I grew up Roman Catholic, and attended12 years of Catholic school. I remember growing up with fish stickson the lunch menu every Friday for lunch at my Catholic School. EveryLent, we had to choose what would we give up for Lent, often candy,chocolate, soda, or something of like nature. Some people give upmeat all through Lent. The Eastern Orthodox, depending on thepractice of the jurisdiction, are vegan or nearly vegan all throughLent.Sometimes, people give up TV, or music,or movies for Lent.
One year, I gave up coffee along withtwo other Catholic coworkers during Lent in a small work group ofonly five people. After the three of us thoroughly irritated our twonon-Christian colleagues with our grumpiness and irritableness allthrough Lent, we promised them we would never give up coffee for Lentagain.
My brother asked me at the time, "Whydid you give up coffee?" I told him "it was either that orbeer!" We had a big laugh. The non-fastingcoworkers said, "next time, give up the beer!"
But the reading earlier this week fromAsh Wednesday, the first day of Lent, tells of a different kind ofFast. It is not a fast of humbling one's self, or fasting from food.The reading from Isaiah 58 speaks of a "fasting" that doesnot involve abstinence, but feeding people. This fast calls us on usto spend ourselves on behalf of the poor and hungry. The beautifullanguage of the King James Version enjoins us to "draw out thysoul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul..." It is thelanguage of sacrifice. God is not pleased with giving up chocolate,meat, or TV (although those all might be good things for people todo), but with sacrifices of generosity. If you are giving up food, doso so you can feed someone else. Don't go to the fancy steakhouse andRed Lobster, feed the poor instead.
If you are going to cut down on meat,do so to eat lower on the food chain; do it to save the resources ofwater and land that are wasted and used inefficiently in producingmeat; do it to reduce the pollution from meat production. Livesimply, Ghandi says, so that other may simply live. Perhaps considerthe dangerous and unhealthy environment and low wages atmeat-producing facilities.
The Bible says in this passage toloose the bands of wickedness,to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that[we] break every yoke...
Charity is not enough in the Bible'sprogram; justice must be maintained (Isaiah 57.1).
The Fast God calls for calls forjustice. The ceremonies and rituals God is not interested in; thegiving up of chocolate, meat and movies God is not interested in Godis interested in justice, not ritual, not liturgy, not sacrifices,not fasting; God teaches us that over and over again in the Bible,whether it is in Isaiah chapter 1, Jeremiah chapter 7, Amos chapter5, Micah chapter 6!God is calling us to feed the hungry,to clothe the naked, to shelter the homeless, and to do sosacrificially, to draw out thy soul!
A congress that refuses to raise taxesmodestly on the unimaginable wealthy, but cuts free milk for schoolchildren, is practicing injustice. Where is the sacrifice? Where isthe “drawing out of thy soul?” The annual prayer breakfasts, theinvoking of God, religion and the Bible is meaningless for them. Whatdo you mean you believe the Bible? What Bible? Not the one that hasIsaiah 58! Not the one that has the Hebrew prophets, or the teachingof Christ, or St. James!
Are we a nation observing God's fast of dealing our bread to the hungry, spending ourselves on behalf of the poor, when 23.1 percent of our children are in poverty (making our child poverty rate second among advanced industrialized nations only to Romania)?
Are we a nation observing God's fast of breaking every yoke and letting the oppressed go free, when we have the highest incarceration rate in the world -- making an African-American mother face a 1in 3 lifetime possibility of prison for her son, a Latino mother 1 in 6, and a white mother 1 in 17?
God calls us to draw out our souls, tospend ourselves (New Jerusalem Bible) for the needy. To selfishlyguard privilege and power, is to show that one has not received theword of God. For Christians to provide ideological cover for thisunder the guise of freedom shows that we are not hearing the word.
The word calls for charity, and forsacrificial giving; the word also calls for social justice, forstructural justice, for systematic justice; to break every yoke andlet the oppressed go free! The Word calls us to fight for just andliving wages, to end discrimination in every form, to stop slaveryand economic exploitation!
Hear the word of God today, people ofGod! Observe that fast God calls for during Lent, and at all times.God's fast calls for charity and justice. Have the chocolate or don'thave the chocolate, but deliver the oppressed out of the hand of theoppressor and provide for the poor and needy!
Isaiah 58, King James Version
1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thyvoice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and thehouse of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek me daily , and delight toknow my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not theordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice;they take delight in approaching to God. 3 Wherefore have we fasted ,say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul,and thou takest no knowledge ? Behold, in the day of your fast yefind pleasure, and exact all your labours. 4 Behold, ye fast forstrife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shallnot fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. 5Is it such a fast that I have chosen ? a day for a man to afflict hissoul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spreadsackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and anacceptable day to the LORD? 6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and tolet the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 7 Is it notto deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor thatare cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou coverhim; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? 8 Thenshall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shallspring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee;the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward . 9 Then shalt thou call ,and the LORD shall answer ; thou shalt cry , and he shall say , HereI am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the puttingforth of the finger, and speaking vanity; 10 And if thou draw out thysoul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thylight rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: 11 Andthe LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul indrought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a wateredgarden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. 12 Andthey that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thoushalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt becalled , The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwellin . 13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thypleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy ofthe LORD, honourable ; and shalt honour him, not doing thine ownways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause theeto ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with theheritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spokenit.
Memphis Republic Services Workers (Sanitation workers) participate in Martin Luther King Jr.
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