A sermon on Fasting for Lent

If you're coming to our Ash Wed Communion tonight, please look away now!

Isaiah 58:1-1

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Fasting is an obvious theme that unites our two lectionary readings for today.

I don’t think I’ve ever preached a sermon dedicated to the subject of fasting.

In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard one preached.

So the beginning of Lent might be a good time to think together about fasting.

I must confess to you that I don’t fast.

I think I was sponsored to go without food for 24 hours once when I was a teenager, but that’s not quite the same thing.

I’ve been using this book this week, A Hunger for God: desiring God through prayer and fasting, by John Piper, which would be a good place to start if you wanted to think more about fasting.

I discovered there that John Wesley once said:
“The man who never fasts is no more in the way to heaven than the man who never prays” (Piper, Hunger, p191).

Now, I’m sure that’s not true!

Wesley is going rather too far.

Praying is vastly more important in the Bible than fasting.

Though I’m beginning to think that sometimes perhaps I should fast.

Not because I could do with shedding a few stone, but in part because of what Jesus said in our Gospel reading.

Jesus does seem to assume that his disciples will fast.

He says, v16, “when you fast…” not “if you fast…”, so he seems to think that his disciples will fast.

You may remember that on one occasion people asked why Jesus’ disciples weren’t fasting.

Jesus likened himself to a bridegroom and the disciples to guests at a wedding.

Jesus said, “how can the guests of the bridegroom fast when he is with them?”

But then he adds:

“The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.” (Matthew 9:15)

Of course, Jesus is with us now by his Spirit.

But physically Jesus has been taken from us: he’s in heaven.

So it seems appropriate that from time to time we might fast.

Our fasting might be a sign of longing for Christ’s presence, and for his return.

Jesus, himself, of course, fasted for 40 days in the wilderness before he began his public ministry.

The early church seems to have fasted, perhaps particularly when there was an important decision to make or at the beginning of a new ministry.  (Acts 13:1-3; 14:23; 2 Cor 6:5?; 11:27?)

And in our Gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples how they should do it.

They’re not to go round with ash crosses on their foreheads!

(Well, that’s not quite what he says, but you get the idea!)

They’re to make sure that they put on their make-up and hair spray as usual (v17), so v18:

“so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father [God, your heavenly Father], who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Jesus disciples are to fast in secret.

The same goes for our giving and our praying.

All these religious activities should come with various spiritual health warnings.

If we want to fast to look good to others, we might well be able to do that.

We may impress some people.

But that’ll be the only reward we get.

But if we fast in secret, Jesus says God, our unseen Father who sees what is done in secret will reward us.

So what is the point of fasting?

John Piper calls fasting a “Hunger for God”.

Fasting expresses and cultivates our hunger for God.

It’s a way of valuing God above other things.

We long for God more than we long for lunch.

We need God more than we need food.

As Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread lone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

God’s word is as essential to our spiritual life as food is to our physical life.

We find our satisfaction not just in full bellies but in God.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)

Fasting is a way of putting other things aside to concentrate on God.

When we feel the pang of hunger, we remember our need for God.

Fasting helps us to work on our self-denial, our self-discipline, our self-control.

It’s a small way of saying “no” to self.

When we fast we are deliberately not just living to please ourselves.

Fasting is a way of practicing self-denial – like soldiers exercising with blanks.

Fasting exercises our self-denial muscles and makes them stronger.

Fasting helps us to form a habit and character of being able to put God and others before self-gratification.

If we’re always full and satisfied, perhaps we’re in more danger of being full of ourselves and self-satisfied.

Fasting reminds us of our embodied existence.

We’re not just brains or spirits: God has given us bodies.

Our bodies and minds and spirits are all inter-related.

Fasting can be a way of helping to get our body under control.

Paul talks about being like an athlete in strict training.

He says he beats his body and makes it his slave. (1 Corinthians 9:27)

Feeling hungry reminds us of our utter dependence.

It emphasises our need and inability:

When we fast, we become very conscious that we’re going to need food.

We need resources from outside ourselves .

We are not and cannot be self-sufficient.

In fact, we’re completely dependent on God for everything.

We are creatures who constantly need our creator.

Without God, we soon become empty.

Of course, our bodies are good and food is good.

Fasting isn’t because food or the body are bad.

We mustn’t try to have some kind of supposed super-spirituality.

The Bible warns us against certain types of asceticism.

Food is a good gift of God!

Chocolate and biscuits are good.

Alcohol is good.

Full fat milk and double cream are good.

Like all God’s gifts, food is a great servant and a terrible master.

The opposite dangers are that we idolize or despise it.

Food isn’t everything; nor is it nothing.

Fasting allows us to put food in its place.

Our belly is not our God. (Philippians 3:9)

Fasting is a way of remembering the Giver and not just his gifts.

Food is good, but God is better.

If food has an inappropriate grip on us, fasting might help to free us.

We don’t want to be slaves to our stomachs – or any of our other God-given appetites.

We fast and then we eat again with thankfulness and to the glory of God.

Our Old Testament reading tells us that there’s no point in fasting as an isolated religious observance.

Isaiah rebukes the people:

“on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.

⁴ Your fasting ends in quarrelling 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.”

Isaiah has no time for a token gesture fast.

God doesn’t just want us to fast for a day or even for 40 days.

He wants us to humble ourselves.

Fasting without faithfulness is hypocrisy.

God says:

“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 to 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?”

The way we live day to day is, of course, much more important than missing a meal.

Fasting for a day is useless unless we seek to please God every day.

Of course we mustn’t think that fasting, or indeed anything else, earns God’s favour.

Salvation is all of grace.

It’s a free gift.

We can never merit God’s love – and we don’t need to.

We deserve God’s judgement.

But God is kind and generous to us, although we don’t deserve it.

You won’t find Lent in the Bible, as such.

Christians are free to observe Lent or not.

In fact, in the 16^th Century some of Zwingli’s friends eating a sausage in Lent was an important part of the Protestant Reformation, which was a jolly good thing.

Perhaps we should follow up pancake day with sausage day?!

The Christian faith is not essentially a list of rules.

“Dos and don’ts” are not at the heart of Biblical spirituality.

Listen to these words from Colossians 2:

“Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules:

"Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"?

²² These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.

²³ Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”

And these words from 1 Timothy 4:

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.

For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.”

The Bible doesn’t give us rules about when, or how often, or indeed how we should fast.

We’re all different and we’ll fast differently.

If we do fast, we should remember that Sunday is always a feast day.

Sundays don’t count in the 40 days of Lent.

Every Sunday we rejoice and celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

I think it would be appropriate to give yourself Sundays off if you’re denying yourself something for the rest of Lent.

In the Old Testament there’s one obligatory Fast Day, the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:29-31), and lots of feasts.

So we shouldn’t get these things out of balance.

The Christian life is one of joy and thankfulness.

God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment (1 Timothy 6:17).

But there is this element of mourning over sin too, and fasting might be helpful for that.

Of course we can fast from things other than food too.

Obviously, we shouldn’t fast from sins: we should quit them!

We’re to stop sinning, not just to give it up for Lent and then get back to it when Easter comes!

Fasting is stopping doing something good and legitimate for a time, for a purpose.

So, we might fast from alcohol.

Or Facebook or Twitter.

Or from particular TV programmes.

We could devote the time or money saved to a better purpose.

We could give up reading the paper to read the Bible and pray.

So, I might try fasting some time.

And you might like to think about giving it a try too.

May God increase in us our hunger for him, and our love for the Giver above all his gifts.

May he give us grace to be self-controlled and disciplined, to have our bodies and our appetites subject to him.

He invites us today to his table, to come and eat and drink with thankful hearts and to feast with him.

Amen.