Lent... Tradition

I stood at the ironing board ironing damask napkins, napkins that once were used by my grandmother and Michael’s mother. The easy repetition of ironing one flat square after another calmed my mind and set my spirit to roaming. Memories of family dinners with china and crystal and silver, family gathered around large tables, small children twitching, grace being said and meals shared with laughter as the whipped cream on the dessert. Over forty years of meal memories are settled deep in the fibers of this beautiful old damask fabric. Our family with children and grandchildren now gathers around our old round table and these napkins I am ironing (at last) are from the Christmas season when we shared several meals here at Sabbath Rest Farm.
In the early seventies, our church, Lake Shore Baptist Church became an active participant in the “Greening of America”. We read the book, took the ideas on many of our church retreats for all ages, had study groups, heard sermons... full court church press to get us to consider how we were living and using earth’s resources. One of the changes I made was to switch to cloth napkins. Preachers didn’t make much money so I had to be creative. I made some napkins, found some at sales and bargain stores, collected napkin rings, looked for permanent press napkins that didn’t need ironing and some fancy napkins that did. Our children grew up with cloth napkins in a ring by their plate. You kept your napkin at your place at the table for a week’s worth of meals (unless we had a really messy meal or you were messy yourself).
Cloth napkins became a tradition in our family. And this tradition links me to the families that came before us. My grandmother’s napkins are a beautiful soft old damask. The woven pattern reflects the style of her generation, her time on earth. Michael’s mother’s napkins are a crisper damask that irons up without starch to a sharp crease. The pattern on them reflects the thirties and forties. When Michael’s mother died, we shared her napkins, each of us taking some from her bountiful store of table cloths and napkins. She loved to set a pretty table. Tradition...
The tradition of Lent is one that has been passed down to us by all those families of Christians who have gone before us. Like the pretty cloth napkins that need ironing, Lent provides a time out to let our spirits roam, to reflect on times past and to prepare for times to come. Lent as a liturgical season is about as popular as ironing but it has some gifts for us if we will take the time to celebrate it honestly and with gratitude for all that has been. The past is always with us whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. We may react against it, revile it, revamp our history, refuse it, or choose to re-new it by giving thanks for everything... the good, the bad and the ugly... during Lent.
We could not be who we are, be here at all, without our pasts. The history that brought me to this place in time has been a gift and I am grateful... traditional Southern Baptist, Primitive Baptist, liberal(and I do mean liberal) Southern Baptist, United Church of Christ... all have been my teachers and homes for my soul in their time. During this day, I will give thanks for these traditions and the richness of their teachings that linger still in my faith practice. Considering where I have come from shines a light on where I am going. Thanks be to God for the process of Lent year after year.