One of the best things
about this time of year is eating mince pies.
(For those who did not grow up in the UK, the mince pie is a British
Christmas tradition.) The best are
home-made: a small shallow disc of pastry, filled with sweet mincemeat (a
concoction of dried fruits and spices – and at one time, though no longer,
minced beef), and topped with a five-pointed glazed pastry star.
In this form, the mince
pie represents the nativity:
the pastry disc represents
the manger (most likely a bowl-like depression ground-out of the stone floor of
the home);
the mincemeat filling
represents the straw;
and the star represents
the baby Jesus (the five-points represent head and limbs; and by using a star
rather than a ‘baby’ shape, represents Jesus as the Bright Morning Star that
signals the coming breaking of the dawn).
The mincemeat needs to
be visible between the points of the star – the straw the baby nestles in. Totally encased mince pies are plain wrong.
We love eating mince
pies in our house; and we love helping to make them – rolling and cutting out
the pastry, spooning on the mincemeat, brushing on the glaze.
However, the mince pie
has been contentious among differing Christian communities and traditions in British
history. Indeed, the mince pie was
banned by Puritan parliamentarians during the so-called English Civil War (at
least three consecutive conflicts, involving England, Scotland, Wales and
Ireland) for being a Catholic corruption of true faith. It symbolises the repression of one group by
another, on the basis of a particular set of beliefs – the persecution being
all the more poignant given that those who claimed to worship the Prince of
Peace were opposing one another.
And so the mince pie
represents our own prejudices: those places where we espouse a dogma of
division over a recipe of reconciliation.
Take. Eat.
Make room for Jesus by
allowing him to confront our confident certainties with his child-like
innocence and wonder; by embracing humility; by redeeming a troubled history,
to point to a restored future;
by bringing together
the sharp and the sweet – suet, apple, raisin, sultana, currant, candied peel,
soft dark brown sugar, orange, lemon, almond, cinnamon, nutmeg, brandy – to
create something truly celebratory.
Advent:
making room for Jesus – in special food.
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