By Jim Nichols

At the entrance to a large multi-store like Walmart or a grocery store, it is common to encounter a person or two (usually including children) with boxes in front of them containing either puppies or kittens. They are at some distance from the store itself on the driveway leading to the store. They hold cardboard signs advertising the animals. Since almost all of us like either puppies or kittens (or both), there is a temptation to stop and see. We tell ourselves to beware of becoming responsible for yet another animal; the responsibilities for something alive are high.

Did you know that there are live organisms packaged on shelves inside those very stores? Those packages are usually either small cubes wrapped in foil or in paper envelopes; perhaps they read “Fleischmann’s Yeast.”

This sounds like the beginning of a biology lesson.

It is strange to think that one could go to the food section of a store and buy something that is alive. In those packages or cubes there are more single-celled organisms than we would want to count. They are microscopic and currently in a dormant state. If we add water, they spring back to active life, consuming nutrients and producing ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. Those of you with baking experience know that the added water must not be too hot; heat will kill the yeast and associated bacteria, another indication that they are alive.

A more sophisticated version of this activity involves using a “starter” rather than consistently purchasing packaged yeast. Once dough is flourishing, it is possible to remove a small portion and use it as the “starter” for subsequent dough. The starter consists of yeast and bacteria as a live fermenting culture of flour and water. Kept either at room temperature or in the refrigerator, one cares for the starter by consistent addition of more flour and water. Sometimes lasting for extended periods of time, this is clearly a baker’s art and there are multiple variations of the process and wonderfully tasting results. The history of such baking no doubt coincides with the history of humans.

This would all connect with the experience of those hearing or reading scripture in the past or now. In Luke 13 Jesus is trying to explain the kingdom of God. Explaining spiritual matters with human terms often comes up short. We are stuck with using images and metaphors that only weakly address the topic. Jesus the human apparently had the same problem. In this instance, first he speaks of a small mustard seed growing into a tree. Perhaps seeing the blank looks on his listeners’ faces, he then adds, “. . . the kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

Then some of his listeners understood. Jesus is saying that just as a small amount of yeast has the capacity to initiate great growth and change, so too does tapping into the kingdom of God. A small interest and experience with that kingdom can yield unexpected changes. 

What is the spiritual parallel to the baker’s starter? What is something that seems almost obscure until one infuses it into a prepared place? 

It seems almost too simple to identify that it is God’s love. With all the social, political, and generally negative human noise around us, every so often we see an illustration of human self-sacrifice that one would explain only by the surfacing of love. The television news might have a segment of “there’s good news tonight.” Cynicism and complaining fade when love appears. Judgmentalism withers into retreat when confronted with “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” The darkness of the world cannot be sustained when followers of God forsake complaining and replace it with hope, peace, joy, and love.

Writer Peter W. Marty suggests we consider the power of the word “yes.” It is a word that builds, creates, and heals. If we can each work to adopt a posture of hope, we will open the window of God’s leaven into our lives. Darkness will become less dark, and the light will seem closer.

Like yeast, love shows its hidden powers when it is shared and begins reproducing itself. 

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain