Dear Friends in Christ,
I am writing you from a chilly Maryland and enjoying my first vacation since August of 2019. Like you, I dislike this pandemic, but I have enjoyed visiting my family and especially my granddaughter whom I had not seen since the day she was born. Now she is walking and talking and is just a joy to be around. Thank you for allowing me this time.
This week is the third Sunday of Advent and I’d like to write to you about the collect for this Sunday. Traditionally, this collect was always used from 1549 until 1979 and was known as the collect for the Sunday next before Advent. In 1979, the Church adopted the Roman Catholic feast of Christ the King on the Sunday prior to Advent, and this collect was translated to the third Sunday of Advent. The collect did have a very special meaning for our British brothers and sisters, as it signified “Stir up Sunday.” The collect which we will read this weekend follows:
“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”.
The words, “Stir up” reminded our British brothers and sisters to begin to make their Christmas pudding. The Christmas pudding was introduced under the reign of Queen Victoria as were other “new Christmas traditions.” When parishioners heard this collect read in the church, somewhere about five or six weeks prior to Christmas, Christians in Great Britain realized it was time to get their dried fruit, suet, flour, breadcrumbs, spices, and assorted liquors together so that the pudding could ferment and be ready for Christmas. For the poor, extended families joined in to bring together their fruit and other offerings to make this very special pudding. Most recipes for Christmas pudding require it to be cooked/steamed weeks in advance of Christmas and then reheated on Christmas Day, so the collect of the day served as a useful reminder.
The making of the Christmas pudding has a tradition about it too. Each family member must have a chance to stir it up as it is a tiresome job: each person, while stirring the pudding, makes a wish. It is stirred from East to West in remembrance of the wise men traveling in the same direction. Some families have a tradition of adding a coin or two for luck. Today most Britons buy a ready-made pudding and have never enjoyed the Advent tradition. I had a parishioner from England have me help with the pudding. It was a neat experience but exhausting and, since she was in her late 90’s, I think she just wanted a younger person to stir!
Like the waning popularity of the family and friends coming together in the kitchen on “Stir up Sunday,” throughout this pandemic, our weekly meal, celebrated at the altar has also experienced waning popularity. It is my hope that the collect for this Sunday will stir up the wills of the people; like the Holy Spirit hovering over the deep in the beginning of creation, it will recreate a church family that gathers in the “church’s kitchen”, bringing their hearts and offerings and other “ingredients”, so that the Lord’s Table may be made ready for us to be nourished and to be filled with grace and peace.
May the Holy Spirit stir you up to good works during this holy season,
and I hope to see you in church. Wishing you a blessed Advent,
I am your servant and Christ’s,
Eric+
