Disclaimer:
I apologize but I am in Africa and I am having a bit of trouble with pictures
and videos uploading. Therefore
this blog unfortunately wont have any pictures (not even those poor little
drawings of mine.) Also it’s a bit
long, but I felt it needed to be said this way. It shouldn’t take you more than 5 minutes, so please do me a
solid and give me 5 minutes of your time. Thanks. Love you all. Cheers.
I don’t know what you think of when you hear the word
fasting, but I can tell you what I used to think. I used to think of being very hungry. When I thought of fasting I used to
picture myself sitting around the house doing very little: reading my bible,
praying, and eating nothing at all.
I thought about having to give up a lot of things. I thought a lot about sacrifice.
“‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and
you have not seen it? Why have we
humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and
exploit all your workers. 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. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for laying on sackcloth
and ashes? Is that what you call a
fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?”
– Isaiah 58:3-5
Huh, that looks a lot like my idea of fasting: a day for a
man to humble himself; bowing one’s head, even giving up a bed for sackcloth
and ashes. Yet, here the Lord is
clearly not pleased with this. He
has not seen or noticed it. And I
always thought sacrifice was a good thing.
“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? Is it not to share
your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you
see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own
flesh and blood?”
– Isaiah 58:6-7
When I read this I had to ask myself, “What is the
difference between these two fasts? Why is one of these acceptable and the
other not?” I realized the second fast, the acceptable fast, isn’t about me: it
isn’t about us. It’s about those
around us. It’s about loving those around us: the second greatest commandment.
It’s not just about us giving up food, but about us sharing
our food with the hungry in an attempt to end hunger. It’s not about us putting on sackcloth for a day knowing our
nice clothes are hanging in the closet waiting for us, but giving our extra
coat to the poor so they don’t freeze to death through the night. That sounds more like true fasting:
biblical fasting.
There is an author named Shane Claiborne, who in his book
Irresistible Revolution defines true fasting as this:
“True fasting is not
just depriving ourselves of privilege but also sharing sacrificially to bring
an end to the cycles of inequality, an end to creation’s groaning and the
groaning of the hungry bellies.” (Irresistible Revolution page 168)
In Romans, Paul talks about creation groaning in expectation
of a generation of the sons of men to take their place and start bringing the
Kingdom of God here to earth. I
believe when men begin to fast like this, creation’s groans will begin to be
answered.
There’s a story I would like to tell you that also comes
from Shane Claiborne in his book Irresistible Revolution. It’s a story from when he was in
college in Philadelphia.
There
was an old abandoned catholic cathedral in the heart of the city named St.
Edwards or St. Ed’s for short. At
the time the city began to crack down on the homeless living in the streets in
an effort to “clean” up the city.
In response, a number of homeless families moved into the abandoned
cathedral of St. Ed’s. Well, when
the diocese found out he was not pleased and proceeded to kick the families
back out onto the street. This was
until Shane and a few of his college friends heard about it. They organized and moved into the
cathedral themselves knowing that the diocese and the city wouldn’t dare kick
out a bunch of middle-class white kids.
Sure enough two days later when the city showed up they got out of there
cars, took one look at all of the homeless families mixed in with a few dozen
college kids, turned around and drove away. (Irresistible Revolution – Shane
Claiborne)
What a beautiful picture of a true fast. These kids fasted their nice homes – well
their ‘nicer’ dorm rooms and apartments – to ensure the homeless also had a
roof to sleep under. Their fast
wasn’t about giving up something, it was about giving someone else
something. Their fast was about
loosing the chains of injustice and providing the poor wanderer with shelter.
A true fast connects people, builds relationships, and
expresses love.
If we look back at Isaiah 58:3-5, we see that the fast
described here concerned only one person: the person who was fasting. Thus it ended with quarreling and
strife, it tore apart relationships and created anger and hatred. The person who was fasting thought he
was pleasing God by sacrificing so much, and yet while doing that he did as he
pleased. The Bible even says he exploited his workers in the process. He had no concern for those around
him. So even though his intentions
were to connect to God, scripture says the Lord paid no attention.
In contrast, if we look at verses 6 and 7, we see that the
fast had nothing to do with the person who was fasting. Instead its entire focus was on those
around him: on the rest of God’s children. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the
homeless, and setting the oppressed free have nothing to do with me and
everything to do with loving my neighbors. Sharing my food means having a meal together; not turning
away from my own flesh and blood means viewing those strangers as my family and
providing for them as such.
Again, true fasting connects people, builds relationships, and expresses
love.
The early church would fast until all of them could come to
the table and eat together. This
didn’t mean the rich would not eat for a day while the poor did, it was so much
more than that. It redefined the
idea of charity or all together destroyed it. It didn’t create class lines where the have’s would donate
to the have-not’s. It destroyed
all separation between people until they realized they were truly a family and
families eat together. How much
more beautiful of a picture does this fast create? Instead of me giving up food for a day to connect to God,
why don’t I sit and have a meal with someone who wouldn’t have eaten that
day. Build a relationship with
someone. Jesus didn’t give to tax
collectors and prostitutes he ate with them. He entered their homes until they
became his family. Jesus wasn’t
crucified for giving to the poor (even the Pharisees gave alms); he was
crucified for joining them, for making them his family.
True fasting connects people, builds relationships, and
expresses love. This is the job of
the Church. We are the body of
Christ. We are his hands and feet
and idle hands are not healthy, so lets start moving!
There is a comic book story told in Claiborne’s book that
goes like this:
“I remember hearing about an old comic strip
back in the days of St. Ed’s. Two
guys are talking to each other, and one of them says he has a question for
God. He wants to ask why God
allows all of this poverty and war and suffering to exist in the world. And his friend says, “Well, why don’t
you ask?” The fellow shakes his head and says he is scared. When his friend asks why, he mutters,
“I’m scared God will ask me the same question.” Over and over, when I ask God why all of these injustices
are allowed to exist, I can feel the Spirit whisper to me, ‘You tell me why we
allow this to happen. You are my
body, my hands, my feet.'” (Irresistible Revolution page 64)
That’s an eye opener.
I am excited by this picture of love. The more I read the Bible; the more I ponder the Father,
Jesus, and the Holy Spirit the clearer I see that everything is boiling down to
love. And not some emotionally driven, fleeting, whimsical, infatuated love.
Not the love offered and taught to us by our culture and this world, but a
chosen or willed love for God and for those around us: all of those around
us. A love that could truly
change the world, a love that brings the Kingdom of Heaven here to earth.
There is another story in Claiborne’s book (I apologize for
continually referencing this book, you should really just read it, I promise
it’s worth the few days it will take you to read through it….the first time…)
about Mother Teresa. When Shane
was in college he spent a summer in Calcutta serving alongside Mother
Teresa. This story is about her
feet.
Mother
Teresa’s feet were deformed. This
came to be through years of wearing terrible shoes. You see, for years her orphanage would receive boxes of
shoes for the kids. Most of them
were old worn in shoes that were donated instead of thrown away. Well, every time one of these boxes
would show up, Mother Teresa would rummage through the entire box and find the
worst pair of shoes and those would be hers. She did this because she didn’t want any one of those kids
to be wearing the worst pair of shoes.
She wanted every child there to have the best possible pair of
shoes. After years of doing this,
after years of wearing the worst pair of shoes her feet became deformed. (Shane Claiborne – Irresistible
Revolution)
Mother Teresa didn’t fast nice shoes. She didn’t fast nice feet. Her fast was to love those kids. Her fast had nothing to do with
sacrificing anything of hers, but instead had everything to do with giving
those kids the best she could. It
just so happened that in order to love those kids, it would cost her feet (and
I think she gladly sacrificed them).
That is a true fast. That is a fast holy and acceptable to the
Lord. That is a fast that will
change the world through a revolutionary concept of family and love.
The amazing thing is that when we start living this fast the
Lord promises us something:
“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. Then you will call, and the Lord will
answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”
– Isaiah 58:8-9
When it’s not about us He hears it and honors it. He goes before us, and His glory guards
our rear. We cry out to him and he
answers: here am I. To finish the
story about St. Ed’s:
The
diocese and the city did not give up on trying to kick the homeless families
out of the church. The
diocese was so determined that he eventually figured out a clever way to evict
them and still be ‘politically correct.’ The diocese involved the fire department. This way he could evict the families
and say it was in their best interest because the building did not meet fire
code and therefore was not safe to occupy. Honestly, it was brilliant…evil, but brilliant. Well, Shane and his friends didn’t know
what to do. There was nothing they
could really do to stop the families (and themselves) from being evicted. The diocese and the city sent them a
notice that the fire martial would be inspecting the building and if it did not
meet code (which it didn’t) the families would be forced to leave for their own
best interest. So the night
before the fire martial was to inspect the church, Shane, his friends, and the
homeless families had a ‘last supper’ of sorts. They came together to sing songs and share a meal before the
upcoming eviction. They spent the
night as a family, which is what they had become over the weeks. Late that evening a knock came on the
door to the church: it was a group of firefighters. Fearing that the martial had come early to evict them, they
began talking in circles and stalling anyway they could, until one of the
firefighters interrupted to explain that they weren’t there to kick them
out. He explained that they didn’t
agree with what the city was doing and were there off-duty (in fact that they could
have gotten in a lot of trouble) to help make the church meet fire code. They brought exit signs, fire
extinguishers and through the night fixed up exactly what the fire martial
would look for. The next morning
when the fire martial and diocese showed up, the church met fire code. The city couldn’t evict the families.
(Shane Claiborne-Irresistible Revolution)
God showed up.
They cried for help and He said, “Here am I.” Shane and his friends
fasted ‘to loose the chains of injustice’ and ‘to provide the poor wanderer
with shelter’ and the Lord was pleased and honored it. Their fast was not about sacrifice but
about loving the homeless as their family, and in the end they became family
and when that happens sacrifice becomes easy.
True fasting connects people, builds relationships, and expresses love!
I invite you to join in this fast. To forget about yourselves, redefine who you view as family,
and begin to change the world through revolutionary love for those around you. I invite you into a fast that
doesn’t call you to sacrifice food for a day, or your time to be spent in
prayer, but that calls you to love those around you. But when you take up that fast, when strangers become
family, it will cost you everything you have….but I promise you will gladly
give it all away! Then and only then the Church will become His hands and feet
and His kingdom will be here on earth as it is in heaven.
