in the gospel Luke (and Matthew). It’s one of the few parables that Jesus used in teaching that obviously didn’t need to be interpreted. That’s the reason it’s only two sentences long! It also is not often the focus of a sermon or a service. But it is a powerhouse parable.
Here it is:
Jesus continued, “What does the realm of God resemble? What is it like? It is like the yeast which a baker added to three measures of flour and kneaded until the whole ball of dough began to rise.”
Throughout Jesus ministry, people were always asking him “What is the realm of God is like?” Today we probably would ask Jesus the question, “How do we live a spiritual life?” In other words, how do we make this life (our life) “holy” or “sacred?”
In the world in which Jesus lived, bread was the staple of every diet. Everyone ate bread. That’s partly because Jesus lived in a primarily agrarian culture (most people were farmers or shepherds) but also because they lived “close to the land.” There were no stores and no consumer-economy. People worked the land, which grew the grain, which was harvested as wheat, ground into flour, mixed, and baked into bread. Shepherds often exchanged wool or meat for grain. From our perspective today, this was a pretty “simple lifestyle.”
The key to baking bread is yeast. In Jesus’ time it was called “leaven.” Yeast or leaven is that which makes the bread rise. In Jesus’ life time, bread baking was pretty much the work of women; and just like birth itself, this “feminine task” was in every way seen as connected to the cycle of life. Bread was “the source of life.” It was the staple of the human diet in Jesus’ world, much like rice is in many Asian cultures today. Bread was eaten at every meal. If you were lucky, you could have some stew with it or lentils or fish, but when none of those other things were available the people depended and lived on bread. If you didn’t have bread, you died. So bread became the symbol of life. That’s why it plays such an important part in the sacrament of Communion!
Obviously today bread is not the staple of our diet. Bread is often simply something which enhances our meal. In our carb-conscious culture, many restaurants in LA don’t even serve bread with meals or if they do, the wait staff almost always asks if you want bread before bringing it to you.
We live in such a different world than our spiritual ancestors! But if we lived in a much less affluent time, bread would be a staple in our diet. So going back to the image of Bread as the staple, the source of life in the ancient world, we encounter this simple teaching of Jesus in which he offers an example of what the spiritual life is like: “It is like the yeast which a baker added to three measures of flour and kneaded until the whole ball of dough began to rise.”
Yeast? The spiritual life is like YEAST? You’re kidding, right?
This Sunday, our friend and sister-in-faith, Sharon Tool will be helping us figure out what this parable means. Sharon is an extraordinary bread-baker!!! She bakes fresh bread for every Communion service at her home church, United University Church on the USC campus and for their social time after worship. For those who attended our annual combined Good Friday Service with United University Church, you got to “taste” Sharon’s bread at the Bread Breaking station of the cross. It’s some of the most delicious bread in the world. During our worship, Sharon will be making bread on the Communion Table as together we explore what this two sentence parable means for our faith. And for Communion, Sharon will have a loaf of scrumptious fresh baked bread for us to share!
Obviously, it’s about the yeast, but it’s not the yeast itself. It’s what the yeast “does!” So as we prepare for this Sunday, let me ask you to think about this: How do you bring Jesus to life? How are you like “yeast?” How have others brought Jesus to life for you? How are they like “yeast?”
This Sunday – Come hungry and leave filled!
God Bless!
Dan
This Sunday’s Scripture:
Luke 13: 18, 20-21
Jesus offers an illustration of what the realm of God resembles.
Jesus continued, “What does the realm of God resemble? What is it like?
To what will I compare the realm of God? It is like the yeast which a baker added to three measures of flour and kneaded until the whole ball of dough began to rise.”