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Of all these metaphors used by Jesus in the Matthew passage, there is one I get. I understand yeast. Mustard seed is another matter. I know what the mustard plant looked like in the fields of West Virginia. It was not so big. Yet in the springtime, it turned the fields bright yellow. I know that now little mustard seeds sit in a minuscule red box on my shelf in the kitchen cupboard and that mustard seeds have been ground and have been made into a flavorful condiment, which sits in my refrigerator awaiting sandwich making. From tiny seed to giant tree, I know nothing.

And as for a pearl of great price, given the stock market, I wish I had one. However tasty, my oysters have always been quite empty.

Growing up in the hills of Appalachia, I became a pretty good storyteller, but somehow we never got into parables much. Perhaps it is because we are all too long winded, and enjoy ever so much seeing where the tale will take us. Parables are far too short and pithy!

Treasures hidden in a field have also eluded me, at least the kind I think Jesus is talking about. As a child, everything I found in the field was a Treasure, but I never found any boxes of old Spanish gold coins, or the like.

Nets of fish are outside my experience also. Frankly, I use a fly rod and flies and I do not sort much. If the sign says "Catch and Release" I put them back. If not, I eat them. That is all there is to it!

Maybe that is why Jesus told so many parables about the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a good chance that at least one of them will hit home. I do understand yeast!

Some of you know that in my seminary days, I handled my tensions around tests and paper writing by baking bread. There was also a side benefit. If all the tension was making me a bit of a bear to live with, the suffering family members could at least fill their bellies with warm fresh bread from the oven making them easier to live with. During that time, I found a great recipe for oatmeal bread. One of the benefits, the recipe said, was that it made great communion bread. In fact, that is true. But the recipe was clearly written for me, at that time. It actually invited me to take out my tensions on the dough, as I kneaded it. But best of all, the recipe refers to the topic at hand as "yeast beasties." After I quit laughing, I decided that was a very apt description. Some of my loaves that should have risen easily, remained as flat as pancakes, and others surpassed normal height, expanding beyond the rim of the bowl and overflowing onto the kitchen counter. Beasties indeed! In fact, the people of Biblical times thought that yeast actually messed things up. And certainly, there would be no yeast in the holy bread baked for Passover.

In our culture we refer to some situations as being yeasty. As I understand that phrase, it means that things are fermenting or bubbling up. In a group this may mean that people have different ideas or even values or goals, and need to work through all that to come to something greater than anything one individual could conceive. That time may be uncomfortable for some and energizing for others. Some may see it borrowing from my recipe as a "beastie" time.

What interesting images to use when describing the Kingdom of Heaven: Yeasty, full of little beasties, unpredictable, fermenting, bubbling up, messing things up, and not fit for holy bread. Yet, the result of all that, when it is working well, is that one ends up with delicious nourishment for both body and soul, as it is shared with dear ones around the table. What is not at all holy becomes holy in the partaking of the final outcome. This is also often true for yeasty groups.

All of these metaphors from Matthew's Gospel begin with the person having nothing or having something tiny and insignificant, or something hidden from them. But then, the person discovers that they have been gifted with something of great worth. 50 the metaphor is one of movement from small beginnings to extravagant promise.

Some of the Jesus Seminar Scholars, Steve Patterson being one of them, refer to the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God as the Empire of God to show the contrast with the Roman Empire as they believe was the original intention and a more accurate translation. Think about that in relation o these metaphors. The Jesus movement must have seemed like mosquitoes: a tiny swarm of pests, not any thing that could rival or have any significant effect on the Empire. But the promise of that Empire of God was extravagant beyond belief and the juxtaposition is striking.

And Paul builds on that with his extravagant promises that absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God. And even when life is so hard for us that we cannot even pray, the spirit prays for us. Now I do not know about you, but as much as I love those two statements, I often find Paul and his theology a bit yeasty. For instance, in the Pest of this passage he gets pretty heavily into predestination - that is the belief that God has planned everything that happens to us. Well, I can see how he got there, given his previous life as a persecutor of the Christians and his dramatic conversion to Christianity. He surely had to belief that God was shaping his life. The trouble is, when bad things keep happening to people, that theology is not helpful at all. Dale an I were discussing this topic this week, and we decided that we could cut Paul a little slack since he was a new convert and all.

Still, the promise of God's presence always with us, and the support of the Holy Spirit through the toughest of times is much like the description of the Kingdom of Heaven or the Empire of God. It is an extravagant and very hope filled promise. And it is reliable, we can count on it.

All churches have yeasty times, times when the seeds seem to be so tiny and the sought after treasures are hidden. We have had those in the past and will have them in the future. They come any time there is change and growth. It may be a bit yeasty as we try on a new worship schedule in the fall, when new programs begin and when we are working toward making this a safe place for our children by beginning to do background checks. The thing about the extravagant promise is, that it assures us that as we go about seeking God's way, there will be a hidden treasure and a pearl of great price. As we dare to experiment with the yeast we will be well fed. And very small seeds may actually amount to something great for when God is at work in us, through us and around us, all things are possible, and we cannot help but be caught up in and surrounded by the God of extravagant loving. After all, nothing, nothing can separate us from that.

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