Here’s a family talk from my book Getting it Across 2. It explores how to make a simple pancake, as well as considering the meaning of pancakes in relation to Shrove Tuesday and Lent. A vital lesson we can draw is that whatever God gives us, don’t waste it.
Reading
Luke 12:42-48
Aim
This talk, designed for Shrove Tuesday (so, strictly speaking, outside of Lent), picks up and enlarges on the significance of making pancakes, asking what lessons this tradition might have for us today.
Preparation
Make three pancake shapes out of modelling clay, Plasticene or playdough, and then, using more modelling clay of another colour, mould some letters to spell out RESOURCES, GIFTS and LENT. Press these down (making one word for each) into the ‘pancakes’. Place the two ‘pancakes’ labelled GIFTS and LENT into a large mixing bowl and the one labelled RESOURCES into a frying pan, word facing downwards. Position the mixing bowl and frying pan on a table at the front of the church. Conceal a box of eggs, a pint of milk, a bag of flour, a container of salt and a pat of butter somewhere around the church.
Talk
Depending on the time/day of the service/talk, ask how many people had or will be having pancakes today/this week. Ask if anyone can tell you why pancakes are traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday. Explain that pancake-making is a particularly English tradition, originally started to use up stocks of fat, butter and eggs, which, along with meat (not used in pancakes!), were all foods forbidden during the period of Lent, when Christians traditionally fasted to mark the 40 days Jesus fasted in the wilderness before facing temptation. These food items would not keep for 40 days, but poor people particularly couldn’t afford to waste precious provisions, so they used them up in the pancakes, enjoying something of a feast in doing so.
In some places, Pancake Day races are still held, such as in the Buckinghamshire town of Olney, where races have taken place ever since 1445, when, so the story goes, a woman was cooking pancakes and, hearing the church shriving-bell summoning people to confession, rushed to church in her apron, still clutching hold of her frying pan. Ask if anyone can find the ingredients of pancakes that you have hidden around the church. As they are brought forward to you, explain their meaning:
• eggs – symbol of creation
• milk – symbol of purity
• flour – the staff of life
• salt – symbol of wholesomeness
• butter – used as a fat to cook the mixture in.
Tell the congregation that you want to focus particularly on the idea behind pancakes of avoiding waste. Place these ‘ingredients’ (still in their containers) into the mixing bowl on your table, as you do so place the modelling-clay pancakes labelled GIFTS and LENT on top. Tell the congregation that you are going to make three special pancakes for them, and that you will need three volunteers to toss them for you. Give your first volunteer the frying pan to hold, and ask him or her to toss the ‘pancake’ inside it. Afterwards, hold this up, revealing the word RESOURCES. Of all the things we cannot afford to waste, resources are perhaps those most often in the news today. We are increasingly coming to realise that supplies of commodities like fuel, minerals, timber and much else are limited and therefore need to be used thoughtfully and wisely, and recycled where possible. As Christians, we have a responsibility to be at the forefront in stewarding this world’s resources.
Take the ‘pancake’ marked GIFTS, place it in the frying pan, and ask a second volunteer to toss it, once again displaying the word on the pancake afterwards. If there’s a danger of wasting resources on a global scale, there’s equally a danger on an individual level – namely, wasting our gifts. We may be gifted in science or languages, maths or literature, music or graphic design, or perhaps in sport, carpentry or metalwork. Do we make the most of such gifts, developing them to their full potential? Equally, there are gifts in a wider sense: things like health and education. Again, do we make the most of what God has given us?
Ask a third volunteer to toss your final ‘pancake’, this time revealing the word LENT. Not as many Christians fast today during Lent as was once the case, but many still observe the season in some way. Some make time for prayer or quiet reflection, some meet with Christians of other denominations in study groups, some attempt to kick a bad habit, while others deny themselves certain ‘luxuries’, giving the money they would have spent to charity or other good causes. Lent marks out 40 days distinct from the rest of the year – once again, we should not waste it.
The simple pancake, as well as providing a tasty meal, has much to teach us. Its lesson is summed up in the last verse of our reading: ‘From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded’ (Luke 12:48). Whatever God gives you, don’t waste it.