Good Morning Friends,
Today we reflect on traits and traditions, relationships and rituals that prepare the way for faith to establish itself in our lives. More specifically we look at fasting and our faith. People fast for all sorts of reasons and especially during Lent’s journey of life’s passage from winter to spring…from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday…from the season of death and penance to one of rebirth and celebration. The Bible presents several characters that fasted from food including Moses the lawgiver, King David, Elijah the prophet, Queen Esther, the prophet Daniel, Anna the prophetess, the Apostle Paul, and Jesus Christ. These people in Scripture have fasting in common. They practiced a spiritual discipline that most of us have largely ignored. Though in more recent years we have the likes of Cesar Chavez and Mahatma Gandhi who fasted for causes. So, it is worth reflection and at least one question. So, Does Fasting During Lent Have To Be Just About Food?
Scripture: Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
Isaiah 58:1-9a (NRSV)
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Matthew 9:14-15 (NRSV)
This shall be a statute to you forever: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall deny yourselves, and shall do no work, neither the citizen nor the alien who resides among you. For on this day atonement shall be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before the Lord. It is a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall deny yourselves; it is a statute forever.
Leviticus 16:29-31 (NRSV)
They mourned and wept, and fasted until evening for Saul and for his son Jonathan, and for the army of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
2 Samuel 1:12 (NRSV)
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Mark 1:12-13 (NRSV)
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Psalm 51: 3-6, 18-19 (NRSV)
Message: Fasting can be a good or a bad thing for we can be tempted in the process like Jesus in the desert and unlike Jesus fail. Regardless, the wilderness experience can be compelling in following in Jesus’ internal footsteps during Lent away from all the noise of life. Here in the midst of the wasteland, we become aware that we are on the inner road to Emmaus and someone is always with us. We are moving from a tentative faith toward a deep commitment. And the journey takes place where one is without earthly support systems. In the desert, the Jesus confronted the demonic. And in the desert experiences of our lives, we discover who we are before God and here we also face death and a sill voice calling for us to repent. But before we get too deep in this line of thinking perhaps it would be helpful for us to remember that the first example of fasting was in the Garden of Eden and the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God had ordered a fast of that tree full of symbolism. Here we should remember that Adam and Eve were not given the animals to eat but only the plants and that only after the flood and the Covenant with Noah were animals open for harvest and consumption but there were still restrictions. Friends, there is a time and season to things. Picking a time and reason for fasting is relevant and that it might be done during Lent with others is perhaps also just as important given these roots of the history of fasting. The thing is that
fasting is supposed to be a tool about relating to God, but I have found it is too often all about the faster and not so much about humbling ourselves and intensifying our prayers. Unfortunately fasting tends to be about self-denial and about suggesting that the physical is somehow intrinsically evil, and that gets us off track. So, unless we understand the nature of true fasting and we begin to practice it properly, I doubt we will be free of issues related thereto. The main objective in fasting, as with silence, is to make room for more abiding prayer in our life. The essence of the practice is I think to give up something good for a greater good…the presence of God. And really this is something worth doing on a regular basis anyway. And it does not have to be about food. Think about fasting from noise, breaking news, gossip, the comforts we typically. Think about fasting from making excuses or complaining. Maybe we should fast from asking prayers for ourselves and instead ask a prayer for someone else. So, think about fasting from setting unreasonable expectations or from the busyness of life. Fast from being ungrateful and self-centered but know that if we fast or even feast with the right focus something good can spring forth from the activity. As we meditate on today’s Isaiah 58 scripture, we might gain understanding that our own personal problems can be solved if we get busy taking care of others. The focus must be right. And that is a good place to start with the idea of fasting, for there is a right and wrong way to fast. The objective is to bring balance into one’s life. And part of the message here is that we can experience the pure joy of living in the kindness and peace of giving just a little bit more and taking just a little bit less. Jesus instructs us in the proper way. When we fast, we set an objective, make a commitment and prepare ourselves spiritually as an act of submission. Before fasting, we prepare ourselves physically and mentally. The objective is to schedule ample time to be alone with God. We are to listen for our Lord’s leading and reinforce the time. We are to know in advance that fasting can be a spiritual as well as physical battle that has the risk of injury. So be careful with engaging in the process of fasting, keeping the focus ultimately on God’s will for us all to have an abundant life that loves.
And So, maybe God wants us to understand the nature of fasting regarding negative emotions more so than our stomach sympathizing with the poor alone. There is more here than the lack of a meal. Perhaps I need to fast when I am angry. Perhaps I need to shout out when I see something that is wrong. We all get angry and sometimes it is related to injustice and not so damaging if we reflect on a proper response. The bad kind of anger is unreasoning and can become like gluttony as it eats away at our soul and turns into hatred and violence. The thing is that those who savor the bitterness of these confrontations feast on their own bodies crunching the bone and smacking their lips on their own bloody flesh. So, fasting in this context should be part of a Christian life along with the spiritual habits, like Bible study, prayer, praise, and fellowship designed to improve our health. We are to take and eat of those things that ultimately further the Kingdom of God.
Pray we feed the right things in our lives with love. Pray we approach Jesus, in His great majesty and glory to caste out the darkness in our lives. Pray we understand the proper way to fast with a sense of humility. Pray we get the connection between fasting and personal atonement. Pray we focus on getting closer to God. Pray we realize that the entire time of fasting is meant to be a time of prayer. Pray we cease our strivings, allowing God to restore rhythms that we are meant to enjoy. Pray these new rhythms reflect God’s creative hand, rhythms that allow us to feel more alive even if we appear to do less. Pray that our giving, fasting, and praying and repenting converge to restore the texture and pace to our lives as a cushion for us against the forces that eat away at our souls. Pray that we would be concerned about what God is concerned about. Pray we help divert people from being consumed by their own wrath. Pray we focus on getting closer to God. Pray we experience the connection between prayer, repenting, giving, and fasting. Pray our experience of fasting for a time restores the texture and pace to our lives as a cushion against the forces that grind away at our souls.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 