As Christians, God has blessed us with a rich variety of spiritual practices which we can use to deepen our relationship with God. There is this meal set on the table before us, in which Jesus Christ, truly present in the power of the Holy Spirit, imparts himself to us, so that it is no longer you or I who live, but Christ who lives in us. There are the words of the psalms and our favorite hymns which give voice to the deepest longings of our hearts in the face of the Eternal Mystery. There is fasting, which is mentioned in this morning’s Old Testament reading, not as popular a spiritual discipline as others, I suspect, but nonetheless quite valuable. As Jesus explained to Satan during his long fast in the wilderness, we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Emptying our stomachs for a time is an opportunity to be filled with the bread of life.
What happens when none of that stuff works anymore?
“Are you there God? ‘Cause I’m down here, trying to do what you want me to. Trying to check in with you, keep in touch with you. But somehow I’ve got the feeling that there’s no one on the other end of the line!”
That’s the experience of God’s people in Isaiah 58. They’re using the God-given spiritual disciplines to get in touch with the Almighty, but the Almighty isn’t reciprocating. “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
God’s response to this complaint is abrasive, to say the least. “Shout it out, do not hold back!” the Lord commands the prophet. “Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.”
Well, now they know that somebody up there is listening, but seriously--Rebels? Sinners? Yes, and not just Israel. You and me as well. The Lord indicts us. We are Holy Communion eating, hymn singing, fasting, praying rebels.
What’s the solution to this problem? Shall we abandon our favorite spiritual disciplines? Shall we call off the breaking of the bread and the pouring out of the wine and cancel the final hymn? That would give us a few extra minutes to prepare for this evening’s Super Bowl parties.
No, that is not the solution. The Lord does not want us to downsize our spirituality, but the Lord does want us to upgrade our ethics. The people’s fasting is causing them to go to work grumpy, and the managers are tormenting the staff. Their empty stomachs aren’t making room for the bread of life, but rather their minds are filling with plans and schemes to get rich quick, to get one over on somebody else, to do unto others before they do unto you.
That’s not how it’s supposed to work. An authentic spirituality draws us nearer to God by drawing us nearer to our neighbor in need. Ideally, fasting would touch us with greater compassion for those who go without food not by choice, but by necessity. Ideally, eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ would lead us to seek out the broken and bloodied members of our community in whose guise Christ comes to meet us, so that we can bind up their wounds. Israel’s problem was not that they were praying or fasting, but that they thought that prayer and fasting was a shortcut to God by which they could avoid their suffering neighbors.
In the verses that follow God gets down to brass tacks. A genuine spirituality is “to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.” It is “to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin.”
There’s two sets of disciplines here, one centering on justice, the other on charity. Perhaps you’ll disagree with me, but I imagine that most people warm up to charity much easier than justice. Share bread? Why of course we do. We volunteer for Meals on Wheels. Today we’re collecting canned goods for our Souper Bowl of Sharing offering. Cover the naked? Why yes, we clean out our closets every spring and fall and make a trip to Goodwill or the local clothes closet. Bring the homeless poor into our house? Well, if not our own homes, then we do volunteer at the local shelter. Maybe we even press a couple of dollars of cash into the hands of those standing at the intersections asking for a little extra help.
But the justice requirements… those are trickier. The God who faults God’s people for oppressing their workers and who demands that the oppressed go free is a God who is keenly interested in some of the most contested arenas of human relationships: politics, economics, criminal justice, relations between management and labor. A lot of good, well-meaning folk would much prefer that the Church keep its nose out of such places, and with good reason. You know the old saying: There’s two things you should never see made, laws and sausage. The purity of the Church might be sullied if it gets dragged into politics, or a labor stoppage.
But the thing is, Jesus never cared all that much about purity. He was a friend of sinners, and for that he wound up testifying before kings and governors. They put him to death; we remember that today, but we also celebrate the fact that he is raised and that he is the host of the meal. Yes, there are risks to be run, and yes, it might get ugly, and still he invites us to Follow him.
Hélder Câmara, the Roman Catholic bishop of Recife, Brazil, famously said, “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask, ‘Why are they poor?’ they call me a Communist.” Asking Why? is a dangerous question, but the Lord’s interest in justice as well as charity calls us to both share and to ask hard questions about the way that we have organized our society.
I live north of the river. I don’t know what the pressing social and political and economic issues are in Chesterfield County. But you know. It’s time to start asking “Why?” around those sets of issues. Ask that question on the factory floor, and at the water cooler, or at the diner where you and your cronies gather for coffee every morning. Ask “Why?” at the school board meeting, and at the Board of Supervisors meeting. Schedule a meeting with your new pastor, and ask her “Why?” and give her permission to ask you “Why?” from time to time.
But don’t stop there. Testify. Testify to the Lord’s logic that when everyone puts the needs of others before their own needs, everyone benefits. Testify to the Lord’s vision of neighborhoods and communities in which burdens are lifted, and those whose lives are tied up in knots are loosed and set free. You will have to be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves, but the Lord will give you the words to say.
With the commandment to be charitable and just comes a promise: “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly… Then you will call and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.”
Long story short, if there’s a problem with our relationship with God, it’s not God’s fault. The blame lies in our faulty relationship with our neighbors. But if we hear the cries of the afflicted, then God will hear us. If we do not hide from those in need, God will not hide from us. If we shine a light on those dark corners of our communities, then God’s light will shine upon us.
It’s February. Dawn is breaking sooner. The days are getting a bit longer. Yesterday afternoon my wife and I walked home from the drugstore and we saw daffodils poking up through the cold, wet hard ground in our neighbor’s yard. And on TV and in the newspapers, there’s some good news for a change. In Tunisia the people have loosed the bonds of injustice. Here at home, some of us are starting to find work. For some of us, our long, involuntary fast is coming to an end.
But in order for these rays of light to be more than just a flash in the pan, it is necessary to live generously and justly day in and day out, year in and year out. As we remember the generous act of our Lord Jesus, let us call on his Holy Spirit to sow the seeds of justice and charity in our hearts. May we all live in a fuller, deeper communion with our Lord and Savior and with our neighbors in need for whom he died.
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