111 Leaven

    (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Leaven”, originally shared on April 29, 2021. It was the 111th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   Leaven rhymes with heaven, yet would it surprise you to know that most of what the Bible says about leaven, as a metaphor, is bad? Today, we’re going to look at why Jesus spoke about being leaven as a good thing.

   Leaven is the key element in one of Jesus’ shortest parables, recorded in Matthew 13:33: “He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

   Baking bread was one of the most common activities of the ancient world, and for most of human history. It has become a popular hobby during the pandemic. The kingdom of heaven is wherever God reigns, and Jesus said that it’s like yeast, a small amount of which leavens the much greater whole.

   Leaven is what makes bread rise, but yeast is just one type of leaven. There are other leavening agents that are chemical, like baking soda, baking powder, and even potash. And there are leavening agents that are natural, like yeast, beer, yogurt, and buttermilk.

   Did you ever wonder why Jesus ate unleavened bread at his last supper? I think it’s interesting that leaven only gets one completely positive treatment when used as a metaphor in the Bible, and that’s in the quote from Jesus that we just read. That, and its parallel in Luke 13:20-21. Everywhere else, leaven was regarded as a form of corruption. It was sometimes used as a metaphor for sin.

   The story of Jesus death happens near the beginning of the feast of unleavened bread, also known as Passover. In Jesus’ day, one crop followed another and there was a desire to keep the new crop from being contaminated by the old one. Likewise, some bread dough was allowed to ferment to produce leaven for the next loaf and there was a desire to keep the new bread from being contaminated by the old bread. During the festival of unleavened bread, everyone took a break from the leaven of the old bread and all leaven was to be removed from the house in order to start over.

   Paul uses this as a metaphor for sin and forgiveness in the life of a Christian, for blatant and unrepentant sinners in the life of the Christian community, and for the forgiveness that follows repentance, in 1 Corinthians 5, starting with the 6^th verse:

*I Corinthians 5:6-8

   Forgiveness is the end of the old life and the beginning of a new start. The Christian then must struggle to be who they are, put right with God by God’s gift. To avoid the contaminants of the old life, including the old bad influences.

   Leaven can cease to do its job. It can become corrupted. And it can cease to be active. That is, it will cease to be alive. It will die after a certain amount of time, and that time will be shortened if it is not cared for properly.

   God will never abandon us, but we can cease to be what we are in Jesus Christ, and then we die. God will never let us go and calls us again to repentance and new life by the Holy Spirit, the streams of living water, that is within us.

   Leaven can only do its job if it continues to be leaven, for good or for evil. But if it is what it is, it only takes a little to influence the whole loaf.

   I baked a couple of loaves of bread the other day. I used a little over three measures (cups) of flour, some water and coarse kosher salt, and just a little bit of leaven. That little bit of leaven made the loaves rise.

   We are the people of God, the Church, the Body of Christ at work in the world. We don’t have to be many to be ambassadors of the reign of God in the lives of people or of countries, or of the whole world. We only have to live as the new Creation God has made us to be, with Christian integrity and character, that is to live by faith in the transformational power of the Holy Spirit, God’s ongoing personal presence in the world.

   God brings God’s reign and God’s grace to the world through us, the people of God, through new lives in the Holy Spirit, by being who we are.

   Open your heart, confess your sin, and receive the forgiveness of Jesus Christ today. God accepts you as you are. But God won’t leave you as you are. Walk in newness of life. Be the leaven, the little bit that makes the world rise up and greet the one true living God as the Church, the Body of Christ, in the reign of God.