When A Little Bit Goes a Long WayRead Time 9 min

According to an online search, yeast can withstand several thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch before breaking down. Indeed, pinching a few granules of yeast between your fingers can give the impression of squeezing tiny pebbles.

Many of us remember Jesus describing his kingdom using the image of yeast (c.f. Mt 13:33). A little goes a long way. But it can be helpful to remember that yeast is also an ingredient that is strong and robust. It has integrity and does not flinch under pressure. These latter characteristics of yeast can help us to appreciate the role of perseverance that our readings highlight this Sunday.

In our first reading, Abraham is bargaining with God to prevent the destruction of Sodom. Step by step, Abraham presses the limit of God’s mercy. Eventually, God reveals that if a mere 10 virtuous people live in Sodom, he will not destroy the city. A few virtuous people can preserve the greater community from complete destruction. Just like yeast, a little goes a long way.

But it would be wrong to assume that the faithful living in a sinful city like Sodom had it easy. Rather, to remain virtuous would have required character capable of withstanding thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch. And from what Scripture tells us, the pressure for those faithful few would have been immense.

In our time, the description of Sodom’s sin has undergone intense scrutiny by biblical scholars and bloggers alike. The traditional identification of sexual immorality is overstated, some say. As an alternative, some prefer reading Sodom’s sin as being mostly “inhospitality.” Or others will say it has more to do with neglecting the poor than anything else.

But we must resist the urge to shift Sodom’s sin into one category in an attempt to absolve the others. After all, sin begets sin. And so, to suppose that Sodom’s sin has only to deal with one kind of fault would be naive in the very least. Instead, we can trust what Scripture says. The prophet Isaiah speaks to the injustice that the city was known for. (Is 3:9) St. Jude’s letter makes clear that Sodom was rife with sexual immorality. (Jd 7) And the prophet Ezekiel derides the people of Sodom for their disregard of the poor during times of prosperity. (Ez 16:49) Each of these sins would exert an overlapping pressure on the few virtuous inhabitants of the city. Yet, remarkably, at the time of Abraham’s bargaining, at least a few could withstand the pressure without losing their integrity.

Like yeast, these faithful few held up the city and permitted time for repentance. Their example remains a standard for us to emulate.

One of my favorite texts from Christian antiquity has earned the name “the Letter to Diognetus.” While hard to date, it certainly comes from before the time of Constantine. That is to say, before Christianity gained its outward, visible and institutional identity. The letter was written during a time when Christians were few in relation to a world that was ambivalent, at best, and hostile, at worst, to the name of Jesus and his way of life.

What I find so remarkable about the letter is how it describes the life and attitudes of the early Christians. They were convinced, despite their smallness, that they were the “soul of the world.” The early Christians knew who they were and lived accordingly even if their sacrifices and diligence went unacknowledged. To paraphrase a couple key sentences of the letter, the author describes the Christians in this way: “They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed … they pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven … they obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives … they are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all … they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers … to sum up all in one word — what the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world.”

To put it simply, like yeast, and like the faithful few who were counted in Sodom, the early Christians withstood the pressures of the culture and maintained their integrity. In this way, their lives were an evangelical witness to the true God and the way of life he urges all to take. As such, while they were small in number, the early Christians upheld the greater good of all.

St. Paul reminds us in our second reading that we “were buried with [Jesus] in baptism.” In Baptism, we have been united to Jesus who lived, died and rose to new life for us. In Baptism, we have become “a new creation.”

The leavening agent of yeast is not released by crushing it with outside pressure. So too for the Christian. Succumbing to the forces asking us to join in the worship of the pantheon of sins does not unlock our baptismal identity. Just as the impenetrable granules of yeast are unlocked in water, for the Christian, our leaven is only released through the waters of Baptism and the identity we gain from it that serves to lift up the entire loaf.