Lent 2009 #2

Thoughts:

Many people perform some type of "fast" during Lent.  This is people are doing when they give up chocolate, or don't eat meat on Fridays, etc.  In the passage below, Isaiah is asked to tell the people about the kind of fast God desires from them.  It isn't a fast about giving up something you may or may not miss.  It isn't a fast about personal suffering.  It's a fast of working for justice, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, repairing fallen walls, and making this world we live in more habitable.  How can you use your time and abilities this season to make the world we live in a more hospitable, habitable, and hopeful place for others?  How can we use this type of fasting to strengthen our relationship with God?

Isaiah 58:1-12
1 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. 2 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.

3 "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. 4 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. 5 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? 6 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? 7 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?

8 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. 9 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, 10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. 11 The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Prayer:

O Lord God, we thank you for our very lives.  Without your spirit, we would have remained dust forever.  Now, as we live, we wish to fast as you desire.  Call us to grow closer to you through service this Lent.  Give us a heart to carry out your Will in our world.  Help us to be your hands.  For the sake of your son Jesus the Christ.  AMEN.

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