Sanctify A Fast!
The Prophet Joel does not pull any punches… The day of the Lord is coming and the children of God are in deep trouble. The day of the Lord is a day of judgment… a day of fear and gloom… a day when a vast army will confront the children of God… an army the like of which has never been seen. What is interesting is that God is the one who is warning them of the danger to come. God is the one who tells the watchman to blow the trumpet. But ironically, even though it is God who is warning them, the danger to come is coming from God! It is the day of the Lord that is coming. It is God who is angry and God who is demanding repentance.
Yet, even now, it might not be too late. And, in verse twelve, we hear once again the voice of the God we know… the God of love… the God who longs for a relationship with us… the God who yearns to welcome the Prodigal home… “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. Rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.” There is still a chance. There is still time to remedy the situation.
Yes, God still demands repentance… and sacrifice… but God is tired of the rituals he has seen before… the rituals that no longer have any meaning. God is not interested in burnt offerings. God is not interested in people tearing their clothes or putting ashes on their heads. What God is looking for are those who truly want to return to him… those who truly want to draw near to him… those who are truly repentant of the sin that separates them from God and destroys the relationship between them. “Rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord.” God doesn’t care about all the pageantry. God cares about the genuineness of our actions… for God cannot bear the hypocrisy of those who go through the motions, but whose hearts remain untouched.
Hypocrisy is abhorrent to God. Both of our texts today drive that home. It is almost as though God is telling us that God would prefer an honest sinner to a lying saint. But then, wouldn’t we all? Hypocrisy leaves a bad taste in our mouths… whether the hypocrisy is our own… or someone else’s.
Think back to a time when you were a child… to a specific experience that I think we have all shared… a time when our parents – or some other adult in our lives – told us to tell someone else that we were sorry for something that we had done. Most often, we were not sorry for what we had done… we were only sorry that someone had caught us doing that thing for which we later had to apologize. As children, we obeyed, but grudgingly and with very little sincerity. Usually, the apology we offered was a quick, curt, defiant, single word: “Sorry.” Other times, the apology was a lilting, drawn-out, very sarcastic, singsong version of the same single word: “Sor-ry.” If we were lucky, our parents didn’t make us do it over again the “right” way, looking properly contrite as we offered our very insincere apology!
What we hadn’t learned, in our naïve childishness, was the social value in pretending to be sorry… of offering a token gesture of contriteness to the wronged party. We hadn’t learned that our childishly curt or sarcastic apology only made us look childish and immature. As we matured, we learned that saying “I’m sorry” in a sincere way – whether we meant it or not – was a means of gaining the support and admiration of those around us... even the one whom we had wronged. It was even possible to win the approval of large numbers of people by making a grand gesture of our seemingly sincere act of contrition … and by making very public our abject spoken words of apology… all the while measuring the verbal and nonverbal approval of those around us to this totally hypocritical act. I would wager that all of us have been publicly embraced… or kissed… by someone whom we knew did not care for us at all… be it a colleague or even a relative. The individual who embraced us, however, probably cared a great deal for the opinions of those who were observing his or her actions.
Then there are those who are able to turn the tears on and off at will. Tears certainly do add a significant authenticity to the words and actions of a person who is trying to impress others with the sincerity of his or her apology. I, personally, have never been able to do that… though I could see the value in cultivating that skill.
Hypocrites, we call them. There is an incongruity between the words they speak and the actions they take… or between the words they speak and their own thoughts and feelings. It is the hypocrites that Jesus is speaking of in the instructions he gives to his disciples about fasting. What he makes very clear is that fasting is not for show. There is a purpose for fasting, but that purpose has nothing to do with impressing our friends and relatives. It has nothing to do with bragging to others about what we have given up for Lent… what we are doing without today… or comparing our “sacrifice” with the sacrifices of others during this time of year. The purpose of fasting is to draw our own attention back to something we have lost and to cultivate an awareness of it again. We do that by deliberately and intentionally changing our lifestyle in a way that reminds us each day of what we are doing and why we are doing it. If we deliberately give up something that we consider to be essential or infinitely desirable, then each time we crave it, we remember the purpose of our fast. Let me give you an example from my own life.
I would like to draw closer to God during this Lenten season… and I want to be reminded of that quest as frequently as possible during the next forty days. The easiest way for me to remind myself constantly of my quest is to remove from my life two things that I consider to be desirable… and, perhaps, even necessary for my existence… certainly necessary for my comfort and satisfaction in this world. Those two things are desserts and corn chips. Now, you may laugh, but have you ever tried to get through a week without a dessert… especially when desserts are always in front of you? Every event at this church features desserts. There are desserts at every potluck supper… every Optimist lunch meeting… every Share-A-Meal… every chaplain’s lunch at the hospital… every Ministerial Alliance meeting… every Chamber reception… every Presbytery meeting… every meal in a restaurant. There is no way that your pastor can get through a week without multiple opportunities for desserts… pre-cut… sitting on a plate… right in my face… going-to-be-thrown-away-if-I-don’t-eat-it… desserts. And, for the next forty days, I will have to look at each one… say “No”… and each time remember why I am saying “No.”
And corn chips? “Hi! My name is Sharon Bryant and I am a chip-aholic!” I am addicted to corn chips. There is no way around it. If I even walk into HEB, I have to buy a bag. If I buy a bag, I have to eat it. There is no such thing as a trip to HEB without buying corn chips… and there is no such thing as an unopened bag of corn chips in my house! Some people smoke cigarettes… I eat corn chips! And I will admit to being a binge chip-aholic. You see, I will munch corn chips until that bag is empty. Now, for the next forty days, I will have to avoid the “chip” aisle at HEB, remembering each time I do so, the reason why I am abstaining from chips. I will have to avoid grabbing a chip or two at the dinners we provide for our youth every Wednesday, remembering each time I slap my wrist why I am not eating any corn chips that day. I will have to sit on my hands whenever I go into a Mexican restaurant, and remember the reason why I am skipping the most common appetizer in any Mexican restaurant… the appetizer that, most of the time, you don’t even have to request.
What will keep my resolve to seek God’s face in front of me, even at times when I am least likely to think about God’s face? For me, it is giving up two things that I am almost certain to encounter on a daily basis during this Lenten season… two things that I may encounter as often as three or more times each day… and two things that I truly desire… that I truly enjoy… and that I crave. Two things that I definitely don’t want to give up.
The Prophet Joel said, “Sanctify a fast.” He didn’t say, “Declare a fast.” He said, “Sanctify a fast.” The Hebrew word for “sanctify” here is in a form that intensifies its meaning. Make this action, this fast, a very sacred… very holy thing… consecrated… set apart only for God. Don’t just abstain from eating, but make the abstention a holy fast… a sacred action… dedicated to God. Without that serious intent, then what we do runs the danger of becoming something that we do for show… to impress others… when the only one who needs to be impressed is God.
One generation ago, it was common for Roman Catholics to give up red meat on Fridays. Friday became known as “fish day” for my Catholic friends. Even today during Lent we can see vestiges of this in the Knights of Columbus Fish Fry. The trouble with the Roman Catholic fast day on Friday and the many fish dinners my friends ate is that eating fish became such a ritual that it lost its meaning. Many of my younger Catholic friends had no idea why Roman Catholics ate fish on Fridays. They did not understand that it was not what they ate that defined the fast… it was what they did not eat – the red meat – that defined the fast. They gave up red meat to recall the sacrifices that Jesus made for them. They gave up red meat to move away from things that the secular world valued… and toward a greater understanding and love of Jesus Christ.
If you choose to give up something during this Lenten season, don’t give up something that you will never miss. Where is the challenge in that? And how will it remind you of what you have chosen to do? Jesus Christ gave his life for you. What are you willing to give up… for forty days… to renew your relationship with him? For this action to truly focus your attention on your relationship with God, it needs to be a sacrifice that has meaning for you. Find something that is important to your life and resolve to live without it for forty days. It could be television. It could be video games. It could be makeup. It could be salt. It could be anything that you really crave. Then, sanctify the fast. Dedicate it to God. Make this simple sacrifice a holy act. And, as Jesus taught his disciples, don’t do it for show. Don’t sound the trumpet and announce it… it is between you and God. There is no need to announce it, for God knows what is in your heart. And Jesus says, don’t walk around looking miserable for forty days. No one else needs to know how you are suffering by this fast. God will know how… and if… you are truly suffering. This is a private action… and yet we do it as a community of faith for the purpose of drawing closer to God. We can sustain each other through this time and together grow in our relationship to our Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer and Friend.
Sanctify a fast. Use the intentionality of your action to keep your purpose before you during this journey toward Easter. Don’t do it for show. And the God who sees in secret… will reward you. Amen.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21