Will You Call This a Fast?

I’m not good at fasting, although many folks find it a useful spiritual means of grace.  When I miss a meal, or skimp a bit, my body complains loudly and occasionally drops me into a need for medical care.  But there are many ways of fasting:  not so much as a denial of self as an appreciation of God’s presence beyond our material ownership.  My overstuffed self isn’t good at foregoing comfort; readings for the upcoming weekend challenge me to share God’s gifts of life with those who need.

Isaiah 58:1-12 is LONG, but worth it.  I’m sorry that I’m not preaching this week, because I’d use this as my sermon notes!  Theprophetic reader is encouraged to point out to the People their hypocrisy:  They expect to be included in holy ways, “AS IF they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.”  We serve our own interests, we quarrel and oppress our workers even as we look the part by dressing in sackcloths and ashes.  “Will you call this a fast?”  The real fast that God expects is to break away from injustice, to loose the prisoners, to share our food & clothes & living space with the poor, and to make a solid relationship with our families.  “THEN your light shall break forth as the dawn…”   If you do these things, then the Lord will guide you continually, and you shall be known as blessed, a conduit of living water and a restorer of living space.

For the life of me, I can find very little to preach in I Corinthians 2:1-12, ‘cept maybe the idea that we’re called to appreciate God’s gifts.  Paul says that it’s “us & them” when it comes to holy understanding:  “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed upon us by God.”  Careful, here: don’t get involved in the Innies vs. the Outies game; I see very little godliness in that.

The Gospel is that ascribed to Matthew, chapter 5:13-20.  The salt & light analogies are good; is the bit about covering over the lamp about fasting?  Perhaps the strong emphasis is on v.17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets;  I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”  And a few sentences later, “unless your righteousness (godliness, justice, mercy) exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees (those who claimed to adhere to the letter of the Law), you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”   Evidently we can be too heavenly minded without being much earthly good.

These readings remind us that there’s often a gap between what we say and what we do–and that God’s quite aware of it.  “True fasting,” says Carol J. Dempsey, “involves dealing with those conditions, situations, and people that are ethically corrupting and corrupted, for the sake of the oppressed individual and for the common good….Fasting (is) a means of freeing one’s self to receive the gifts of God.”  (FEASTING on the WORD, A 1:318)

God Bless Us, Every One                                Horace Brown King

My thoughts about scriptural passages assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com