Dear Friends: I wrote this message during the Christmas season a couple of years ago, but it fits this week when Christianity pauses to remember what Jesus did for us. I wrote these words by way of the original introduction: “It is vapid sentimentality to separate the manger of Bethlehem from the cross of Calvary. […]

Dear Friends: We return to the story of Eutychus. On the Saturday night, when we gathered for the breaking of the bread, Paul, who was to leave next day, addressed the congregation and went on speaking until midnight. Now there were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were assembled, and a young man […]

Dear Friends: The one thing I ask of the Lord­ the thing I seek most­ is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple. For he will conceal me there when troubles come; he will hide me in his […]

There are entire theological treatises devoted to the parables of the mustard scene and the yeast.

Some interpreters say that a mustard seed shouldn’t grow into a tree big enough to support nesting birds. They claim that Jesus is warning that the church can get out of hand in size and organization and become an idolatrous end in itself.

The same eisegetic (highly personal and subjective) interpretation is applied to the yeast as a symbol of growth by fermentation and pride rather than the graceful increase of the Holy Spirit.

I do not buy this. Jesus can be taken at his word. He is speaking in parable and metaphor about how a tiny, almost invisible seed of faith can grow into something capable of shade and shelter and the nurture of life. That’s the thought of the Creator and Redeemer and that is who Jesus is.