Picture the scene. The comedian comes out on stage, and starts his routine. In a rapid-fire monologue he serves up jokes. His timing is perfect. The one-liners are delivered with precision one after the other. It’s impossible not to laugh.

Jesus comes out in front of the crowds, and starts his teaching. In a rapid-fire monologue, he serves up parables. His timing is masterful, and these word pictures burst forth in succession, with precision, so that you can’t help but see.

There’s a similarity between Jesus and a stand-up comic. The comedian makes you laugh. Jesus makes you see, and what you see is something of the kingdom of heaven, that realm where God’s sovereignty is recognized.

The routine Jesus offers in today’s Gospel is five short parables in a row. All of them are gems. Parables about a mustard seed, treasure buried in a field, a valuable pearl, a fishing net. Then there’s one about yeast in the flour.

Fifteen minutes on each; that’s an hour and a quarter for my sermon. You’ll be pleased to hear I’ve cut it down to just 10 minutes per parable. Actually I’m only going to talk about one. The yeast in the flour.

It’s a one-liner. You might have missed it if you sneezed when Alan was reading to us. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, that a woman took, and mixed with three measures of flour until it was all leavened.” .

Three measures of flour! That’s about 23 litres. Apparently that’s over 50 pounds in weight. This is not Mary Berry knocking up a dozen little cakes. This is a commercial enterprise.

She’s adding the same amount of water. This lump of dough is real work if it is to be made into bread

 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, which a woman took, and mixed with 23 litres of flour, until it was all leavened.” Jesus tosses out this parable, this one-liner. Just as the stand-up comic wants us to laugh, Jesus wants us to glimpse the kingdom of heaven, that realm where God’s sovereignty is recognized.

Take another look at that huge mass of dough. It’s not just flour any more. The yeast is in the dough, invisible, but permeating the pile of dough and having its effect. A mystery is bubbling away inside. For the older ones among us it reminds me of Quatermass. A bubbling mass from which something will arise. There is much more happening than meets the eye. The whole thing is alive. Jesus presented this as the living part of the kingdom of heaven. Here is how God’s transforming power becomes apparent.  It resembles the strange transformation that turns flour into dough. However, it is not instant. If we are to get a glimpse of the kingdom, then we must be patient.

Yeast takes a while to work, and its working is mysterious. So, as the baker has to have patience so do we have to be patient as our life is transformed by God. God is at work with our life, our circumstances, and the people around us.

Life’s something other than a pile of flour and a bit of yeast. Life is an ungainly, promising mass of dough, on its way to becoming bread. To encourage me to eat bread my father used to say it was the staff of life. Something useful.  Just as yeast permeates the entire lump, so the kingdom is present everywhere.

If we look around us and within us, we can recognise the presence of the kingdom. The kingdom is at work, just as yeast is active in the dough. And as yeast is invisible and known by its effects, so the kingdom is hidden yet known by its effects.

When you discover the kingdom among your own life then you find the kingdom present in the circumstances that surround you, in the lives of other people, and everywhere you choose to look.

The kingdom does not come with brass bands. It’s not the subject of headline news and public relations efforts. We’re talking here about yeast working invisibly in the dough, a hidden yet potent activity.

As it takes faith to believe that bread will rise, so too, faith is necessary to see the kingdom in the everyday and the ordinary.

So don’t fall into the trap of waiting for the kingdom to appear when you die. The kingdom is with us if we are prepared to look and find.

The kingdom that Jesus is talking about is not distant, but near at hand; It is not obvious, but hidden; It is not inactive but alive.

When we look for the kingdom, then we find it present, abundantly present. And when we do, then we have more reasons to give thanks than we ever expected.