You can’t talk about “Home for Christmas” without talking about food can you? I associated Christmas growing up with home baking. Mum always protested that shop bought mince pies tasted too sweet whereas she could control the amount of filling that went into the ones she made. So home made mince pies were a tradition, one I’ve recently took up again for our family. Then there was the Christmas cake, made with plenty of fruit in advance, though again not too rich (it’s that richness which makes a slice of Wensleydale essential to take the edge off of the cake in Yorkshire). My dad tells the tale of a cake sent each year when he was growing up by a couple of maiden aunts. On one occasion it was so rich that they struggled to eat it all and thus his mum used it as the base for next year’s Christmas pudding. After Christmas, mum wasn’t one for dragging out the turkey in sandwiches. Instead a fresh batch of pastry was rolled out and a turkey pie was ready for the second week of the holidays.
Christmas day in our home meant that the veggies had been prepared the night before and the Turkey went into the oven early on. Then we went off to church, returning for a brief round of present unwrapping before we ate. Late in the evening there was buffet spread of sandwiches, pickles and the centre piece being what is referred to as a “Stand Pie” in Yorkshire -basically a large pork pie.
Christmas at my in-laws meant Sarah’s dad preparing not just one Christmas dinner but two, a completely new one on Boxing Day, he wasn’t one for left-overs. And the dinner was a challenge in it’s own right, a cross between scaling Everest and an archaeological dig as you worked down through mashed and roast potato, parsnips, pigs in blankets until you reached a trio of roast meat at the bottom.
There’s something about Christmas food that shouts “homeliness” isn’t there. Whilst it is possible to eat out on Christmas Day at exorbitant cost, that doesn’t feel right. In fact, I think there’s only been one year in my life where I haven’t had Christmas Dinner at home in our house, with family members or at a friend’s. That was on my last visit to see my parents when they were living in China and we spent the day out at a place of interest. The only food to be bought in the remote place turned out to be pot noodles.
We’ve been thinking about the theme of “Home for Christmas” here on the blog as well as out our church over the build up to Christmas. And so, I want to draw out two themes from this. First, church for many of us becomes home. It’s our family. In fact, the early church functioned as an extended family. It’s why we compare elders to dads in our church and why we talk about families needing both mums and dads. Church as home should be a place where we experience comfort and security, protection and provision.
Now, you will have picked up on a theme in my description of Christmas food traditions. It was all about home baking and home cooking growing up. This meant first of all that it wasn’t what we might call “fancy food”, none of the weird and wonderful things that M&S try to pass off as edible in their Christmas adds. But also, it was real food, not junk food. Now, I like a takeaway as much as the next man and I don’t mind a trip to MacDonalds once in a while. However,t hat stuff is designed not to satisfy and becomes addictive. That’s why you need the real stuff, that’s why you can’t beat mum or dad’s home cooking in the end.
I often make that comparison when talking about teaching and preaching in church. You see, we need spiritual food. Now sometimes we can be attracted to what seems fancy, the internet preacher or tele-evangelist. Sometimes if we are honest, we end up serving junk food, quick and easy stuff. And often it feels like that’s what we want but its not what we need. What we need is a straight forward, non-flashy, staple diet of elders who are willing to open up God’s Word and expound it to us.
Secondly and here is the big thing. The aim of preaching and teaching is that the Word of Christ should dwell in us richly, just as at communion, the aim is to “feast on Christ in your hearts.” Jesus described himself as the bread of life and promised that living water would flow out from him. Jesus presented himself as the food and drink at the Last Supper. He is not just the host, he is the meal itself. Jesus is the one who gives us strength and life. We come to him as thirsty people needing to be refreshed. We come to him as hungry people needing to be filled.
Faithroots 