The Kingdom of Awe and Wonder - 9th Sunday after Pentecost
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
July 26, 2026
Why is it that Jesus tells so many parables about the
same thing, the kingdom of heaven? Perhaps because he knows that different
people will be captivated by different images and then we grasp a concept that
we cannot picture by engaging one that we can, like a tiny seed becomes a giant
shrub the size of trees, or a net that catches so many fish it is overflowing, or an
uncommon empty field that contains a hidden treasure. These all make sense to me,
but the one I have never quite gotten is when Jesus says that the kingdom of
heaven is like the woman who combines yeast with three measures of flour until
it is all leavened. What is it about this parable? I think it is more than the
fact that yeast grains are super tiny. What is it about the three measures of
flour?
As you may have guessed by now your pastors love a good
rabbit hole. And I wondered how much flour is three measures anyway? In my
mind, it is like a measuring scoop like I use and maybe three measures is a cup
or two of flour. In part I thought this because the other time we see this
measurement is when Abraham tells Sarah to take three measures of flour to bake
for the divine visitors in Genesis. So it can’t be that much. Turns out that I
was completely off track. Three measures of flour is about 50 pounds. Who bakes
so abundantly and extravagantly?
But coming back to the parable- the kingdom of heaven is
like yeast that is added to 50 pounds of flour. Imagine how many people can be
fed by that much.
And it won’t last long, this bread, so the woman will
have to give it away. Little grains of yeast, one woman and some flour. But
look what it produces in God’s vision- enough to feed a village. Enough for
people to walk with a story of unexpected life-giving that fed their hearts and
minds long after the moment of connection and abundance. Enough to create in
them a sense of awe and wonder- for the yeast, for the woman, for the labor,
for the bread, for the love, for the community that sprang up around it all,
and where God took delight in it all. Can we pause and take in the dramatic effect
of this simple but powerful image? Maybe we get why the yeast and three
measures of flour speak a beautiful truth when we imagine the kingdom effect in
the end.
When we look around, it is so easy to believe that we are
just one tiny speck in a giant world where so much is seemingly marching on
inevitably around us. And what can we do? And what does it matter?
Hear now the Parable of the Horseshoe Crab. Please don’t
look for it in Scripture. You will not find it.
The other week we were down at the shore and as good as
it is to get away, the weather included a heat advisory, and the tides were
strong and storms were carrying the sand away. I was kind of grumpy that a day
was not what I hoped so I decided to take a walk and look for shells for
Isabel’s “collection.” As I looked ahead, I saw a large clump on the sand that
seemed to be the form of one poor horseshoe crab that had gotten beached. It
made me sad because I was sure it was dead and for a moment I thought, another
disappointment.
But a woman was standing by the crab on the beach full of
people. Of all the people, she called to me and asked if I knew anything about
horseshoe crabs. I was puzzled and replied, “well, not much, but it looks like
this one is dead.” “Oh no, it’s not! I saw it move!”
“Are you sure it was not
just the tide?”
As I said this, I looked
down and saw the crab trying to get unstuck.
I know that horseshoe crabs are essentially unchanged
since prehistoric days, and that their blood is blue but none of that helps me
consider how to engage in digging out a living horseshoe crab. Nonetheless, I
found myself gently trying to dislodge the sand around its sides.
Unfortunately, the crab tried to dig deeper. Another wave came up to the edge
of the crab and I worked to gently keep moving the sand and dislodge the crab.
When it did so, it flipped over and for a moment I was sure it had come to a
bad end. But “it’s still moving!” the woman exclaimed and now I was carrying it
closer to the water to a place where it could swim.
And the whole time I did this, the woman who I did not
know was talking encouragement to the crab, assuring it that we were here to
help. And encouraging me. When we finally got the crab to the water, now we
were both encouraging the crab to swim out, so it would ride the waves out and
not back in. Once we saw it pretty far out, we gave a little cheer.
Now the woman was thanking me for saving a life. “Well,
we both did.”
To which she said, “well, I saw the crab but didn’t know
what to do. You came over when I called and you knew what to do.” But I really
didn’t know. The whole time I had been thinking, “just don’t let me kill this
crab trying to help it.” I felt so small.
“You know,” she mused, “the world is so much these days
and I was having a bad day. But we proved there are still good people in the
world and we did one good thing today! It gives me hope!” We hugged and parted
ways. On my way back down the beach five minutes later, she was still there by
the water’s edge, now telling me- “We did it! The crab didn’t get washed back!
It would have died without help. Thanks again!” And there we left it, two women
of a certain age, determined to reunite the crab with where she needed to be,
astounded by the persistence of love.
How can little grains of yeast impact 50 pounds of flour?
How can one horseshoe crab give hope? How can one seemingly impossible task
connect three creatures who are strangers in a story bigger than their own? How
many people had the woman asked before me who just said “No”? What difference
does one horseshoe crab make? God knows that answer. Horseshoe crabs survived
the extinction event that wiped dinosaurs from the planet 66 million years ago.
Imagine the line of time in a horseshoe crab. That too is the stuff of awe and
wonder.
Maybe that’s what makes us different from other
creatures- we have been created with the capacity for awe and wonder. Can we
rekindle that belief for one another even those we don’t know much about? It’s how
we can at least glimpse what the kingdom of heaven is about. May we not lose
sight of it. Sometimes we make awe and wonder be the stuff of the stupendous. We
don’t even trust ourselves to be enough without being digitally enhanced. And
yet in the small and seemingly unremarkable is still the stuff of the profound
truth. God chose to embody God’s love in all God has made. And then calls those
of us with the capacity for awe and wonder to embody and reflect God’s heart. All
of creation is worthy of love and nothing can separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord. May we still be amazed. Amen.
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2026 All rights reserved. May
not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
Sermon Text: Gospel: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
31 [Jesus] put before [the crowds] another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a
mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all
the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a
tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
33 He told them another parable: “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.”
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