Word to the Wise
Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - Tuesday in the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
[Ephesians 5:21-33 and Luke 13:18-21]To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flours until the whole batch of dough was leavened. (Luke}.
Those of us who like to bake bread (and I am one of "those") will find Jesus' image in today's gospel very familiar. The action of yeast in flour never fails to amaze me, even if it is simply a matter of food chemistry! Bakers also know that from time to time we put the ingredients together, add the yeast, knead the dough, put it out to "rise" and nothing happens! This can be part of the mystery (and frustration) of baking! Another aspect of Jesus' image of yeast and flour may, however, escape us. The image that comes just before this one in today's gospel is that of the mustard seed - indicating its small size as a seed and its large size as a bush. The size contrast may be missed in the yeast image if we don't take a moment to realize that the word "measure" is not a relative term. A biblical "measure" is almost a bushel. The lady in the image is using a bit of yeasted flour from an earlier batch to leaven a very large amount of flour. When we take the attitude that our "puny" efforts are not worth much given the size of the problems our world and church face, we are as much as saying that the mustard seed is not worth planting or the bread worth mixing. The result can be that no one gets anything to eat! Tiny seeds and dusty spores of yeast can yield far, far more than their initial weight and size. If one needs a modern human example, one might consider Mother Teresa of Calcutta! But there are many other dedicated Christians who do not allow themselves to be intimidated by the size of the task. They are like the little sparrow who heard that the sky was falling. She lay down by the roadside and put her little feet up in the air and pushed with all her might. A rider saw her straining and asked her what she was doing. She replied, "I heard the sky is falling and I'm trying to hold it up with my feet!" The rider replied, "Sparrow! Do you think your puny little legs can hold up the sky?" The sparrow replied, "One does what one can!" AMEN
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