Hidden treasure

‘Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people” (Kings 3: 5-12).

The value of the hidden over the visible was the challenge our Reader, Dr David Webster set himself.

His first challenge was how to bring this to life for the children attending the Communion in the Round service at the Priory today.

David began by asking the children how to explain the difference between two very different bread rolls which he passed around. There was one flat roll and one beautifully risen. The difference was…an absence – of yeast. David highlighted the similarities between yeast as the hidden ingredient that transforms bread by giving it a rise to create a more open and airy texture with another hidden ingredient - wisdom.

In his children’s talk, armed with his two rolls, David linked Solomon asking for wisdom with the parable of the yeast being mixed with three measures of flour to create leavened bread. The children were given the rolls to take away and each child was also given a communion wafer that had not been consecrated.

David continued this theme in his address by highlighting the value of the hidden over all the signs of material wealth. The hidden can play an important role in shaping lives and we were encouraged to reflect on the value of making decisions leading to lives that make a difference.

At the end of the address, Rod our vicar, remembered a vicar who had taken on the incumbency of a small rural parish as his last position before retirement. Someone had left the parish a £1m legacy. This amazing gift led to much debate and disagreement amongst the congregation and the outcome was an unhappy parish…a parish that had become too distracted by a concern with money or the visible and had forgotten the many values that come from the hidden or less visible.

Photo credit (front of blog): With many thanks to the anonymous cook who forgot to put the yeast in the bread machine!