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 16th
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.
Posts
