Jesus Knew Bread

I place the bread dough in the oven – including a cherry loaf, a new experiment – as I place dough in the oven several times each week.  In my home, we bake our own bread, a great gift taught me by my husband Michael.  Yet this routine activity feels different today. I am baking bread with Thanksgiving in mind, and somehow it feels different. There is a peaceful air in my house this afternoon. My child reaches for me… and we cuddle for a time.  She gets many kisses and smiles with her whole body.

Thanksgiving is the annual celebration of what we try to practice all year long: praise and gratitude for every aspect of our lives; for every thing we have, and don’t have; for every precious person we have the privilege of knowing; for every blessing and challenge.

Every American household, no matter their religious beliefs, sets a table and prepares a meal for their beloved company in a manner usually reserved for the Eucharist or the Sabbath.  On this day we take ordinary staples – poultry, potatoes, bread – and transform them into a holy feast. Add the crimson sweetness of cranberry sauce and there’s real MAGIC… at least for me! 

I have heard that ‘Bethlehem’ means ‘House of Bread.’  This creates a vivid image for me, in relation to the Last Supper, the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ. In John Dominic Crossan’s book The Essential Jesus (Harper San Francisco, 1989), the author revisits the original sayings of Jesus, like this one:

The kingdom of God is like this

A woman took some leaven

hid it in her dough

and baked a batch of bread

But how is the Kingdom of God like that?

Yeast is the ingredient that makes dough ‘rise.’ It works wonders as it interacts with other ingredients like water, flour and sugar.  In this passage, Crossan’s use of the word ‘hid’ is powerful; for the Kingdom of God is often hidden, like a secret treasure, in the mundane components and interactions of our day.  Yet it is in the rushed, workaday world that we are invited to meet and share the experience of God. Every day of our life is presented like a new loaf of bread: infused with the leaven of love, kneaded by a smiling baker, offered to us fresh and warm for the taking. Jesus knew bread.

Yet, like the image that we explored recently of the seeds falling in the garden, yeast also needs its own special environment in order to flourish.  If it is placed in water that is too hot or too cold, it will not perform its miracle. It must be warm. When we are warm, open, receptive, the Kingdom of God is more easily perceived, experienced and shared.  Our spirituality rises!

May you receive God’s choicest blessings this Thanksgiving.  Bon appetit!