Fasting (Isaiah 58:1-9)

Delivered at Church of the Good Shepherd on February 6, 2011.

Fasting. It's not Lent yet, but we should probably start thinking about “giving something up,” and the scriptures this week talk about fasting, and so I thought that we should talk about what it means to give things up. Everyone here has given up something at this day and this hour. Superbowl parties! You all are fasting from Superbowl parties right now. Of course, the game doesn't start until 6:30, so you may have a chance to catch most of it or all of it. We'll see who goes downstairs for Cathi's delicious brownies after the service.

Did you notice that I said fasting from something other than food? We're not children anymore: we know that fasting includes anything that is controlling you. Fasting is a voluntary denial of some aspect of your normal life for the sake of intense spiritual activity. Fasting reveals what controls us.

We cover up that part of our soul that communicates with God with worldly things. Food is a big one, which is why it is always associated with fasting. Have you ever heard someone say, “when I'm stressed, I eat?” Have you heard the phrase, “comfort food?” Food makes a lot of people feel relaxed and happy. Sigh. Where's my coffee? Where's my half-gallon of ice cream? Straight from the container in front of the TV. There's another normal aspect of life that people feel empty without—the television. Things we fast from aren't necessarily corrupting “bad” things—they are usually things that we think are “good,” which we need in our lives. Thing that make us feel whole, although when we actually examine the good thing, we find that it is really worthless.

God wants us to fast from the things that control our lives. He wants us to let that controlling thing go, so that we are free to move in a new direction with him. Catherine Marshall is the author of the famous Christian novel called Christy. In her prayers with God, she got the message that she needed to fast from criticalness. For one day, she needed to stop being critical. Well, I'm not critical, she thought. I have an opinion, of course. I have to make good judgments throughout the day, so that I can better live my life. If that involves judging someone for the mistakes they made in life, so that I won't make those same mistakes, how can that be bad? Gossip? Well, it's not gossip, if I only share with my family, right? It's not gossip if I keep it to myself, right?

Well, she agreed with God and she began her day without being critical of anyone. She met her brother and sister and mother for lunch, and as they talked politics and culture, she felt her critical opinions welling up, but she refrained from saying anything. Even though her family would probably agree with everything she said, she said nothing. The first thing she noticed, was that they didn't even realize she wasn't contributing! Her void was not even noticed—they just kept yammering on. The real moment of true realization was when she was immersed in her evening prayers. She prayed for this young man who had really messed up his life, and before that day she used to be very negative about him in her prayers. This reminds me of a relative that I pray for: God, he screwed up again. I can't believe he has messed up so badly. Could you forgive him and keep him from doing stupid things again. Change his heart, Lord.

Catherine stopped herself from that kind of prayer. That was critical prayer and she was on a fast. When she cleared the negative prayer from her mind, suddenly the positive prayer was unleashed. She focused on the young man's strengths. Her praying became quite creative, and she had an intense spiritual experience. Stopping something that we think we need, something we think is good and important in our lives actually clears out the toxins and makes us healthier. That's another reason why food is used in relation to fasting.

It's dangerous to go too long without food, of course, but a good friend of mine had a nine day fast, during which he only drank water. He must have been miserable, right? Woozy and dizzy? Well, at first he was really hungry, as we know from just going a few hours without something to eat. Then, when his body realized that it was not going to get any food from the outside, it started burning off all the fat it had been storing. He stopped being hungry and a new burst of energy filled him. On the ninth day he was able to play basketball for a few hours without tiring, and he said his reading comprehension went through the roof—which meant his prayer life and scripture understanding were incredible. I'm not suggesting we start a big food fast for nine days, but it is a great analogy. When we cut out something we think is good for us, we clear the path for God to start doing some real work in our lives.

This leads me to the very interesting Old Testament lesson we had this evening: Isaiah 58. In this passage, Isaiah describes false fasting. We're trying to get God's attention, and he doesn't seem to see. Look at us! We're humbling ourselves, and you do not seem to notice! But God answers—you're not doing it right. You're serving your own self interest, but look at the fruits. You're oppressing your workers, you're fighting with each other, you're putting on an act. That's not fasting. You're pretending to be humble, but I can tell that you have not cleared out the obstacles from your lives. I can tell that you have not given up that “good” thing that you think you need.

Catherine Marshall cleared out her critical nature and she was able to really pray for people for the first time in her life. Fasting from food gave my friend the energy to be more “hands on” and active than he had ever been in his life. Isaiah says that true fasting shows itself in what we do for the poor. We know we have gotten our fasting right when it comes out in our compassion and generosity. Look at the fourth commandment: the Sabbath. The day of rest. We think of that as a God-directed commandment, and it is. We stop working and we are able to rest and worship the Lord on this day. However, it is also a man-directed commandment. Employers have to let their employees rest. They can't work them to death. God has commanded that we clear out a day of work—work that seems good, so that God can work out his blessings in the lives of our workers. Stopping work helps the real work get done.

This is the best piece of employee legislation ever! However important we think working is, how important it is to our happiness, to others' happiness, we have to clear out a day on our calendar. We have to fast from work, remove the obstacle, so that the real work gets done—God working in our lives, our sacrificing ourselves for others, and being compassionate and relational. I met someone just this week whose wife has really connected to her housekeeper. She stopped thinking, “I'm her employer and that's all there is to our relationship!” She fasted from being merely her housekeeper's employer, and her compassion has allowed her to help this woman through the troubles in her life.

This past Friday, I had a bunch of administrative things to do. I was going to spend the day hunkered down and really get some stuff done on my computer. Turns out it was the only day to get our license plates done, so my whole family hopped in the van went to Manteo. We stopped at one of our bank branches to get money out for the title transfer, and while I was waiting, I talked to the new bank manager there, and he saw my collar and asked about Good Shepherd. I told all about our home groups, and the C.S. Lewis discipleship videos, and he gave me his card, so that I could put him on our mailing list and to invite him to a home group. We went to the DMV, and suddenly I'm in a deep conversation with the woman there about what I had preached on last Sunday—God being a god of blessings. Why she brought up that topic, I have no idea, but she tells me that she will begin attending services. These services! I cleared out the things that I thought were important—my admin work, and God did some real work in my life. He just threw these people in my path.

Finally, I want to talk about clearing our hearts—the fasting of our souls. Here is where we allow God to fill our hearts with what he wants. Christian meditation stands in the middle between other “extreme” kinds of mediation. On the left is where you completely clear your mind, and on the right is where you are only using your mind—which is essentially “study.” We all know what it means to read the bible and study it, but we may not know what it means to meditate on it. First you are not emptying your mind completely. That is a very dangerous thing, as Jesus says in Matthew 12:43-45, because the empty mind can be occupied very easily by dangerous spirits. That's why Transcendental Meditation is not a good thing—it clears the mind, sweeps it completely out, and allows extremely dangerous things in. Meditating on God's word is clearing out the heart but not the mind. We are filling our minds with the bread of life, and when we pick a passage of scripture and really chew on it—reading it over and over, picking a single verse, and praying over that verse—God unlocks a lot of meaning in that verse, our hearts become clear, and we find ourselves praying for people in our lives, using that very verse of scripture. We've cleared an obstacle and God is allowed to let the waters of change flow through our souls.

Paul gives us a clue in first Corinthians 2, our Epistle reading this evening. Paul says he did not come to the Corinthians with lofty words of wisdom. He decided to know nothing among them but Christ Crucified. That's true Christian meditation. He has not cleared his mind completely. He has emptied it of all the man-made explanations and persuasions and academics that we all like to try to use to convince people of the truth of God. Instead, Paul has meditated on the cross, the one thing, and his mind is filled with nothing else. He lets the cross dominate his thoughts, and God is now working through Paul to bring the Corinthians to conversion and lives of hope.

The cross is like that. We meditate on it, we fast from everything else, and God begins to bring forth his fruits in our lives. We are finally being used in the way we were intended from the moment God conceived of our souls at the beginning of time. As Lent approaches, let's decide what obstacle to God's power we are going to remove this year, and as we let go of that “good” thing that has been controlling us, let's watch in amazement as God works out something incredible through us for his eternal Kingdom.