A Recipe for Reformation

I have a no fail recipe for tea biscuits: Rheba’s Mayonnaise Biscuits to be precise. She was a member of St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in West Northfield, NS. After posting a devotion in the summer that included the recipe, I asked if anyone knew her. From people in Lunenburg Co., I learned many things about her. All comments showed that she was dearly loved. She loved cooking for crowds and could multiply the barley loaves so to speak. She was a fixture at community fundraising meals, candied popcorn was her Hallowe’en specialty, she cared for the sick and needy with food. Rheba’s gift was one of hospitality.  She lived a life where God’s love for her, was lived in faithful witness through hospitality and lovingly feeding the community around her.

This is the message we have shared for generations. This is the importance of commemorating the Reformation: once experiencing God’s love and grace we can do no other than share it. Our good works are not good works, but, God’s love pouring out through us. We celebrate the foundation of our formation: sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, sola Christo, sola deo gloria. – scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, glory to God alone.

Some recipes are foundational, others not so much. When I bake muffins, for instance, they are never the same twice. Muffin recipes I continually reform – transform – depending on what I have in the cupboards or what suits my fancies. Rheba’s biscuit recipe, I follow exactly. There are some recipes that do not need re-inventing: the final form, the biscuit- is in perfect form. Every time it is mixed there is consistency of basic ingredients – transformed into something delicious. Perhaps this is the recipe for continued reformation in the church – some recipes can be altered, but others remain consistent with the same basic ingredients repeated. We need both to feed us, both to live by; both are the Bread of Life and bread for hungry.

 

So let us put together a batch of Rheba’s Mayonniase Biscuits.

 

4 c flour – Flour is the substance, the main ingredient.  In Reformation language it represents sola scripture (scripture alone). Flour contains gluten which provides elasticity to the dough and helps it stretch. Scripture is the Word which provides an active agent in our brains and hearts, stretching our capacities to understand God and God’s kindom.

 

1 ½ tsp. salt – The Word in the Gospel of Mark reminds us to: have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another (Mk9:50).  Salt is used in baking to enhance the flavour of other ingredients. It adds depth and complexity – although a supporting role, without it the final product lacks taste, in some cases making the product unpalatable. Reformation wise, salt, is sola fide, by faith alone. The ingredient is not necessarily seen yet has a supporting role in how it is that we live in the world. Salt, faith, is a gift, that seasons life; and adds depth and complexity when wrestling with circumstances of life.

 

6 tsp. sugar – The Word teaches in Proverbs, gracious words are like honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body. (Pr.16: 24). Living faith changes the conversation we put into the world.  Faith is sugar – it is forgiveness – a blessed sweetness- knowing we cannot attain forgiveness by own merit, it is extended to us. Being sweetened by God’s gift of faith allows us the ability to speak gracious words to others, healing words, words that build up community, and encourage individuals with hope – an assurance of that which is not yet seen.

 

6 tsp. baking powder – This is the Reformation slogan: sola Christo -Christ alone. Baking powder in a recipe is the rising agent. It increases the volume and lightens the texture of baked goods.  Christ alone is the heart of the gospel. God chose to enter the human condition; becoming vulnerable, suffering, and choosing to die to show us to what lengths God will go to love us. Christ rises out of suffering and death, inviting humanity to follow – to live resurrected lives, where in dying to oneself, -submitting to God’s way, trusting in God,- one dedicates themself to be an agent of human liberation and bringing God’s kindom of shalom.

 

2/3 c mayonnaise – Is Mystery. Some bakers considered mayonnaise to be a magical ingredient; adding moisture, tenderness, vitamins (goodness); to the baked-good it adds flake or fluff (flare). In Reformation speak, sola deo gloria, glory to God alone. 

 

1 ¾ c milk – Milk is grace and promise. How many times does scripture say, that God will set before you a land flowing with milk and honey?  Sola gratia, by grace alone. Once poured into the batter, milk can not be removed. It instantly starts to soak into the other ingredients. Because of God’s actions – love- all are invited (the sinner, the weak, the vulnerable, the alienated, the outcast, the lonely, you, me) to belong. Forgiven liberated, redeemed we are part of something far bigger than ourselves. We have purpose. We are given life in community.

 

1 egg    - The Community. The prophet Isaiah wrote, as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth (Is. 10:14). The egg is like glue, sticking all the ingredients together, and offering stability and structure to the batter. Community has us supporting each other and the wider community, invested in sharing with the neighbour and ever expanding our understanding of neighbour, gathering eggs that have been forsaken.

 

The recipe conforms to a regular baking structure: Stir dry ingredients together.

Add the wet ingredients -mayonnaise, milk, and egg. Then mix all together.

 

Grease a cookie sheet. Form dough into 12 pieces.

Bake at 375F for 15-20 mins.

The baking time makes me think of the time we meet in community to hear, teach, and learn the Word, the moments we partake in sacrament, all the instances that bake faith, grace, Christ into our hearts.

 

Some of you will remember congregation member Aino Brzak. In her mid 90s she moved from her home into Northwood.  On my first visit to her room, I took a traditional housewarming gift, salt (a blessing that life will always have flavour) and bread (to symbolize never knowing hunger). I took bread in the form of homemade tea biscuits. Aino graciously took the tea biscuits and had me sit down. She set about pulling out two little glasses and pouring us liquor.  Then, surprising me, she turned, pulled out a tea biscuit, and broke off a piece. She handed it to me and said, “the body of Christ” and likewise with the liquor “the blood of Christ.” That day I brought the bread, she, the bread of reformation. Aino turned the table - in her own pastoral way, she fed and blessed me.

A recipe for Reformation – -take the Bread you have received, turn the table, and in your own pastoral way feed and bless those whom you encounter.

By the grace of God go we. Amen.