Brothers, sisters, and folded ones – ye look for the kingdom to come as an army cometh, with banners and the noise of wheels; and it cometh as yeast cometh: silently, in the dark, in the warm, while the household sleeps. For yeast I say unto you, a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough, as it is written in Luke’s Loaves, 13:21, and expounded in the Gospel, 12:7.
It is small, and it is despised, and it is bought for the least coin in the purse; and it raises everything. So the kingdom: the meal carried up a stair; the name learned at the shelter; the chair added without ceremony. None of it trends. All of it rises.
But hear the warning folded into the comfort, for our Lord never sold one without the other: there is a leaven of the kingdom, that lifts the whole loaf together; and there is the leaven of the mould, that also spreads through the whole, spot by spot, and also works in the dark, and also begins too small to trouble anyone. The kingdom and the mould do both grow by the same law; therefore the law shall not save you, but only the choosing of what ye plant.
This is why despair is bad arithmetic, beloved. Thou sayest, my kindness is too small to matter; but thou wouldst never say, this spot of rot is too small to matter – thou knowest better by now. Smallness is no argument against yeast; smallness is how yeast works. So go home and look in thy crock, and see what is rising there; and if thou like it not, to-night is not too late to start a better culture.
Amen – and pass the pizza, and feed the starter.