It's in the Air!

Several months ago, I began to learn about sourdough bread and to bake it. When you make sourdough bread you begin with what is called a starter. You can purchase a starter either on line or from some local establishments, but if you’re a little patient, you can very simply make your own. By combining flour and water and refreshing this mixture daily, after ten days or 2 weeks your mixture will come to life and then you have sourdough starter, which is a leavening to make your sourdough bread. After a little reading and more You-Tube watching, I found out the spores that create the leavening are in the air. Combining the flour and water and refreshing them daily, simply gives them a place to grow.

For the past several days I have been looking at Luke 12, in my morning quiet time. This morning the first statement of Jesus came to life for me, (kind of like the sourdough).

he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 

My first question is, did Jesus say “first of all”, or were those the words of the narrator, Luke in this case? I don’t know and it’s not necessarily the issue at hand.

For me the thing that came to life is this idea of beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

BEWARE, that is a pretty ominous word, especially these days when broccoli may cause cancer and using a wooden pencil can cause brain damage (I just made those things up). But seriously every time I turn around it seems I hear of something new that will cause me harm. When Jesus said “beware” he was very serious and I should take it that way, very seriously. One of the literal translations that I use says, “Take heed to yourselves.” Jesus tells me to look at myself.

THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES WHICH IS HYPOCRISY, hypocrisy is the leaven. According to my little Webster’s Dictionary, hypocrisy is pretending to be something you are not and especially refers to pretending virtue. As I thought about it, I also imagined that it could be taking an attitude of superiority.

As I thought about this a little bit, I realized that, just like the mold spores that come to life in the flour and water mixture, this hypocrisy comes to life in me in a moment, when I don’t expect it. When someone makes an improper lane change, I can become very self-righteous. When someone ends a sentence with a preposition, I can become positively pharisaic. There are way too many applications of my instant hypocrisy. It seems it’s in the air just looking for a place to grow.

Actually, the spores are already in my heart growing and when they manifest themselves by my actions it is an opportunity to repent of my self-righteousness and purge out that leaven.

Let us BEWARE and TAKE HEED TO OURSELVES and purge out the leaven of hypocrisy.