I’ve brought with me this morning two small packets which link in to this morning’s Gospel reading. A packet of seeds, first of all, and also a packet of yeast. These two packets are both fairly small, fairly anonymous really; if I put them on a shelf in my kitchen or maybe my garden shed they’ll blend in with all the other stuff and you might easily walk past and not notice them. But there’s something quite special about them - well, a few things in fact. I’ve already said they are both related to the Gospel reading, so that’s the first special thing: Jesus used each of them as a way to describe what the kingdom of God is like. And we’ll think a bit more about that in a moment.
But the second thing about them is that each of these packets contains something that is alive, even if it doesn’t at first glance look alive. Neither yeast powder nor mustard seeds actually look all that wonderful when you empty them out of the packet; they’re in fact both dormant. But there is life in both of them. And living things are different from non-living things in that they can change and develop and grow.
And there’s a third thing about the yeast and the mustard seeds, the main reason why Jesus used them to speak about the kingdom. Smallness: they’re both very small. If a bit of yeast powder or a mustard seed or two happened to be lying about somewhere you happened to be you’d either not notice it at all, or else perhaps you’d quickly sweep it away. But Jesus said that this is what the kingdom of God is like: the kingdom is like a mustard seed, the kingdom is like yeast.
So what did he mean? He said: the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; and the smallest of all seeds grew up to become something almost the size of a tree. Birds could even come and make nests in its branches.
I doubt the mustard seeds in this packet would actually grow that high, but you only need a single seed to begin quite a process of growing and spreading. Mustard grows quickly, and it’s prolific in setting seed, and that seed grows readily in its turn. Once it’s out and about, it’ll spread into every possible place, even the cracks and crannies. I love to see plants growing informally. We’ve got paved areas in our garden that we don’t really need to walk on, so I’ve invited plants to spread into the cracks and fill the spaces - not mustard, that would just be silly, it’s not pretty enough - but things like campanula, Mexican daisies, red valerian, upright yellow sorrel, lady’s mantle, wild strawberries - and it’s almost all self-set: I’ve just started it off and let it spread.
And that’s what the kingdom of God is like. It’s not about being big or important, but making the most of our chances, exploiting the cracks and crannies. When we sow seeds of the kingdom, they spread. You may have heard of “random acts of kindness” - people doing unexpected nice things that benefit others, like the lady I heard about who when she drives over a toll bridge each day always pays for the car behind her as well as her own; or the man who on his way to work on the London Underground whistles “Happy Birthday” fairly quietly, and, if anyone turns round, wishes them a happy birthday. He’s usually right, and when he isn’t, there’s still a smile and a little bright spot in someone’s day. A friend of mine whistles hymn tunes in his local Sainsbury’s while he’s shopping, and it leads him into all kinds of conversations. If we embrace the kingdom then it’s amazing how it can spread.
And then there’s the yeast: just a little pinch of dust, but if you wake it up with a bit of water and mix it with flour and a bit of salt and sugar it becomes the means by which bread is made. A pinch of dust enables things to happen that otherwise couldn’t.
So Jesus said: "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 God, in other words, is something small and hidden that grows to have a huge effect on the world.
Seed that grows and spreads, and that also as it grows provides shelter and sustenance; yeast that works in secret to make a profound and positive change: two important ways to understand the Kingdom. It’s not about big projects. We can find ourselves saying, “What can we do? Our churches are so weak, and we are so few!” But I think that’s where the kingdom works best: it’s all about seeds and yeast grains - those small things, small actions, that added together make a big difference, and a better world.
Provided that - well, let’s add a third image of the kingdom, also from this morning’s Gospel: Jesus also talked about the jewel that was so precious and so beautiful that a man sold all he had in order to buy it. The kingdom is built out of small things, little acts of kindness done by ordinary folk like you and me, provided we’re really seriously putting God first in our lives, and building all we do on him. Remember how Jesus said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains a single grain; but if it dies, it produces a rich harvest.” The mustard seed does nothing else but produce the plant that grows and gives shelter. The pinch of yeast does nothing else but leaven the bread mixture and enable it to rise.
When people love God and dedicate their lives to him, and learn to see the world through his loving eyes, great things can happen. Little acts of kindness add together and generate new ones, to become a kingdom movement. There’s life in these two packets of mustard seeds and yeast. But if they’re just left on the shelf, that life will fade and die. Let’s not let that happen. Let’s be lively and useful in God’s service.
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