I've often remarked that the vocation of a minister is eclectic.  To be sure there are general responsibilities and tasks that reoccur with regularity such as leading worship services, offering consolation and hope in times of struggle and grief, visiting folk in hospital, providing opportunities for people to study the Bible and be shaped in faith, attending committee meetings to support the variety of ways that a congregation lives out Christ's mission. 

 

And then there are the unpredictable and sometimes even unusual activities that often creep into a minister's vocational life.  For me, one of those activities has been teaching people how to make bread. 

 

Before the EMUC 'Loaves and Dishes' group came into being, a number of us gathered in the church kitchen one day and I taught them my recipe for Challah (or what we often call 'egg bread').  Since then, the 'Loaves and Dishes' group has baked that recipe many times over the years and a number of you have broken and shared their loaves at your tables.

 

Years ago in EMU Club, I remember baking bread with the children; shaping it into a lion and a lamb as part of learning session on peacemaking.  On another occasion a confirmation group made bread as we talked about the sacrament of communion and Jesus the 'bread of life'.  And for the past few years, bread-making has always been a popular activity at the EMUC women's retreat in Muskoka.  At this year's retreat, the dough was baked into buns for our dinner and into a small loaf that was broken and shared in a celebration of communion during our Sunday worship.

 

And so I wasn't surprised this morning when I received a call at the church office, asking me to share my recipe for Challah bread!  I've been asked to share this recipe so often that it's now on file in my computer and I can bring it up at a moment's notice.

 

I first learned how to make bread in a church.  For years I had tried to make bread on my own, but it always turned out tough and leaden.   So I stopped trying.  At the time I was the minister Christian education of children and youth in a congregation in Oshawa.  We were using a very creative and 'hands on' curriculum at the time, and in a session designed to help children reflect on death and dying and the Easter message of resurrection, bread-making was included as part of the learning experience.  Given my past record of tough and leaden bread, I sought out the help of a practiced bread maker.  Under her instruction I learned that I had been killing the yeast by trying to proof it in water that was too hot.  Proofing yeast allows it to soften and begin its work of creating gassy air bubbles that will make the dough rise. And yeast proofs in water that is warm, not hot! 

 

Yeast is a fascinating organic substance; actually a fungus. As it ferments it creates the gases that are used in making bread or alcoholic beverages like beer or wine.  Although most bakers or brewers use commercial yeast in their crafts, yeast is also commonly found in the general environment.  Traditionally sourdough breads relied only on yeasts that occurred naturally in the air.  In his recent book and accompanying video series 'Cooked' (available on Netflix) food writer, Michael Pollan visits bread-makers in various parts of the world who continue to use natural yeast.  When I retire, one of my projects will be to attempt to follow his recipe for making bread only with the natural air-borne yeast.  Apparently, the initial process of making this yeasty 'starter' takes a week to create; but then it can be used for months if not years!

 

In one of his parables, Jesus says, '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.' (Matthew 13:33)  Recently I was given new insight into Jesus' parable through the wisdom of John Paul Lederach.  Lederach has been in peace work for over three decades.  As a global mediator he has worked in more than twenty-five countries walking along side groups of people who are trying to resolve conflicts and end the cycles of violence and warfare.  Excerpts of his interview with Krista Tippett of the American NPR program 'On Being' are included in her recent book, Becoming Wise:  An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living. Lederach remarks that when it comes to movements working for peace or social justice, we are often too narrowly focused on the importance of large numbers of people engaged in rallies or protests - people on the streets in the masses.  In his experience, movements for peace and social change begin long before those mass events 'by a new quality of relationship in small, unlikely groups of people.  They are not obvious compatriots, at least at first; they represent different places on the societal spectrum and embody divergent passions and perspectives.  But they see the dead end of the polar opposite conflict in which their lives have become enmeshed, and they step out of fear and into care.'  And what they create is 'critical yeast'.

 

I wonder if that's what Jesus was thinking of in his parable?  I wonder if he is encouraging each us to be led by the Spirit into relationships where we can 'step out of fear and into care' and in doing so, create the critical yeast that will begin to leaven the world with God's peace, compassion and justice. 

 

Peace, Kathy Toivanen