The Story
Plan a meal each week (breakfast, lunch, or dinner--whichever works best for that week) to all sit down together to eat, share the sacred story, wonder, and give thanks for one another. Suggested: place a candle in the middle of the table for this meal. Printable Version of the Prayers, Story, and Questions Found Here - or simply use the website on your phone!
Light the candle.
Bless.
Use this or create your own blessing.
Gracious God, bless this food, the gifts of your creation, and all the hands that played a part in bringing it to this table.
Bless this table, around which we gather, and bless all those we wish were with us today.
Help us to listen to your word and to each other so that we might hear the Good News in this story.
Read.
Readers in the household take turns reading.
March 7-13
Before reading this story for the first time, mix up a teaspoon of yeast with a cup of flour and a half cup of warm water in a large bowl. Take turns stirring the mixture and observing its size. You won’t be able to bake this mixture, but it will allow you to see the story unfold before your eyes in preparation for the lesson.
Matthew 13:33-35 ┃ The Parable of the Leaven
Let us hear the Good News of God:
He told them another parable: ‘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.’
Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. This was to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet:*
‘I will open my mouth to speak in parables;
I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.’*
Thanks be to God!
Think.
Use some or all of these questions as you wish. If you have younger children in your household, you might invite them to make up their own question to ask!
I wonder who the woman was baking bread for?
I wonder what kind of bread she was baking?
I wonder how much bread she was baking?
I wonder what else the woman was doing when she was baking her bread? I wonder why Jesus used stories to speak to the people?
I wonder why Jesus’ message is hidden? What do you wonder about this story?
Did you notice your dough growing in the bowl as you read? Did it happen all at once or did it happen little by little?
In our story today, a woman mixes just a tiny bit of yeast into lots and lots of flour—a whole lot more flour than we mixed today. When yeast works its way through dough, it is called leavening the dough, or raising the dough. Sometimes yeast itself is called leaven. It takes a long time for the leaven to work its way through that much flour, but when it does it grows really big. When have you had to be patient for something to grow?
Yeasts are like friendly little bugs, called microbes. They eat their way through the toughest parts of flour, the parts that human tummies cannot digest well, and they turn those tough parts into something really tasty. They not only help the dough to grow, they make it delicious and nutritious too! This process must happen very slowly, though. If the yeasts move too fast, they don’t leave any good flavor behind. They run out of microbe food too quickly, and the bread does not get very tasty.
Why do you think God says the kingdom is like leaven? How can we help God’s love spread like the leaven? One of the ways we can spread love is by baking bread to share with others.
Bless.
Gracious God, we thank you for all we have been given, the blessings of this table, and the blessings of our daily lives.
Thank you for all we have heard, your voice in both scripture and in the words of those we love.
We pray for the courage to speak the Good News in the world around us either by word or action, that we may play our part in the sacred story.