Meditation Let us hunger for Thee, O Lord, until all other hungers fall away. Amen.
“Is this not the fast that I choose? To loose the bonds of injustice, to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? To share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house…” This is one of the great prophetic verses in scripture.
This is the first Sunday in Lent, the Christian season of fasting and self-discipline. It lasts for 40 days, up until the day before Easter. Lent is based on a couple of things:
- Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry, where He is tempted by the Powers That Be… to grasp sustenance, power, and recognition. Will Jesus be able to stand firm against such temptation? It isn’t temptation unless it promises to fulfill a deep need, a hunger.
- Lent is also based on the practice of the early church of intense teaching of new converts all about what it means to be a Christian, to prepare them for being baptized on Easter morning.
Starting this Thursday, our Lenten Study will be an exploration of the Lenten disciplines of hospitality, inclusion and self-denial. We’re doing this by exploring the 2000 film Chocolat, a film about a woman who comes and opens up a chocolate shop in a very rigid, religious community… during Lent! This Thursday starting at 6pm, we’ll be watching the 2 hour movie in Fellowship Hall; the following Thursdays, we’ll be playing clips and discussing themes in relation to Lent. Please come!
But today, at the beginning of Lent, we will come forward and be marked with ashes to acknowledge that we are mortal and limited. We’re not God.
In most churches this is done by marking our foreheads with ash in the shape of a cross. I’ve always had problems with that, because Jesus specifically says don’t cover your faces with ash. He says when we’re fasting, we’re supposed to rub our faces with the oil of gladness, so others won’t say, “Oh wow! They’re really religious!”
Instead, at Emmanuel, we mark the inside of our wrists where it is hidden, just between us and God. And in doing so, we remember our mortality, But that’s not the point of Lent. That’s just a symbolic beginning.
When we think of Lent, we generally think of giving up something. For 40 days, we might give up:
- certain foods, like chocolate,
- or certain addictions, like electronic devices,
- or certain behaviors, like having to be right all the time.
Or we might add a spiritual discipline for 40 days-
- like reading scripture,
- or making a real difference in a charity we believe in.
These kinds of fasts make us stronger people, more clear in our minds. Hopefully, they bring us closer to God, and make us better people.
But in the book of Isaiah, God talks about a different kind of fast; a fast whose purpose is not to make us better, or stronger, but a fast whose only purpose is to bring in the Kingdom of God- the Realm of justice, compassion, and hope.
“Is not this the fast that I choose? Isaiah says. Isn’t it 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? (Isaiah 58:5ff)
It sounds like radical hospitality. Include people who aren’t included; bring the vulnerable into our lives to be a protection to them.
Now, Jesus talked about several things surrounding fasting.
He suggested in the Gospel of Matthew that we not act like self-righteous, judgmental prigs by making it obvious to everyone that we’re fasting. He didn’t exactly use the phrase “self-righteous, judgmental prig,” but that’s the essence of it (Matthew 6:16ff.) As one who, when I even think of fasting, complains publicly and bitterly to anyone who will listen, this verse strikes painfully close!
And Jesus said the same thing about prayer: Keep it to yourself. Do it. Draw strength from it. Draw closer to God- but don’t stand on a street corner making a big deal of it. (Matthew 6:5ff)
The purpose of a Lenten discipline is to draw closer to God. We’re supposed to be learning humility and submitting our wills to God. Obedience.
Obedience comes from the Latin word ‘obedere,’ which means listen.
Obedience means listening to God. If we’re doing anything during the 40 days of Lent, that’s it. That’s the point of all the fasts and disciplines: listening to God.
And what is it that God is saying to us? What God has said throughout all time and scripture?
An interesting fact: There is only one book in scripture- the Song of Solomon- which doesn’t include the phrase, “Protect the widow, orphan and stranger in your midst.”
It’s like God really means it. Protect the widow, orphan, and stranger in your midst.
“Then,” says our God, “your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly. Your redeemer shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall protect you.
“Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help and the Lord will say, ‘Here I am.’”
“Then,” says our God, “your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly. Your redeemer shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall protect you. “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help and the Lord will say, ‘Here I am.’” Here we are, Lord: all that we are, and all that we’re not. Here we are.
In the Name of the One who yearns for us to draw close; even Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Scripture for March 10, 2019 Reader: Egann Stack-Vaughn
ISAIAH 58:5-9
Thus says our Lord: “Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to let the oppressed go free, and 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 redeemer shall go before you,
and the glory of the Lord shall protect you.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help and the Lord will say,
“Here I am.”
Friends, listen to what the Spirit would say to us today.