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Ezra 8:21-23; Mark 6:30-37a
This past Friday and Saturday, 20 high school youth and leaders did a 30-hour fast. We did it together with the First Presbyterian Church of Wasilla. It was held at our church here. We did activities around the theme of hunger; educated ourselves in regard to the deep need of hunger; asking the question: why are people going hungry today, and what can we do about it? We worshiped together; slept overnight together; had devotions together; did a service project together; collected food and then broke our fast together. It was a time to raise awareness of the horrific fact that there are people today still dying because of lack of food. It was a time to raise money so that others would be able to eat. (If you still want to donate to the high school youth’s efforts in raising money for the hungry, please do so. They have been given one more week.)
As we all know, there is a global food crisis. There is so much injustice in the system of growing food, and those who harvest it down to the distribution and selling. It has become so political. Tim and I are reading a book entitled Omnivore’s Dilemma. It tells of how politicized the whole organic food growing system has become. It provides a philosophy of eating more responsibly. There are many practices in our own food system that are done unethically. We can read many articles that tell us that some of the food we eat has come with a price of injustice.
Do you remember what you were doing two years ago in November just a few days before Thanksgiving? Perhaps you were thinking of where you would go, who you would eat with, what part of the preparations and cooking you would do. For some farm workers in Florida, they were trying to escape from a cargo hold of a box truck. They were able to punch their way through the ventilation hatch and get out. A dozen workers were held for more than two years against their will by farm bosses, forced to harvest produce for meager wages. Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Malloy characterized their condition as “slavery, plain and simple.” In January 2008, the farm bosses were formally charged with beating, threatening and restraining their workers in addition to imposing debts on them that their low wages could not cover. In September, the five bosses pled guilty to all the charges.
Here in the United States, in the twenty-first century, workers are held as slaves to deliver cheap produce to grocery stores and restaurants. It is disturbing news when we find out the harsh realities behind the convenience and low prices of what we put on the table.
There is much mention of food in the Bible. Each of the gospels tells the story of Jesus preaching in a deserted area to a crowd of thousands, who eventually become hungry. In Mark’s version (6:30-44), the disciples express concern to Jesus about the crowd needing a break to find food. Jesus answers, “You give them something to eat.” The disciples do just that, and feed 5,000 people with just five loaves and two fish. People of faith long have followed Jesus’ mandate – you give them something to eat, and that is what the youth group did. They raised money to send to World Vision so that people would eat.
The fast was just part of doing the Famine. Gathering means so that others could eat was the other part. In a culture where the landscape is dotted with shrines to the Golden Arches and an assortment of Pizza Temples, fasting seems out of place, and out of step with the times. In fact, fasting has been in general disrepute both in and outside the Church for many, many years. I don’t know about you, but I never remember fasting being talked about in my home church as I grew up. The youth group I attended never had a 30-hour Famine experience. The liturgical year and the way the church celebrated each season never required or asked for a time of fasting. What would account for this almost total disregard of a subject so frequently mentioned in Scripture and so ardently practiced by Christians through the centuries?
Richard Foster, in his book Celebration of Discipline, remarks that fasting got a bad reputation as a result of the excessive ascetic practices of the Middle Ages. With the decline of the inward reality of the Christian faith, all that was left were outward forms and practices devoid of spiritual power. Therefore the church stressed rigid regulations on fasting as a manipulative power. Modern culture reacted strongly against these excesses and tended to confuse fasting with indignity and shame.
Another reason fasting fell out of favor is because of the constant propaganda fed us convincing us that if we do not have three large meals each day, with several snacks in between, we are on the verge of starving. It is a positive virtue to satisfy every human appetite, and therefore fasting seems obsolete. Anyone who wants to attempt a fast is bombarded with objections: “I understand that fasting is injurious to your health.” “It will sap your strength so that you can’t work.” “Won’t it destroy healthy body tissue?” All of this, of course, is unnecessary worry. While the human body can survive only a short time without air or water, it can go for many days before starvation begins. Without needing to subscribe to the inflated claims of some groups, it is not an exaggeration to say that, when done correctly, fasting can have beneficial physical effects.
Scripture has so much to say about fasting that we would do well to look once again at this ancient discipline. The list of biblical persons who fasted reads like a “Who’s Who” of scripture: Moses the lawgiver, David the king, Elijah the prophet, Esther the queen, Daniel the seer, Anna the prophetess, Paul the apostle, Jesus Christ, God’s son. And many of the great Christians throughout church history fasted and witnessed to its value, among them were Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and John Wesley.
Throughout scripture fasting refers to abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. It stands in distinction to the hunger strike, the purpose of which is to gain political power or attract attention to a good cause. It is also distinct from health dieting which stresses abstinence from food for physical, not spiritual, purposes. Biblical fasting always centers on spiritual purposes.
In most cases fasting is a private matter between the individual and God. There are, however, occasional times of corporate or public fasts. The only annual public fast required in the Mosaic law was on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:27). It was to be the day in the Jewish calendar when the people were to be in sorrow and affliction as atonement for their sins. Gradually other fasts days were added and I think there are about 20 in the Jewish calendar now. Also, fasts were called in times of group or national emergency: “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people (Joel 2:15). When Judah was invaded, King Jehoshaphat called the nation to fast (2 Chronicles. 20:1-4). Before the trip back to Jerusalem, Ezra had the exiles fast and pray for safety while traveling on the bandit-infested road (Ezra 8:21-23).
I am remembering the trip to Russia many years ago to visit our partner church, the Russian Orthodox Church, in Kirovsk. On Sunday morning, Jaraslava had the table sat for us to eat breakfast, but the family was not there. We finished and then went into the balcony as the worship service was already taking place. After worship, there was a supper and we found out it was the first meal for them after fasting. They always fasted before Sunday worship. They were serious about their worship and being attentive to God.
Regular and weekly fasting has had such a profound effect in the lives of some that they have sought to find a biblical command. But there simply are no biblical laws that command regular fasting. Since there are no laws to bind us, we are free to fast on any day. Freedom for the apostle Paul meant that he was engaged in “fastings often” (2 Corinthians 11:27).
It is sobering to realize that the very first statement Jesus made about fasting dealt with the question of motive (Matt. 6:16-18). To use good things to our own ends is always the sign of false religion. How easy it is to take something like fasting and try to use it to get God to do what we want. Fasting must be centered on God. Like the prophetess Anna, we need to be “worshiping with fasting” (Luke 2:37). Every other purpose must be subservient to God. Like the apostolic band at Antioch, “fasting” and “worshiping the Lord” must be said in the same breath. If our fasting is not centered on God, we have failed. Physical benefits, success in prayer, the providing of power, spiritual insights, these must never replace God as the center of our fasting.
Once we fix in our hearts the primary purpose of fasting, to be continually turning towards God, than we may find secondary purposes in fasting. More than any other discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is a wonderful benefit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. If pride controls us, it will be revealed almost immediately. King David writes: “I humbled my soul with fasting” (Ps. 69:10). Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear – if they are within us, they will surface during fasting. At first we will rationalize that our anger is due to our hunger; then we will realize that we are angry because the spirit of anger is within us. We can rejoice in this knowledge because we know that healing is available through the power of Christ. Fasting reminds us that we are sustained “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). In other words, in experiencing fasting we are not so much abstaining from food as we are feasting on the word of God. Here is the paradox: Fasting is feasting! When the disciples brought lunch to Jesus, assuming that he would be starving, he declared, “I have food to eat of which you do not know....My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work (John 4:32, 34). This was not a clever metaphor, but a genuine reality. Jesus was, in fact, being nourished and sustained by the power of God.
I am hoping all of this talking about fasting has made you curious about it. Maybe even to the point of considering how you could do a fast in whatever form. Here’s an idea. Next Wednesday, February 25th, is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. How about fasting all day – once you get up in the morning don’t eat. Then come to the Ash Wednesday service in the evening here at 7:00pm and break your fast with being fed on the Lord taking Communion. Then you can go home and eat late. A day of fasting, ending with the Lord’s Supper, acknowledging how the Lord nourishes and sustains us. I guarantee, from experience, that you will really taste Communion. Taste and see that the Lord is good. You will experience more intensely how hunger is only truly satisfied by Jesus Christ.
Similar to the day of fasting required by the Jewish people on the Day of Atonement, Ash Wednesday can be a time of sorrow for our sins and a time of atonement for our sins. Fasting can help us keep our balance in life. How easily we begin to allow nonessentials to take precedence in our lives. How quickly we crave things we do not need until we are enslaved by them. Fasting can bring breakthroughs in the spiritual realm that will never happen in any other way.
Fasting: It is a spiritual discipline. It tunes our body and soul to God. It can free us from the bondage of our distractions. So I encourage you to fast one day this year, Ash Wednesday, if you can. Let us fast to nourish the deepest parts of ourselves and satisfy our longing for wholeness. Amen.
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