Amish Friendship Bread

Do you know about this phenomenon? This Amish Friendship Bread thing?

I first heard about it from an aunt who lives in Baton Rouge. She’s not a baker, so that was the first tip-off that this was something different. And then she kept telling me stories about baking this bread every weekend because people loved it and were asking her to make more, please.

Then it started showing up at COA, these yummy, dense, sweet-yet-tart loaves of bread that people loved to eat! Turns out that a cadre of what must be Amish friends were making this bread and bringing it to various events. So when one of them (OK, Sherri) sent out a broadcast that she had Amish Friendship Bread starter to share, I raised my hand.

Here’s how it works. You get a freezer bag containing this starter, made of yeast, flour, sugar, and milk. You hold on to it for a certain number of days, allowing it to ferment, mushing it daily. (Yes, mush. Technical term, I think.) Then you add more flour and sugar and milk, and allow it to ferment another number of days, still mushing daily. At the end of the allotted fermentation time, you go through steps that creates starter to share, and then you make your bread from your reserved starter. And then you try to find people to give the starters to.

Who knew?

OK. I’m the kind of person who makes plans to take a business trip and forgets that I have a dog that needs care while I’m gone. The kind of discipline it takes to mush daily and bake every ten days or so is almost beyond me. I am a responsible person—just barely.

But I confess that watching this stuff ferment is fascinating. It bubbles and grows, filling the bags with air, ultimately yielding enough batter to begin the process all over again. Watching it grow made me wonder, “How could you stop this?”

Not just how I could stop this endless procession of creating, growing, splitting, baking, and distributing. But the yeast! How can it keep growing and multiplying? The sweet, tangy smell of the fermentation fills the kitchen. It touches everything and is virtually indestructible. The key is that it needs to be fed and nurtured. (Remember the sugar, flour, and milk?) If it’s not nurtured or fed, it will stop growing.

Yeast is used in scripture as an object lesson. We all remember that at Passover, yeast (and all leavening) is cleansed from every household. It reminds celebrants that there was no time for bread to rise when the Israelites fled Egypt—a reminder of God’s deliverance. Leavenings are pervasive and powerful and hard to eliminate. Yet once a year, yeast was to be purged out of their lives.

The New Testament also used the imagery of yeast. We think of it mostly as an image of sin. It’s very effect. Sin touches everything. Once begun it’s virtually indestructible. Paul wrote: Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)

Jesus warns the disciples to beware of the yeast (bad teaching and hypocrisy) of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 16:6-12). It’s a sort of comical exchange where the disciples thought Jesus was hungry and Jesus was trying to make a point. Consider how yeasty bad teaching is. Or hypocrisy. It ferments and grows and touches everything.

But then in a remarkably hopeful parable, he offered this: "What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough." (Luke 13:20-21)

The kingdom of God is like a yeast. How does a yeast grow? It is fed and nourished, tended until it is worked all through the dough. The kingdom of God will grow and flourish and touch every part of our lives? Every part of our world? What will the kingdom of God touch? Who does the tending and nourishing? What makes it grow?

I’m not sure. I’m one of those who would have had a puzzled look when Jesus offered this parable. But you know, now every time I watch a bag of Amish Friendship Bread starter bubble and grow, I will remember that the kingdom of God is like yeast and that I am part of that kingdom.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving us such homely images to understand your richest gifts. Illuminate my mind to understand your words and to grow in their truth. Thank you.