在多年前的一次家庭团聚日中，有一个亲戚向我们的叔叔索取他烘面包的食谱。叔叔是一个面包师，每天他都在他的面包坊烘制很多美味的面包，我们的叔叔却一直不肯公开他做面包的秘方。不过，他最后同意告诉我们了。出乎我们所有人的意外，他与我们分享的食谱所用的份量，只适用于大型面包坊中。
在耶稣那个关于面酵发起面粉的简短比喻中，其中一个最令人惊奇的细节，就是衪提到的面粉份量。60磅面粉可以做超过50条面包！
另一个出人意料之外的细节，当然就是面酵了。在这里，耶稣挑战衪的听众去思想他们怎样看神。面酵子粒是非常细小的，小到肉眼差不多看不见，然而它却有潜力带来显著的增长，它使面团戏剧性地发起来，然后被烘成面包。
耶稣为什么提到能奇妙地使大量面团发起来的细小的面酵子粒呢？衪说，天国就像那些面酵。这个比喻帮助我们明白，尽管我们不是常常留意到，在世界各地，神一直在人的生命中以及藉着他们的生命不断作工。衪建立属衪的国度，又赐我们所需的“生命的粮，”好叫我们在祂的国里享受丰盛的生命。
独行奇事的神啊，你能够使用最微小的事物，使生命变得丰盛美丽，求你在世界各地拓展你的国度。阿们。
马太福音 13:31-33
31他又设个比喻对他们说：“天国好像一粒芥菜种，有人拿去种在田里。
32这原是百种里最小的，等到长起来，却比各样的菜都大，且成了树，天上的飞鸟来宿在它的枝上。”
33他又对他们讲个比喻说：“天国好像面酵，有妇人拿来藏在三斗面里，直等全团都发起来。”
"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough." - Matthew 13:33
Years ago at a family reunion, one of our relatives asked our uncle for his bread recipe. Because he was a baker and he made many delicious loaves of bread in his bakery each day, our uncle kept his recipe a secret. Eventually, though, he relented. But to everyone's surprise, the recipe he shared had quantities that could only be handled in a large bakery.
In Jesus' short parable about yeast working through flour, one of the most surprising details is the amount of flour he describes. Sixty pounds of flour would make over 50 loaves!
Another surprising detail, of course, is the yeast. Here Jesus is challenging his listeners in the way they think about God. Yeast is something so small that it is practically invisible, and yet it has the potential to bring significant growth, making dough to rise dramatically before it is baked into bread.
Why would Jesus talk about little yeast particles that could work surprisingly through so much dough? The kingdom of heaven, he said, is like that yeast. This helps us see that even though we may not always notice it, God is working constantly in and through people's lives throughout this whole wide world, building up his kingdom and providing us with the "bread of life" that we need in order to have life to the full.
God of wonders, you can use the smallest good things to bring abundant goodness and life as you grow your kingdom everywhere. Amen.
诵读: 骆云秀
片头: 张妙阳
