Special bonus this week since it’s Ash Wednesday. Lent is starting! This is Lent!!
Matthew 6:1-6;16-21; 2 Corinthians 5:30b-6:10; Psalm 51:1-17; Isaiah 58:1-12
Every so often, the lectionary really nails a reading. Isaiah 58 is absolutely fantastic for Ash Wednesday, given that it is the start of our Lenten journey. The chapter opens with God telling Isaiah to “Declare to [his] people their rebellion and … their sins.” They act in religious ways, and make a big show of looking like they’re seeking out God, but they really are not. They fast, abstaining from food, but their attitude is wrong. The people exploit their workers; they get in arguments and fights.
God continues, saying that he’s not looking for that kind of fasting. His kind of fast is to fight against injustice, to free the oppressed, to share food with the hungry, to shelter the homeless, and to clothe the naked. God was looking for the exact opposite of what the people were doing, and then the people wondered why God wouldn’t answer them. But if the people would fast in the right way, then God would answer them. If they started looking out for the lowly, then God would be their water in the desert. He would rebuild what was broken.
In a lot of ways, we’re in a similar boat some 2500 years later. It’s been a tradition as long as I can remember to give something up for Lent. It’s also been a tradition as long as I can remember to make sure everything knows what it is you’re giving up. Granted, I’m highly guilty of this too, so I’m preaching to myself here. But look at the kind of thing God says he wants out of us.
Fasting, the fancy term for giving something up for a time, isn’t just about giving something up, there’s also an aspect of replacing it with something else. If I give up chocolate, for instance, I should be giving the time I would have spent eating chocolate to God. Or I’d give the money I would have spent on chocolate to do God’s work in the community. For us to truly fast, our giving something up also involves taking something new on.
And you know who actually implements this quite well? Our LDS neighbors. Once a month they have a fasting Sunday, where they forego eating two meals, and the money they would have used to eat is given to help those in need.
Now I’m willing to guess most of us have a plan on what we’re giving up for Lent. But what are you doing in its place? How are you spending the time you would have spent in front of the TV? Where are you putting the money you’re saving from not having coffee or soda all the time? Is your Lenten fast one that is serving yourself or serving God?
It’s the challenge we have before us in this Lenten season. How will God use us to bless others? But remember what the lesson from Isaiah also says: “If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always.” God will do amazing things for us through our fast, and He will do amazing things through us for others.