TRANSLATION MATTHEW 13: 33

He set out for them yet another parable:

The Rule of Heaven is like yeast that a woman and mingled with three stones of flour, until it was all leavened.

Notice that Heaven/ God is a woman in this parable. Again Jesus used something so familiar that all his listeners would understand the process. And again, it is a process, not a state.As in the previous parable the agent is tiny, and in this case the affected material is very large: I have translated into stones, but more accurately it would be about 47 pounds of flour, and the yeast can leaven it all. You cannot see how it does this but it is such a well-known magic that it is taken for granted.

This is how God works, not by force majeure but by natural transformative processes, which work their magic on persons, groups, societies, planets, galaxies, universes. Jesus saw his ministry in the light of this comparison.

I cannot over -emphasise how contrary these parables are to traditional theologies of God’s action. The clunky Almighty of so much Christian theology and devotion, is sidelined in favour of One who loves small beginnings, natural growth, quiet transformations, and hopes his human creatures can learn this wisdom.