When I got the call on Thursday, I wondered what sermon I could have ready for Saturday morning. Then I noticed that there is a potluck dinner scheduled for today and so I decided to preach on fasting.
Why do people fast? There are plenty of people who fast today to gain some sort of health benefits. According to the healthline.com website:
Intermittent fasting ... may help decrease blood sugar levels and reduce insulin resistance.
fasting along with resistance training could decrease several markers of inflammation and may be useful in treating inflammatory conditions.
Fasting has been associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease and may help lower blood pressure, triglycerides, and cholesterol levels.
[https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fasting-benefits]
For these people, fasting is transactional. You may choose to perform this particular practice in the hope of gaining some specific benefit in your own life.
The people who fasted in the Bible, however, saw fasting in more religious terms. And there were a lot of them: Jesus fasted during the 40 days in the desert before starting to preach the good news. Ezra fasted when the people returned from the Babylonian exile. The Pharisees who lived at the same time as Jesus fasted -- you may remember that Jesus was critical of how they tended to show off how pious they were during their fasting. After the birth of the church the disciples fasted in an attempt to step aside from earthly concerns and hear God's message more clearly.
I mentioned that Jesus fasted. Jesus also gave some advice to Christians who choose to follow that practice. But in all fairness it is hard to say Jesus was especially keen on fasting.
After starting to preach the good news, we do not hear much on the topic. Jesus went to a wedding feast; we have a record of that. Jesus ate meals at his friends' houses -- Simon Peter's at least once and several times with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Jesus also ate with religious leaders and with tax collectors. At the very end, Jesus made sure he and the disciples would eat the Passover meal together. After the resurrection he ate a meal at Emmaus and roasted fish on the shore of Lake Galilee. But fasting? Not so much.
For many years (but now decades ago) I used to fast on the Fridays of Lent. Fasting was an exercise in taking note that ordinary daily life includes many activities, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which are not fundamental to being faithful Christians. I described this sort of practice as using the body to teach the soul. Fasting was useful in relearning the priorities of life.
Until it wasn't. The time came when keeping up the practice of the fast seemed more important than it was; it became important in itself rather than as an exercise in being honest about what is important. And then I stopped.
King David fasted. You may remember that David was a prolific sinner. His sins ranged from murder to wife stealing. What was exceptional about David was that he recognized and admitted his sins, turned away from them, and expressed contrition for them by, among other things, fasting.
One incident stands out in my memory. David had stolen the wife of one of his army officers and gotten her pregnant. After the baby was born the boy became very sick. David fasted for days but after a week the boy died. And then David got up, washed, and ate. "Now that the boy is dead," he said, "why should I fast? Can I bring him back again?"
You can read the whole story in Second Samuel chapter 12.
This is interesting because David's fast has a religious underpinning; he was attempting to express his sorrow to God and to reset his life's priorities to be more aligned with God's priorities. But David's view of fasting was just as transactional as the modern health fanatics. He fasted if he thought it might bring about a desirable result and stopped when that result was no longer a viable outcome.
This transactional approach is something God was complaining about in Isaiah 58. God is talking to Isaiah about the people of Israel and quotes their complaints about God.
3 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?'
[all scripture NIV]
That is, the people saw their fasting as a transaction with God: We will fast and make ourselves uncomfortable and in response God should take notice and reward us by defeating our nation's enemies.
God is exasperated with their attitude and their behavior. Do they use the fast as an opportunity to become more holy? to align their lives more closely with God's priorities? Do they try to become more fair, more loving, more involved with building God's rule in human life? No, they do not.
God accuses them. God says,
[3c] "Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. 4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, [Is that what you call] a day acceptable to the Lord?
God is all the more annoyed because God has a better alternative. Here in Isaiah 58 is one of the most famous descriptions of God's own priorities for the religious life.
6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Those of you who have gone through confirmation class in recent years are familiar with the summary of what is essential, what is fundamental to being the people of God. "God creates, God redeems, God blesses," we say. "We respond with faithfulness, love, and hope."
We are fundamentalists here! That is our list of what is fundamental and it comes directly out of the words of scripture.
Fasting, literal fasting, is not fundamental. But it can be instrumental. Fasting done well can help point us to what God has named as fundamental. It can be a tool to help us live faithfully, with love for others. That is why Jesus and the early church fasted.
But God says here "the kind of fasting I have chosen" is something different. The instrumental practice which will point more clearly to what is fundamental in our response is refraining from worker exploition. It is untying the bonds of injustice and oppression. It is feeding the hungry and housing the homeless.
If we practice that kind of "fast" then hope will spring up by itself ...
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and 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.
May it be so.
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