9th Sunday after Pentecost
Matthew 13:31-33 & 44-52
[Jesus] put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in their field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” 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.”
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in their joy they go and sell all that they have and buy that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, they went and sold all that they had and bought it. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So, it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And, [Jesus] said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of their treasure what is new and what is old.”
Like Amish Friendship Bread
Do you all remember about 20 years ago, when that Amish friendship bread was going around? Did any of you receive a gift of a gallon-sized Ziplock bag of mysterious goo, along with a set of instructions on how to take care of it? In case anyone doesn’t know, Amish friendship bread is a sort of cinnamon sourdough coffee cake that you make with a starter, a living mixture of flour and water and yeast that you have to feed and take care of, it’s kind of like a pet. You take a portion of it out for your baking, and the rest of it lives on for you to bake another day.
Some people have starters that they use to make sourdough bread; some starters have been around for years, it’s basically the same thing. But, with the Amish friendship bread, the whole point is that over the course of ten days, you feed it so much and it grows so big that after you remove a portion to make the coffee cake, you have enough to give four portions away to four different people so that they can start Amish friendship bread journeys of their own. And, even after giving all of that away, and using some of it to make the coffee cake, you’re still left with enough starter to feed and take care of so that the cycle can start again.
The problem is, that after a few cycles, you start running out of friends to give Amish friendship bread starter to, not to mention all of the people that you’ve already given the starter to, who have to find friends of their own to share their baby starters with. I did some calculations for this, out of curiosity, and I found out that after 30 days, if everyone stuck with it, feeding and growing and taking care of their starters and giving four new baby starters to four new people every ten days, you would have 80 Amish friendship bread starters being tended to, and growing, until they were ready to be divided and foisted upon the next group of unwitting Amish friendship bread caregivers.
In just five months, five months, there would be more than enough Amish friendship bread starters for every single person in world to have one of their own. 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. The kingdom of heaven is like Amish friendship bread starter, everyone will eventually get one.
If you haven’t been lucky enough to be the recipient of one of these baby starters, you can make one for yourself by combining:
¼ cup room temperature water
1 package active dry yeast (about 2¼ tsp)
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
The directions for how to care for your starter are as follows:
Day 1: Do nothing.
The kingdom of heaven is a gift from our Creator. We do not have the power to create heaven. The kingdom of heaven is impossibly vast, and understanding it is beyond our imagination. This is why we must speak of it through metaphor and story. We do not earn our way into heaven. It is through the sacrifice of Jesus that we that we will all live together in eternity. It is yet another gift. We do nothing for this to come about. It has been given to us freely by God’s grace and God’s love.
Day 2: Mush the bag.
Day 3: Mush the bag.
Day 4: Mush the bag.
Day 5: Mush the bag.
Even though we cannot create heaven, this does not mean that we cannot interact with it. Heaven means so many different things to different people. Some believe that we will not see heaven until after we have passed away. I believe that God wants us to help with the in-breaking of heaven in the here and now. When we are kind to one another, that is like the kingdom of heaven. When we are generous with one another, that is like the kingdom of heaven. When we forgive each other, when we are fair and just with each other, when we love each other, that is like the kingdom of heaven. We don’t have to wait until we die to experience it. God is with us now, our friends and our family are with us right now. The in-breaking of the kingdom of God is happening right now, all around us. We just need to reach out and touch it. We just need to mush the bag.
Day 6: Add to the bag: 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of milk. Mush the bag.
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in their field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. When you first receive your Amish friendship bread starter, it will be small, just one cup of a soft beige paste in a Ziplock bag. But as you care for it, it will grow, and soon it will be so much larger than the small amount that you received. When a person first hears about the kingdom of heaven, it isn’t something that that they will understand right away. But, over time, their understanding will grow, until they eventually experience it for themselves, and it will be grander and more magnificent than anything they could have imagined.
Day 7: Mush the bag.
Day 8: Mush the bag.
Day 9: Mush the bag.
Day 10: Add 1½ cup each of milk, flour, and sugar. Mix well. Reserve 5 cups of the starter, and set aside.
To the remaining starter add:
4 eggs
1½ cups oil (or ½ cup oil and ½ cup applesauce)
¾ cup milk
1½ cups sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon
¾ tsp. vanilla
2¼ tsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
3 cups flour
1 large box of instant vanilla pudding
Grease the bottom of 2 loaf pans and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Pour the batter into the pans and sprinkle the top with sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool until the bread loosens from the pan easily.
Divide the reserved starter into five 1-cup portions. Save one portion for yourself and give the remaining four to your closest friends. It is our job to share the Good News with the people around us. We are supposed to tell people about God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice. The kingdom of heaven is like Amish friendship bread starter, everyone will eventually get one.
Last week we talked about the parable of the wheat and the weeds. This week, we have the parable of the mustard seed. These parables would have made sense to the farmers that heard them. These parables were for the farmers. The parable of the yeast would have made sense for any of the women hearing it, who would have had to make bread for their families every day. The parables of the treasure and the pearl would have appealed to merchants, and the parable about the fish was for the fishermen.
Jesus spoke to the people using language that they would understand. We only talk about hidden meanings and lack of understanding because the subject matter was so complicated and impossible huge. But, God wants to talk to us. God is still speaking. It’s one of the slogans of our church. God is still speaking, yes, though our sacred texts in the Bible, but also through each other. Through the wind, and the water, and the trees. God speaks to us through the stories that we tell, in the books that we read, in the poetry that we write. God speaks to us through art and music. God speaks to us through Amish friendship bread.
We serve an active and present and loving God. A God who wants to be in relationship with us and wants us to be in relationship with each other. That message is everywhere, if only we’re willing to open our eyes and our ears and our hearts to receive it. Look for your story. Listen for your story. And, share it with the world. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
