Mothering is not just biology. It's about the quality of care we offer to one another. St Matthew's acts as a mother to our own congregation, and to the community at large. Another old name for today? . . .Refreshment Sunday - a bit of refreshment from the rigours of Lent and also a bit of refreshment from our hectic lives, a time to stand still for a moment, and enjoy being with God.

Mothering Sunday has been celebrated for many centuries, and some special customs have developed for this day. Long ago, young people who were living and working away from home as servants in big houses were given the day off to visit their mothers. As they walked home they would pick a posy of wild flowers, and this has developed into our custom of a special posy, blessed and given in church - we'll do that later, for anyone who cares for or mothers anyone else.

The employer would allow a little bit of this and that to be used to make a little cake to take, and this has become the Simnel Cake of today.

Jesus did lots of His teaching in parables - telling a story about something well-known to His listeners, but giving it a heavenly meaning. We are doing that today by making a Simnel Cake. Let's see what we can put into our mixing bowl:

(Various members of the congregation bring ingredients for the cake and the ingredients are stirred together.)

The spirit stirs us up to do God's will - whenever we stir, everyone say "STIR" together.

(When all the ingedients are mixed in, the cake is transferred to a cake tin, ready to be baked. One of the children walks out with the cake, and comes straight back in with a fully cooked one.)

Here is one I made earlier !!
We will share this after the service, to celebrate how we all share God's goodness. Now we are going to get ready to share God's greatest gift of all, so I will clear all this away to get ready for our prayers.

The Ingredients and Their Meaning

butter generosity
sugar sweetness of song (from a choir member)
eggs mother love
flour this is the main basis for our cake, so that's us - the main ingredient of our church.
baking powder this raises the whole cake, uplifts, inspires, so the vicar can put that in!
salt Jesus said we are the salt of the earth, the Christians who make a difference to the world.
spice variety, we are all unique human beings, uniquely known to God, and loved by Him. Although all St Matthew's are here today to share this special service some people generally prefer a quieter Sunday worship, so an 8 o'clocker will bring up the spice.

Because the Spirit is working in our church we see the Fruits of the Spirit:
cherries joy
sultanas peace
currants gentleness
raisins goodness
nuts faith
peel trust
milk human kindness
marzipan longsuffering