Matthew 13:24-43 Do you Like Bread?

The cold and snowy weather has made my Sundays a little more exciting as I navigate the roads between church and home.  I apologize for not getting up a blog for last week, but due to the weather I had to leave the office earlier than I had hoped to which cuts down on my blog writing time.

So this week, we are in the midst of a couple of Parables.  When I went to seminary, I took a course from Arland Hultgren on the the Parables.  It was an awesome class and it made me understand a lot more about their unique teaching method that Jesus employed.  One of the things I came away from this class was Jesus' Parables were really up for interpretation based on where we were as person.
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Case in point, if we look at the parable about the woman and the leaven bread, we have to ask ourselves what does has to do with the kingdom of God?  Leaven is an agent used for bread to rise.  However, Jewish families during the Passover are required to take the leaven out of their bread. So is the leaven bad?  40 pounds of bread which would be the weight for 3 measures of flour, is the amount of flour that Sarah used for the three heavenly visitors that came to see her and Abraham.  So does the parable talk about the woman waiting to have a divine visit?

These parables force us to grapple with ambivalent signs. Apparently, the coming reign of God is good news for some, but not for others. It brings both judgment and salvation.  These parables also remind us life is not always black and white but shades of grey.  What we do know is that God loves us and God wants us to live a Godly life which means we need to say we are sorry (repent) when we screw up.  So what do these parables do for you?  How do you see this ambivalent teachings?  Do you feel they are good news or not so good news?  Why?