Tiny Can Make Big And Bigger

I am still not finished with yesterdays blog.  But I had this response to my visit to Jesus parables and want to honor it.  

"The mustard seed charm with the verse was the first one I received upon Confirmation.  Comforting to know that even that little bit of faith can get us through.  Think I will start to rely on the little bit of faith that I seem to have now and perhaps it will grow with a little faith from me and a lot of help from God."

I was also given that tiny symbol of God’s precious promise as a little girl.  I had it around my neck for years.  Now, as I think about it, I can’t remember what ever happened to it.  

Faith does not have to be strong or big.  Just there in its own way.  God is just grateful that we have faith no matter how large or small.  That is part of what Jesus is referring to in these parables — the power of small.  The other day we heard the power of the mustard seed.  Today we hear about yeast.

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." 

We use yeast all of the time.  Right?  In bread, pizza dough, cakes etc.  We don’t even think about it, unless it doesn’t work.  As long as it does what we desire we’re good.  However in Jesus day, and before,  yeast was a not so desirable ingredient.  

The Greek word for yeast is ‘zyme'.  Zyme is a corrupting agent.   Something that is unclean, not pure.  And runs parallel to moral impurity.  Yeast was not to be used in Jewish food in any way.

The other day we read that Jesus used the mustard seed — a weed producing element — to refer to the kingdom of heaven.  Now he uses the sinful little granules of yeast to do the same.  Both the tiny seed and the tiny granules make bigger!  Both were undesirable to the Jewish faith.  

The point in both parables is that it doesn’t take big to make bigger.  That small can make big, and maybe even faster.  That tiny can create possibility and change.

The people of the Jewish faith would instantly have paid  attention to both of these unlikely analogies.  They would not have appreciated either.  We in todays world don’t even give it a second thought.  They are both considered almost generic, with no real influence in our thinking.  When actually we might be wise to pay attention.  These two tiny elements help us to finally understand the potency of a small, but sincere, faith.  

I have used this quote before from Mother Teresa: “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”  

I am thinking that one of things Jesus was getting at was that all of us, with our tiny faith, can make the kingdom of heaven grow — come alive.  Maybe not as fast as the mustard seed grows or as yeast grows; but grow none-the-less.

Because without the actions of the faithful down through the centuries God’s Kingdom would have died.  When we act, and speak, with God’s love in our hearts others take notice.  And that is one way the kingdom grows!

It is this love -- this faith -- that seems to be missing in our national activity today.