A sermon about mustard seeds, yeast….and viruses.
Going Viral
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A Sermon on Matthew 13:44-46
Some of Jesus’ parables are short stories, complete with characters and a plot. The Good Samaritan story is a famous example. But other times, Jesus simply sets an image before his listeners, a snapshot of a common item or situation, like a mustard seed or a pinch of yeast, and we have to think about the picture for a while. “The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that sprouts and grows,” he said in today’s reading. “It is also like yeast that a woman mixed into a batch of bread until the whole thing was leavened.”
Mustard seed and yeast may sound like ordinary, harmless substances to us, but that’s not how people saw them in Jesus’ day. Jesus might as well have told them that the kingdom of God is like a weed. The yeast is an even more surprising example for Jesus to use. Why? Because every other reference to yeast and leaven in the Bible is negative. Leaven was thought to be a symbol of corruption, rot, and sin. To this day, Jewish Passover rules instruct families to get rid of every last speck of yeast in the house, and then to eat unleavened bread for the duration of the holy feast.
These associations would have given these two parables extra punch to those who heard them. Who could forget? To imagine a parable packing that kind of punch, imagine Jesus putting one before us that goes like this: The kingdom of heaven is like a virus that someone breathed in. It invaded a cell, where it tricked the cell’s DNA into churning out copies of the virus itself. The new viruses invaded more and more cells until the whole body was infected. The person breathed out more viruses, and then they went on to infect other people. Pretty soon there was an epidemic, then a pandemic.
How can the kingdom of God be like an invasive weed, or like multiplying yeast, OR like a spreading virus?
What is Jesus trying to tell us about the kingdom, and about the God who reigns in that kingdom? Think of it this way: like a stubborn weed, like yeast that doesn’t stop fermenting until it has worked its way through the whole batch, like a tiny virus spreading everywhere, God’s kingdom comes and persists and spreads. God’s reign cannot be stopped. It’s powerful not because it is a big, overwhelming force, but because it arrives in small things that are hard to see—at first, that is. You might miss them. But then they turn into things that are impossible to miss, and they make a powerful difference. The kingdom is like a weed that you can’t eradicate, no matter how hard you try. The kingdom is like yeast that spreads throughout the whole batch of dough, leaving no part of it untouched. The kingdom is like an invisible virus that multiplies and spreads until it is everywhere, and it has profound, life-changing effects.
The kingdom God is arriving, and even now is among us. It is tenacious, persistent, relentless. It’s unstoppable. God is unstoppable.
When all around it looks like evil has the upper hand and other powers are in control, we need to hear this news. So often ideologies of hate seem stronger than the gospel of love. Can God’s dream really be moving forward? Daily the news brings images of violence, injustice and all manner of oppression. Hunger and sickness and pain, much of which is so unnecessary.
This stuff is in our face all the time. Yet here is Jesus calling us to consider that the reign of God is like a mustard seed, and the resulting mustard weed. You can’t get rid of it. Chop at it, and it comes right back. The reign of God is like leaven, that won’t stop until it has done all its work, infiltrating every square inch of the universe. The reign of God is like a virus that takes hold, keeps on multiplying and spreading, and its impact is undeniable. God’s kingdom is unstoppable. God is unstoppable.
Jesus calls us to remember that, and he also invites us to consider the potential of each and every small kingdom action that we take. What we do as people who follow Jesus is like a mustard seed with the potential to make an impact far larger than itself. It is like yeast that stays active until the job is all done. It is like an invisible virus generating more of itself and spreading, maybe much farther than we will ever know.
I’d like to remind you of a book that I have shared before, Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary 
Deed. It tells the story of how one person’s act of kindness spread to touch everyone else on earth. It shows how mathematically that is possible. The chain of love starts when a little girl picks wild blueberries, then shares them with a neighbor. The neighbor then makes blueberry muffins and shares them with five more people, who then share kindness with five more people, and on it goes. One becomes five, then twenty-five, then six hundred twenty-five, then 3,125, then 15,625, and within sixteen multiplications, the number is over thirty billion. Mary’s kindness went viral, meaning it multiplied like a virus.
While some viruses like COVID can do enormous, widespread damage, what if we imagined the good things of God going viral? What if we think of God’s love going viral, and that every small thing we do with love helps it spread? When we are tempted to think that what we are able to do seems too small, too simple, too insignificant to make a difference, Jesus reassures us that God’s kingdom and the ways of the kingdom are as stubborn as the peskiest weeds, as thorough as yeast working its way through the whole lump of dough, as infinitely spreadable as a virus.
Be encouraged, people of God! Take heart, disciples of Jesus Christ. Be persistent. Be stubborn about these holy things that matter so much. Do those ordinary things that seem small and inconsequential, that won’t capture the media’s attention but yet end up having a powerful impact. Do your part in the work of the kingdom. Persist in prayer. Do the humble acts of mercy, kindness, helpfulness. Send that card. Speak and listen to that child. Include the elderly. Show and tell the love of Jesus. Speak up for ailing friends and family members. Speak up for the poor, the mistreated, the oppressed. Advocate for those who are weak. Stand up for justice. Work for the wellbeing that God desires for all people and all creation. Let love go viral!
Thy kingdom come, God. And let it go viral!
The Mustard Seed Journal 
This really touched me, ML. Thank you!
You are so welcome, Christie! Thanks for reading!