Salt & Yeast
"The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened." - Matthew 13:33
Innovation makes conservatives uncomfortable. Our viewpoint is fundamentally affirmative of the way things are or have been, and when changes are necessary, we maintain that they should be carried out slowly and cautiously so as not to disturb what is not in need of reform. But Christ presents us with two ways to carry out innovation or transformation, and the relationship between these ways is what I wish to explore in this reflection.
The first and most obvious is the way salt, which instantly transforms food by 1) adding, enhancing, and revitalizing flavors; and 2) purifying and preserving. To make a corporate analogy, since it is familiar, such innovation looks like streamlining operations or introducing new initiatives or product lines. We cannot fail to notice this kind of process. It is exciting, fast-paced, and outside-the-box. Expanding our horizons and purifying what is already existing are certainly necessary activities. Doing so is well suited to the liberally minded, or for those who are less concerned with the protection of the status quo. Morally speaking, this role is vitally important in reforming a disordered, decadent, pagan world, thus Christ’s exhortation to us to become the “salt of the earth.”
But Jesus also likens his disciples to yeast. This second way of transformation is slower, less exciting, and often quite reserved in its scope. This is the way conservatives prefer. How does yeast transform its environment? It consumes and processes as much of it as possible, and transforms it from within. Returning to the corporate analogy, this way is the counterpart of the first way, and could involve tweaking processes to increase quality or efficiency. On the social and moral front, such reform is necessary both to maintain a course and to continue to grow beyond an initial conversion.
But the roles of salt and yeast are vastly different. As any good baker knows, introducing salt into yeasted dough inhibits the activity of the yeast and will even kill it in high quantities. This cleansing/preserving trait is part of what makes salt useful, however, so there can be no substitute to evade this conflict. Similarly, the necessary characteristics of liberal reforms can inhibit conservative ones, which take time, patience, and a consistent status quo from which to work. This is why conservatives are often uncomfortable with innovation. Yet each of these two approaches can be necessary in different scenarios. And when we conservatives are frustrated with our apparent lack of success, here are three things for us to consider: 1) are we looking for the highly visible progress that is not proper to the character of our reforms? If so, we ought to remember that much of what yeast does is an invisible enrichment of the whole; 2) are the arenas in which we are trying to effect change too inundated with reformers of the other sort? If so, then perhaps there is a different arena that could be a better target; and 3) are we expecting results in a realistic timeframe? As far as visible results are concerned, yeast’s greatest and most enduring impact on dough is made in the oven as the yeast all dies away.
Extending now beyond the arena of secular or political innovation, let us examine these two different types of revitalization in the context of our calling to follow Christ and “make all things new.” I believe that God created the world in such a way that there is profound meaning, or anagogical significance in everything. I think divine foreknowledge included Jesus’s use of salt and yeast as metaphors of how Christians ought to transform the world. And so, the world was created so that there was to be a process that unites these two types of transformation, and this process was to be common to virtually all cultures across history. In this divinely preordained allegory of the making of bread, there are four necessary ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast. Flour I take to signify the earth, and when combined with water, it symbolizes the entire physical world. So, our collective role is that of both salt and yeast. As the salt of the earth, Christians must bring out the good latent in the world, enhance it, and preserve it; and as yeast enriches, transforms, and raises up, so are we to transform the world. When we complete these roles, God takes this bread, blesses it, and transforms it again, so that it is at last united perfectly with him: “hoc est enim corpus meum.”