This Lent, there's only what’s in front of us
Photo by Samantha Romero on Unsplash
When I lived in Minnesota several years ago, I took up knitting and had a wonderful—and extremely patient—teacher, Donna.
With Donna’s help, I really got into the hobby. I purchased multiple sets of needles and books of patterns. Donna took me shopping to tiny, independently owned knitting shops with walls covered in open boxes of hand-dyed skeins of yarn in such gorgeous colors they made me weep for the glory of them.
I had several projects on needles going concurrently while I was also perusing patterns—so many choices! I told Donna I couldn’t wait to finish the projects I was working on so I could get to the next ones!
Her response has stayed with me since:
“Yes, that’s true, but knitting is only the next stitch. It’s a knit or a purl. It’s the knitting itself that’s the thing. No matter the project, the next stitch is all there is.”
Her words came back to me recently.
Like most everyone else, I’ve struggled to cope with how small our worlds have shrunk. They’re about as large as our homes, outdoor walks, and errands allow.
Like most everyone else, I’ve struggled to take in the reality, the sheer scope, the “Temple curtain-split-in-two-before-and-afterness” of this crisis.
Like most everyone else I’ve also struggled with the lack of choices to do what I want and go where I want when I want; to absorb and respond to the profound and myriad types of losses of so many; and not being able to visit and wrap my arms around my loved ones.
“Go to your cell and your cell will teach you everything,” the old monastic tradition says.
So true.
But the difference now is that rather than voluntarily walk into our cells consenting to be taught, we’ve been thrust into them forcefully and with as much immediacy as the Spirit thrust Jesus into the wilderness.
Who needs Lent when we’re living it year-round?
And yet our cells, entered voluntarily or not, can still teach us if we let them.
In our “cells”—our shrunken worlds with fewer distractions—we can be re-membered by God, like when we are reminded that it doesn’t matter what the project is, because the next stitch is all there is.
That is—all there is is Christ, and to serve him.
It doesn’t matter what the project is or where it takes place because there is only one stitch to make next: to serve.
Whether that project takes place in Minnesota or Texas—
a home kitchen or soup kitchen—
whether it’s balancing a checkbook or a Prayer Book—
talking liturgy and the best green screen, or theology and Augustine—
dribbling ashes, handing out ashes, pressing on ashes, or just remembering last year’s ashes—
there is only one thing to do: serve.
When knitting, there is an empty space between the needles. The needles glide through this space in order to hook a stitch from one needle and lift it on to the other.
All the yarn passes through this space as it is looped and caught, to grow like a seedling from the DNA of its pattern into a scarf, or sweater, or sock, vest, or prayer shawl—or humble dish rag.
It is a liminal, holy space that blesses the yarn as it passes through to thus bless its eventual recipient.
Our service in Christ’s name passes through that same holy, liminal space where God blesses our work to thus bless its eventual recipient.
It doesn’t matter the project.
Whether we serve in that moment to stitch together a prayer or an alternate-reality Ash Wednesday service or a humble email to confirm an appointment, there is only one thing: to serve.
St. Romuald, a tenth Century Benedictine and founder of the Camaldolese order wrote,
“Empty yourself, and sit waiting, content with the grace of God.”
We have been emptied of so much.
We are waiting for, well, a lot.
Can we also be content? Can God’s grace really be enough?
It’s possible when we embrace that the next stitch is all there is.
Holy Week & Easter Sermon Prep
Start to Finish (S2F)
Join The Collective+ to participate in our Start-to-Finish (S2F) Sermon Workshops (formerly known as Sermon Bootcamp) where you’ll prepare ALL your Holy Week and Easter sermons in a fun and focused time of preparation!
Holy Week S2F runs 1 hour/day the week of March 14th
Easter S2F runs 1 hour/day the week of March 21st
All sermons will be completed by Friday, March 26th, so you can be fully present during Holy Week!