I have been a fan of The Great British Baking Show since the first minute I watched, while I was holding a sleeping newborn. I do have some good memories in my life to hang that show on, and also I chose it partly because it was one of the few shows I found that didn’t make me depressed about human nature in some way. But I think there is actually something deeply good in it. The show feels like going over to a dear friend’s house and sipping the tea they brewed and sharing a fresh scone. It feels like welcome and love. When you find a show that warm, you know the Gospel’s in it.
The Great British Baking Show has a culture that is more powerful than justice alone, more powerful than one person beating everyone else. It’s an atmosphere set by the staff, the judges and particularly the hosts, who with compassion engage the baking flops, injuries, and disasters that beset the stressed contestants. They speak the truth about each dessert, but they affirm the beauty of the people and their ability to overcome obstacles, and offer themselves as sincere, supportive friends. This is how the contestants from week to week don’t stomp out angrily at being judged. Their hearts are fed with this fundamental grace, this Christ-kind of love, and they flourish and grow in their abilities and confidence, showing others the same compassion and friendship in the process.
The Gospel is even more beautiful than so beautiful a show. It is the good news that Jesus entered the world to give us the ultimate welcome. He gave himself up in death so that we could have life with God, so that God can clean up the dropped pies and the cut fingers within us, in our souls. Being loved by Jesus who holds out hospitality richer than tea, so ultimately gives us power, like the contestants in the show, to encourage instead of gossip, hug instead of judge, and be genuinely joyful for the success of others. Let’s remember this vision of community made beautiful by love. Let’s mediate on the welcome of God in the person of Christ, who held out bread, after all, and cooked Peter’s fish. Who looked us in the eye and didn’t look away. If we understand the power of that love, and the gentleness of it, we will walk through the world seeing people instead of mistakes (and maybe holding out tea) to make others welcome in His home.