A Song of Recreation

Beloved People of God,

Have you ever lost the thread? I imagine the phrase “lose the thread” began in a time when tapestries were still primarily made by hand and the careful design required mindful attention to the weaving. Despite the fact most of us do not mind the literal progress of thread, we still use this phrase to indicate we have lost focus, that the task or talk at hand got jumbled.

As we as Christians have walked penitently through Lent for nearly two millennia, I think we have sometimes lost the thread of the season. We sent the thread ahead of us, but lost track of its movement. Gary Castor once observed, “Lent is a solemn season, it is not a somber one.” Talk about nuance! Did we really lose the thread or are we just splitting hairs (another great idiom, but we’ll save that for another day)? Looking around, I see a lot of spiritual apprehension, a nervous shift from the feasting of Fat Tuesday to the ashen gloom of the following morning. I think we’ve lost the thread. Castor believes, “the forty days [of Lent] are not structured to foster morbid gloominess and debilitating self-loathing; they are meant to thrust us into the heart of divine love.” That’s the thread! Sincere lament which leads us back to love.

When we read Psalm 51, if we aren’t careful, we lose the thread. We get caught up in the drama of the backstory and miss the meaning. We miss the peace of lament that turns us toward our Creator in whom we find re-creation and restoration. Psalm 51 is a restart, a tracing back of the thread to the beginning. Lent isn’t a dour day, pointless and moody. Lent is a thread of grace which leads us to renewal.

For His Name’s Sake,

Brett