Yesterday was Stir Up Sunday. Also known around Presbyterian circles as goodness-is-Advent- really-next-week-Sunday. But for our Anglican neighbours, it’s about pudding.
More or less.
One of the prayers for the day, as found in the Book of Common Prayer of 1549, goes like this:
“Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. “
And, hearing the bit about stirring up, the congregation remembers that Christmas is coming, and that it’s time to get the pudding made. Great tradition, eh? Christmas pudding benefits from a long sit, so it’s a good idea to build in some maturing time. It is a bit anthropologically chicken-and-eggish to wonder if the pudding tradition or the prayer came first, but if you stir up your pudding at the end of November, then by Christmas, it will be perfect.
I love the idea of stirring up before Advent starts. (Not just the pudding, though I love that, too. And the recipe follows, of course.) But being stirred up. Personally awakened and enlivened. Changed, and maybe even mixed up, so that we are ready for surprises.
This past year, there has been a lot of stirring up in our world. The Arab Spring. The Occupy Movement. South Sudan and Norway. Royal weddings and prisoner swaps. The death of tyrants and the birth of baby 7 billion. So many events, so many actions and reactions.
In the midst of earth-changing stir ups, are we asking to be stirred up, too? Stirred up for the coming Christmas? For the hope, peace, joy and love? Not as an audience for Advent, but as a faithful people?
Stirred up that we might scatter hope like seeds.
Stirred up that we might raise peace like children.
Stirred up that we might kindle joy like a fire.
Stirred up that we might risk love, practice love, and wait for love because it comes from God’s good hands and in God’s surprising time.*
And then, in waiting, we might deepen in Christ’s Christmas Life, aware of God born among us, and we might mature in faith and be fruitful.
Stir up our wills, Loving God, and involve us in your surprising work of blessing the world.
My Mum’s Christmas Pudding (and mine, too)
Makes one 4 cup bowl and one 2 cup bowl.
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup molasses
1 cup ground suet (really – I promise it’s good. And use the veggie stuff if you like.)
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup peeled and grated apples
1 cup fine breadcrumbs
½ cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground allspice
½ tsp salt
1 cup raisins
1 cup currants
½ cup chopped dates
1 big handful blanched almonds
Beat the eggs, then blend in sugars, molasses, suet, carrots and apples. Combine remaining ingredients and stir in. Pour into buttered bowls. Cover and steam for four hours (see Note for instructions).
Unmold your puddings when they are cold and wrap in foil. Store in the fridge until Christmas.
To reheat, pop them in the oven, still on their foil, or you can resteam them in their bowls with fresh paper and foil.
Note:
Covering a Steamed Pudding:
Cut a large sheet of aluminium foil and a piece of buttered baking parchment paper. Fold each twice, back and forward, to form a pleat in the middle.
Place the buttered sheet on the pudding first, then top with the foil, pressing it down around the rim of the pudding bowl as you go.
Cut a long piece of string to tie around the bowl, and a shorter piece of string to thread through as a handle over the top. Then get someone to press the knots as you tie the string on as tightly as possible.
Trim both foil and paper, leaving about two inches around the sides.
Your pudding is now happily tucked in and ready to go into the pan.
Place the pudding into a large saucepan with a saucer in the bottom. The water should come halfway up the sides of the bowl.
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*these verbs come from Geoff Wichert and his notes from the Christian Reformed Campus Ministry Association’s annual conference in Halifax under the theme of “Living God’s Shalom on Campus.” Thanks for this text – good advent reading.
And if you are looking for the Presbyterian Church in Canada Advent resources, you can find them here.
