One post (at least) every day this week!!* Whoo hoo!! I wouldn't actually be able to do this one if I had my granddaughter today; but I'm wondering if her dad is bringing her Downtown for Halloween Howl* tonight. Maybe that's why. IDK, but at least I get the chance to be on here again, and for that, I'm grateful. Don't get me wrong, I love my girl; but when the majority of our time is spent watching YouTube videos, it can get old pretty quickly. (Depending on the video)*

The only other news this afternoon is that Mike was able to go to the scrapyard and finish cleaning out the van, sign it over, and get the plates. Probably tomorrow at some point, I'll go online to the Vermont DMV site and start the refund application on the balance of our registration. Pray that the accident photos (which include the destruction of the driver's airbag) will be enough to get our money back.

Okay, so as you can see if you've been reading through this series, we skipped over Mark 7 entirely. In a brief review just now, it's the bit about how only our hearts truly defile us, not so much the food we eat, Jesus honoring the Syrophoenician Woman's faith, and healing a deaf mute. It may be included on the podcast, "Dive in With Matt and Joe", but as I've not looked, I honestly don't know.

The thing that stands out to me when I look at this title is the yeast. Now, while I can cook a decent meal and follow a recipe when I bake; I have attempted exactly 1 loaf of bread in my life. One of the classes at my school during Senior year was a combination Home Ec. and Bible Class. It was Junior and Senior girls, meeting on Mondays and Thursdays. Now don't quote me on this, but I THINK the Bible part was Mondays and the other on Thursdays. Anyway, since the church kitchen was too small to effectively fit us all, and only had one stove; our teacher improvised. She would bring something in that she had made at home, along with a recipe card and a few other related ones. Our assignment each week was to make a recipe at home and have our parents sign the card, proving the work had been done. One of these was wheat bread. I'm not sure if the yeast was too old, the water not hot enough, or both; but the result would have made an effective brick or light door stop. 🤪 (Or hockey puck, if that's your game)

In our passage today, we will see the damage done by the "yeast" of both the Religious Elite and of Empire.

Let's turn to Mark 8 for today's lesson --

Mark 8:14-21

New International Version

The Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod

¹⁴ The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. ¹⁵ “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”

¹⁶ They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”

¹⁷ Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸ Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? ¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”

“Twelve,” they replied.

²⁰ “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”

They answered, “Seven.”

²¹ He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

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As we can see from this passage, Jesus had just finished hosting a second "picnic" for His followers. From the denotation of the first verses of this chapter, we can easily surmise that this one already had the people gathered, as Jesus mentions how it's the end of a long day. My guess is that He had been preaching awhile and was probably hungry Himself.

In opening his sermon, Pastor Matt started right in with verse 14.

We see here that the Disciples thought Jesus would be upset with them for having forgotten the bread that had been left at the site. As per usual, however, Jesus had something deeper in mind.

It wasn't about the bread itself. Instead, Jesus was trying to get them to think about the fact that the yeast is made up of micro-organisms that have a major effect on the dough they are used in. (Like the previous conversation about the fact that our hearts are what truly defile us; Jesus was using another example here of a small thing having a major influence.) It was about the yeast being the root of the problem, in this case.

Looking back at the fact that the Hebrew People had no time for leavening in their bread during the original Passover*, we see a connection here. Throughout Scripture, references to yeast show out-sized influences. It is most usually a negative thing for this reason.

When we study the lives of the Pharisees and Sadducees, the primary thing we notice is their need to be "perfect". This emphasizes their perspective of achieving the righteousness of God via coercion. Due to their fear of rejection, they embraced self-righteousness and Legalism. This made them out to be hypocritical of the very love of God the Scriptures truly describe.* Their fear was the "yeast" that led to other negative responses in their leadership of the Jewish people.

At the same time, Herod displayed a similar attitude. Like the Sanhedrin*, compliance to the rules was paramount. In his own fear of losing authority, Herod's rule was marked by control through power, force, manipulation, and political advantage.

The fact is that forces like power, fear, coercion, and pride cannot coexist with the Kingdom of God.

In expounding on this, Pastor Matt broke it down into two basic truths --

• The elements resulting from fear, as listed above, bring false promises of freedom. They are a trap that only leads to self-fulfilling expectations of failure.

• This results in the same theme of desiring and taking as seen back in Genesis 3:1-3. Obviously, we all know how that turned out. At the same time, Pastor Matt compared this with the excitement of the Sears Catalogs we all grew up with. (At least if you're Gen X or older) The 3" thick collection of clothing, toys, jewelry, and housewares was almost too much to wrap our young minds around, wasn't it!!?? Our parents would get it in the mail in September so we would have time to make our choices in plenty of time for Christmas. And the excitement would build from there. (At least I'm sure it did for other kids. Growing up poor was hard.)

In any case, there responses to these can be drastic. You either chose Monastic Isolation or Militaristic Engagement.* But the Kingdom of God is not like any other. It CANNOT move forward by power, coercion, or fear.

Jesus is calling both them and us into a New Reality. He's asking them/us to remember what He has already done rather than wanting what isn't good for us. This begs the question for us, "Do we TRULY want Jesus; or do we only want the Religious Structures man has placed around Him??"

In this passage, Jesus was launching a revolution in bringing the Kingdom of God against the fear-driven power, pride, and coercion of man.

His Kingdom is earmarked by two major elements --

• It's a Kingdom driven by love

• It is received in humble dependence on God. Our response to His love sets the church (Body of Christ) up as an Alternative Community to those established on man's ideals and rules. (both religious and secular)

At this point, Pastor Matt shared a quote by American Theologian Stanley Hauerwas. -- "The most creative social strategy we have to offer is the church. Here we show the world a manner of life the world can never achieve through social coercion or governmental action. We serve the world by showing it something that it is not, namely, a place where God is forming a family out of strangers." Amen!!??

The Church is meant to be a place of giving, welcoming, and compassion. It is NOT meant to be a consumer-driven entity. We are responsible to God's assignment of missional engagement with the world. For illustration, Pastor Matt shared the idea of being on Summer Vacation the week before. Evidently, when parking a pontoon boat, you're supposed to steer into the wind. (I wouldn't know) The point here lies in finding proper navigation, with help from others, that is shaped and guided by God. Don't allow the world to dictate your sense of religion.

While it's necessary to focus on ourselves and our own Spiritual Growth at times, it's also important to engage with the team/crew He has placed us in. In either circumstance, we reorient ourselves to seeking God.

In closing, we had a video update from Dean Eggert on the progress of Good Soil Ministries in Malawi, Africa as they have added a Girl's Dormitory to the campus. Praise God!!

The service ended with a practice we have come to call "Family Prayer". This is when people are encouraged to raise their hands if they have something pressing on their hearts, and want others to come around and lay hands on them in agreement. Otherwise, people simply put a hand over their hearts, and people extend a hand toward them in support. (It occurs to me just now that I haven't offered to pray for any of you lately*; but, by all means, if you have something on your heart, feel free to comment, and I'll be sure to include it in my own prayer time.)

-- God Bless!!

Footnotes:

1. It is worthy to note that on Wednesday, I actually did 2 posts. One here, and the other on the Reflections page. It's an article on Growing Up Gen X.

2. The city of Concord has been doing this for over 10 yrs now. Generally, it's on the last Friday of October that the stores on Main Street stay open late for Trick or Treaters. There's a DJ Dance party, and other activities included. This year, since Halloween itself is on a Friday, they are having it tonight. For the first time in a long time, I will not be attending. Not because I don't want to; but because I just haven't gotten around to thinking of a costume. (In lieu of this, I'm toying with the idea of doing another Reflection article. This would be on Halloween and other related subjects. We'll see...)

3. Brandi is 13. She enjoys videos about Minecraft, Disney background stories, and TikTok reactions. I like reactions on Design Fails, Stupid People, and Funny Animals best. As a result, we watch SSSniperwolf, KMK, and that British guy quite a bit. Once in a while, we change it up and watch Dang Matt Smith. For Minecraft, she likes watching Preston and/or his wife, Brianna, or Aphmau. (I know, you didn't need to know all of that, but this post isn't taking as long as some, and I just wanted to share. 😊

4. In my observation in the many churches I've been in, the ones who only use matza or other cracker items are the most accurate to the original event. But ultimately, what matters most is our hearts being aligned with God.

5. The hypocrisy of Legalism is exactly what is wrong in many churches today.

6. The Sanhedrin was a High Council made up of both Pharisees and Sadducees. They decided on cases of indiscretion that had proved beyond the expertise of the local Rabbi.

7. Militaristic Engagement... "things that make you say, 'Hhhhmmmm...", amiright??

8. While this page originated by being comprised of nothing but prayer requests and praises, it has evolved into the format you see today. It's not that I haven't cared to offer prayer since updating the page, it's just that, due to a lack of views or comments, I simply haven't thought about it.

Music -- No rights!!