A Close Knit Community

Our church has operated a community center for the past 25 years. Center of Grace provides a variety of services to the community, focusing on the vulnerable and the marginalized. As we are located in a place that gets cold during the Winter months, our church collects hat, gloves, scarves and coats every November to give out to the people who use Center of Grace. Last year, our family bought hats and gloves off Amazon for about $2.60 per person. A great buy in my opinion and I even use the same gloves myself. However, when I wanted to add scarves to our donation, I couldn't find any less than $8 a piece and scarves one would actually want to buy started at $9. I did not think it was good use of my money to pay three times what it cost for gloves and a hat for one scarf. Something told me I could make some myself for far less money. 

My grandmother had taught me some basic knitting stitches when I was a kid, but it had been pushing four decades since I played with needles and yarn. Luckily we live in an age where you can easily teach yourself to do all kinds of things. Many of those things should still be left to professionals, but knitting is a skill that I truly feel most people can get pretty good at. After struggling through a few tutorials to sharpen my admittedly dull abilities, I choose some patterns marked "for beginners" and got to work. Turns out, I can knit a scarf myself for $3 or, if a great sale is happening, less. A lot more bang for my buck. Problem solved.

Now, I can hear what some of you are thinking at this point. What does he mean problem solved? Doesn't it take a bunch of time to knit a scarf? It does in fact take a bunch of time. 17.6 hours to be semi-exact (based on eight rows per inch x 66 inches x two minutes per row). Considering I want to make at least 24 scarves to match the number of hats and gloves we'll be buying, that's over 422 hours (or 17 days) of knitting fun. Who has that much extra time in their modern schedule? If we are honest with ourselves, all of us.

Admittedly, a large chunk of my knitting time comes from double dipping: I knit while we watch television. I can get about two inches done during a half hour show. That roughly translates to finishing one scarf after binging 33 episodes of your favorite sitcom. Since I also have gotten into the habit of dashing off a few rows whenever I have a few moments (like waiting for the tea kettle to boil or my wife to put her shoes on to run errands), it usually takes me 10-14 days. I am currently finishing my twentieth scarf since New Years and should be able to hit my target in plenty of time to make our donation.

I always use size 8 knitting needles (5mm or size 6 in the UK) and Loops and Threads Soft Classic yarn in the 7 oz (198 g) skeins, which I can usually buy on sale for $3/skein or less. I average about one skein of yarn per scarf (a couple of patterns use about 1.1 skeins and others use about 0.9). I make all my scarves 66 inches long and 6-7 inches wide. I make about 7 different patterns in a variety of colors. Why don't I just make them all one color, in the same pattern and buy yarn in bulk? I realize that not everyone likes the same look. I have this crazy notion that giving someone in need a choice just might impart a little dignity and a sense of ownership. That treating them like a person is the Christian thing to do. But I digress. Or do I?

Anyways, this first pattern comes from Purl Soho and is called the No-Purl Ribbed Scarf. If you can count to three, this is an easy scarf to knit with just two rows that alternate from beginning to end. It's a great looking scarf that my wife has hinted she wouldn't mind having around her own neck (hint taken). I cast on 35 stitches which gives the finished product a width of 6.5 inches. This scarf uses about 1.1 skeins of yarn.

New to knitting? There are tons of tutorials online for everything from casting on to casting off and everything in between. My best advice: keep at it. Some of my first attempts are chock full of mistakes and look like something a pair of wolverines tried to concoct. I can't tell you how many times I had to unravel rows (and entire sections) and start anew because my abilities fell far short of mediocrity. I have improved immensely over these last several months. I've gotten better at removing stitches carefully and reworking them to the point that most people wouldn't even know. Do I still make mistakes? You can count on it. But at least I can count on a couple of dozen people being warmer this winter, mistakes and all.

It Takes Talents

One of the passages from the Bible I reference a lot is Matthew 25:14-30, commonly known as the parable of the talents. In a nutshell, it is a story about rich man giving some of his servants money to do something with while he is away on a trip. When he returns, he asks for a report on what the servants accomplished. Two servants got to work and multiplied what they were given. The rich guy praises them for their industriousness. A third servant, however, buries what he is given, which is the equivalent to literally doing nothing with it. He doesn't even put the money in his savings account to at least gain a tiny bit of interest. The rich man, understandably, gets angry with him and takes everything away from the third servant, giving it to the two who expanded their affluence.

I believe the talents in this parable are generally understood to be actual money as the Old Testament frequently refers to talents of gold or silver. As a unit of weight, a talent can be anywhere from 66 pounds to 129 pounds, depending on what country's standard you want to use. It sometimes also means an amount of money equal to 20 years worth of someone's wages. Either way, a significant and precious resource. However, I also believe that Jesus wasn't just talking about money here. Thanks to the versatility of the English language, I think His definition of talents encompasses all of the significant and precious resources we have to offer. Things like our time, our energy, our innate abilities, our learned skills, our experiences, our presence and our love. Add our money to that list and we have a powerful arsenal of talents at our disposal.

My basic interpretation of this parable is this: God is going to give us resources and it is our job to use those resources to their fullest. This requires a two prong attack. First, we need to actually use our talents. Don't save them for a special occasions. Don't pretend they don't exist. Don't try to hoard them. Put them out into the world each and every day. Multiple times a day even. Use them until you think you can't possibly have any left. Then rest, replenish and repeat. Do yourself a favor and do not skip the second word of that last sentence. Burnout is real, it is ugly and it should be avoided if at all possible. 

Secondly, we need to use our talents for good. What do I mean when I say "for good?" Use your talents to relieve suffering, to love others, to take care of someone else's needs, to improve the world somehow for the betterment of all creation. You might think this idea is a given. Sadly, in the world we currently inhabit, it is not. Too often our society says use your talents to gain followers, gain influence and gain money, simply for the goal of satisfying your own desires. At the same time we are told to bow down to the almighty dollar, we are told to treat ourselves and be as selfishly frivolous as you want. It's only money after all.

This parable says otherwise. It says that what we do with our talents matters and that doing nothing is unacceptable. Taken in context with the whole of Christ's message, God gives us resources to fulfil our needs and he gives us more than we need so that we can take care of others. It's a radical, counter cultural, chaotically good position to take nowadays but that is what this party is all about.

The Beginning

Two thousand years ago, a radical preacher began His ministry in a little corner of the world just east of the Mediterranean Sea. He emphasized servanthood over authority, stewardship over selfishness and meekness over aggression. When asked to prioritize existing laws, with zero hesitation He threw all but two out and said everything else will fall into place if you master this: love God and love each other. He then went on to redefine what words like love meant. His insistence that our very existence rested in those four little letters scared the ruling class so badly, they did everything in their power to wipe him from this earth. They thought they succeeded in having Him killed. They ultimately failed to end his ministry.

If Jesus were a Dungeons and Dragons player, His alignment would absolutely be chaotic good. Even though He blatantly said that He should be considered the fulfillment of Jewish law, He simultaneously rewrote the rules of conduct, definitively in favor of doing good above all else. He healed on the Sabbath. He exponentially expanded the meaning of family. He made it clear that worldly things like accumulated wealth prevented someone from entering His Heavenly kingdom. He regularly upended the societal norms wherever He went.

That is exactly what the Chaotic Good Party is all about. Cultivating a different attitude. Rejecting the societal norm of worshipping things in favor of forging loving relationships. Doing more and talking less. Striving for authenticity, transparency and meaningful connection instead of an endless stream of meaningless, empty followers. Being the light, love, hands and feet of an incredible God even if it means  flying in the face of the status quo. Developing simple actions that can be performed over and over by normal people everywhere to relieve suffering, create joy, preserve dignity and maybe heal some small part of the broken world we live in.

If you are tired of how we all seem to be trudging down a road that leads somewhere few of us actually want to arrive, let's step off the asphalt, take stock of our strengths and start blazing a new trail.