Hello my friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighborhood monk in dogs.
Welcome.
Just take a moment now to settle.
Allow your breath to slow,
Your shoulders to relax,
Your hands to just rest gently.
Feel your body being held,
Your feet on the ground.
Just come fully into this moment,
No need to hurry,
As we continue listening to the stories of Jesus today.
And allow yourself to come with openness and attention to what the Spirit might be speaking to your heart.
Now today's parable is very small,
Just one verse in Matthew chapter 13 and verse 33.
So it's very easy to miss.
Jesus speaks of leaven,
A small amount of yeast mixed into flour.
Now today we think of yeast as something ordinary.
We just use it whenever we bake bread or want some dough to rise.
But in the world of Jesus,
Leaven carried a complicated meaning.
Often it symbolized something hidden,
Something that spread quietly,
And sometimes even something that's considered unclean.
And yet this is the image that Jesus chooses to describe the Kingdom of God.
Something that isn't coming in from the outside,
But is working from within,
Just quietly and patiently doing its thing,
Transforming everything it touches from the inside out.
And not all at once,
Just slowly,
Just like it takes time for that bread to rise.
So as you listen today,
Just notice where there might be quiet transformation already unfolding within you.
Even something that might be small and unseen,
Even by yourself until today.
So first of all,
Listen to the story simply as the words were spoken from Matthew chapter 13 and verse 33.
Jesus told them another parable.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.
So let this image just sit quietly with you today.
Flour,
Leaven,
Hands mixing,
Something hidden,
Working slowly inside as we sit in silence just for a moment.
Now listen again.
And as you listen this time,
Notice what draws your attention,
The word,
The phrase,
Or the image that sits out from Jesus' words,
That wants to seem to sit with you and stay with you.
Just listen for that as we open our ears to what the Spirit is drawing us to in the text.
Jesus told them another parable.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.
So now stay with what caught your attention and just keep coming back to that word or that image and allow it to remain.
Don't explain it yet.
Just allow it to sit with you and speak deeply to you for a moment.
And now let's listen just one more time.
And as you listen this time,
Notice where the story connects with your life.
Where are you being quietly transformed or what is being quietly transformed within you?
Let's listen again.
Jesus told them another parable.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.
And now just rest in stillness and allow the image to deepen.
Something small,
Working quietly,
Changing everything from within.
Just allow that to speak deeply to you now as we sit in the silence for a moment.
As we bring our time together to a close,
I give you a question to take with you.
And the question's this.
What quiet transformation is already at work within you?
Now notice that I didn't say what do you wish were changing,
But what's already unfolding?
And as you move into the rest of your day,
May you trust the hidden work that continues even when you can't see it.
And may grace,
Peace and love go with you and remain with you as you go today and every day.
Amen.
Until next time,
Go gently my friend and may God's peace be with you.
