I often receive handcrafted delicious food gifts from congregants during the holiday season (no pressure, I promise!) In the olden days, ministers were frequently paid in provisions — potatoes and beef, soap, candles, cakes, bread and linens. One could say that the tradition lives on in magical ways. It surely did in a New England congregation I served, where I received a bonus in the form of Bonnie’s pudding for the preacher in my Christmas stocking one December.

I tasted this concoction for the first time at a lunch Bonnie prepared for me in her home one autumn day. Don’t let the name fool you –“Body Ecology Diet Vanilla Pudding.” This stuff is ambrosia in a bowl! How to describe it? Well, it’s made from arcane ingredients like agar-agar flakes, lecithin granules, stevia, butter, and arrowroot — it’s cool, fresh, incredibly pure, naturally sweet — the absolute epitome of comfort food. I fairly swooned when I tasted it and wolfed down three servings. Bonnie generously shared the recipe with me, but I couldn’t seem to find the time to track down the ingredients and whip up a batch for myself.

But, oh, how I craved that pudding…the taste, the comfort, and the simple pleasure of it! You can imagine, then, how what evolved since that lunch became a near sacrament for me beginning on Christmas Eve. You see, it’s not just the pudding that was worth its weight in gold, but also the touching personal and spiritual connection it had unintentionally fostered. Bonnie entered the Sanctuary that candlelit eve and her eyes lit up, too. She smiled at me and pointed to her satchel.

Could it be her pudding? Was I once again to be in the possession of this luscious, simple, healthy, freely-given offering? Bonnie confessed that she delighted in the glee and enthusiasm I felt for her creation. This is the gift I returned to her along with the Tupperware after the Christmas break. And a cycle began – pudding-tupperware-pudding, and so on.

It may not be Bonnie’s pudding, but we cook it forward by sharing our own delicious gifts (edible, monetary, and otherwise) with one another in community and beyond our walls as sacraments that bring nourishment to body, heart, and soul. Cook it forward so that when folks ask if Eastrose UU is a caring and generous community, you can rightly tell them: “Yes, the proof is in the pudding!”

May joy find you this holiday season and into the new year.

In affection and faith,
Rev. Robin