Scripture: Matthew 13:33–35
Today we are going to share a wondering experience together in the style of Godly Play. Godly Play is a Christian formation curriculum that I have been trained in and love. It begins with the belief that from a young age, children feel and know the presence of the divine. Through storytelling and wondering questions, children are invited into the stories of God and together they wonder where God is and what God might be saying to them in each story. One genre of Godly Play stories are parables and each begin with a golden box, and the storyteller says something like this:
This box is gold, like something valuable. Parables are very valuable, I wonder if a parable is inside. This box also looks like a present. Parables are presents that are given to us by God. They are a gift that we cannot buy or lose but are always waiting ready for us. Sometimes parables are hard to open but if we keep coming back, one day a parable will open for us, and each time we open a parable, God might have a new gift inside for us. Let’s open the box and see if a parable is inside.
It looks like a parable is inside. But there are a few things that are good to know before we begin. This parable talks about leaven, which is often translated yeast. But in the Bible, bread wasn’t made with yeast like we use today, bread was made with leaven, similar to what we would call a starter dough, where yeast naturally forms over days as a mixture of flour and water is mixed and cared for. Leaven was then divided, some was saved and some was then mixed in with flour for bread. This is some leaven.
Each time a parable is told in Godly Play, it begins like this, “There once was someone who said such amazing things and did such wonderful things that people began to follow him. As they followed him, he told them about a kingdom: the Kingdom of Heaven…” Similar to “once upon a time”, this opening phrase signals to listeners that a special story is about to be told and it welcomes them into a new place to wonder what the Kingdom of Heaven is about. Today, I want to welcome you into this parable for a time of wondering, where there are no right or wrong answers, only wonderings—a holy conversation between you and God. I will guide you through a series of wondering questions that I have been pondering this week. I will name the wondering, ending with “Let’s wonder” and then there will be space for you to ponder it either by yourself or with someone next to you but you’ll only have about 30 seconds to wonder. Then I will provide some of my own reflections, I will repeat the questions again, and give you a second opportunity for private reflection. Together, we will go through 5 wondering questions. But first, let’s pray.
Baker God, who lovingly and patiently kneads your kingdom together, enter this place, that it might be a time for holy wonderings led by your spirit to speak to us anew. Give us open hearts, minds, and ears for what you have in store for us. Amen.
“There once was someone who said such amazing things and did such wonderful things that people began to follow him. As they followed him, he told them about a kingdom: the Kingdom of Heaven. But this kingdom was not like any kingdom they had heard about before. They did not understand. So one day, he said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven that a woman hid inside three measures of flour, and as she waited it grew and grew and grew until all of it was leavened.”
I wonder why Jesus used leaven in a parable? I wonder why Jesus used something ordinary and unclean in a parable about the kingdom of heaven? During Passover, Jews get rid of the leaven in their house and do not eat anything with leavening in it for seven days. In Exodus and Leviticus, it is instructed that altar sacrifices must not contain leaven, and Jesus even compares the toxic teachings of the Pharisees to leaven later in Matthew. Leaven had bad connotations, and once it entered a mixture, it could not be taken away. I wonder why Jesus used leaven in a parable? Let’s wonder…
I wonder why Jesus used leaven in a parable? I wonder if Jesus used leaven in a parable because he aimed to shock when he told parables, they were never what the listener was expecting. He used something ordinary, something people thought they knew all about, and then flipped it on its head. People thought they knew that leaven was unclean, but now Jesus was using this unclean thing to describe the Kingdom of Heaven—a place that must be holy and good. Well, Jesus himself was shocking. He hung out with the wrong kind of people…people considered sinners, unclean, outcasts, yet Jesus saw them, reached out to them, and their lives were transformed…maybe like leaven and flour become bread… I wonder why Jesus used leaven in a parable? Let’s wonder…
I wonder why the woman chose to prepare her dough in the way described? I wonder why she hid the leaven in the flour? Our translation says “mixed”… but “hid” or “concealed” is a better translation, the image that once the woman has put the leaven in the flour it cannot be seen. And I wonder why she used three measures of flour…about 50 pounds, enough to feed one hundred people. I wonder why the woman chose to prepare her dough in the way described? Let’s wonder…
I wonder why the woman chose to prepare her dough in the way described? I wonder if the woman was preparing for a party! I wonder if the woman prepared such a large batch of bread to give a message of abundance. In [the book of] John, Jesus says he has come so we can have an abundant life. In the Kingdom of Heaven, there is abundance; everyone will have more than enough, everyone will experience goodness and love. Why it remains hidden for now, like the leaven, I do not know…I wonder… I wonder why the woman chose to prepare her dough in the way described? Let’s wonder…
I wonder where you might be in this parable? the flour? the leaven? the bowl? a person watching, hungry for bread? something else? I wonder where you might be in this parable? Let’s wonder…
I wonder where you might be in this parable? As I pondered this question, as I kept coming back and opening this parable, I found two gifts. I opened the parable and first, I saw myself as one tiny cell of yeast, an agent of the Kingdom of God, in the world, the mixture. One cell of yeast would struggle to make a difference but when all of those working with God are spread all around the world, change does come.
I also saw myself as the mixture and that Baker God has put rising agents within me that are at work and waiting to be discovered as I become more and more of who God created me to be and I wondered what is the leaven in my life that will compel me to rise up. I wondered what that rising will look like.
I wonder where you might be in this parable? Let’s wonder…
I wonder how this parable or this wondering experience makes you feel? Let’s wonder…
This story gives me comfort. I love the image of God as a woman baking bread, of how she carefully mixes leaven in with an abundance of flour and then waits patiently for the dough to rise. I take comfort in this image because even though I struggle to see how God is at work in this world, this parable assures me that God is indeed at work, right now the work is just hidden, but in time—God’s time, which is nothing like my time—God’s work will be seen just like in time leaven works its way through the mixture, causing it to rise.
And this wondering experience makes me feel nervous because I am breaking all of the preaching rules I learned in seminary. Instead of delivering a sermon with a main idea, as I was taught, I led you through a series of questions that should have formed my sermon’s main idea. But that is the thing about parables…they aren’t 5 paragraph essays with a thesis and three supporting points…they are precious gifts that we can open again and again and discover something new each time. Parables can get messy, like baking bread, with many different interpretations or ingredients that can all result in delicious bread. I wonder how this parable and this wondering experience made you feel? Let’s wonder…
Lastly, I wonder if God is telling you anything from this parable today? This is a question I cannot provide commentary on because each person’s answer is different. I wonder if God is telling you anything from this parable today? Let’s wonder…
Amen.
Thank you for joining me in this wondering experience, for opening yourself up to questions and the work of the Holy Spirit. Our final hymn, our hymn of invitation is “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, the black national anthem, in honor of black history month. For while our church is predominantly white, we need to remember the stories of our siblings in Christ whose ancestors were enslaved and are still facing repercussions from that. This song tells stories of hardship of our siblings in Christ while proclaiming God’s faithfulness and naming our work as a part of the Kingdom of God. Let’s sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” #638.
Note: Today is Scout Sunday, and Scout Troops #60 and #6060 lead us in worship.
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