Who Chose this Fast ? 6 February 2008

Isaiah 58:1-8
Ash Wednesday
6 February 2008

My appreciation for the Lenten season began in earnest during my seminary years as I discovered the beauty and intensity of choosing a period of consecration and penitence in anticipation of Holy Week and Easter. Since an especially intense and spiritually fruitful time of Lenten fasting in 1999, I have learned to look forward even to the inconveniences that arise with the self-denial of Lent. The question no longer is whether I will observe Lent, only what fast will I choose.

In this traditional Ash Wednesday passage,Isaiah flouts conventional wisdom by decrying Israel's most pious observances of worship. Echoing the famous passage from the prophet Amos in which God rejects acts of worship until justice rolls down like waters, Isaiah catalogs the observances performed by those who purport to seek God. Fasting, sackcloth, ashes, kneeling, and bowing all were acts of humility chosen to get God's attention and to induce God's favor. To Israel's surprise and ours, God responded to their piety with the condemning question, "Is this the fast that I chose?" What God wanted most was to have a people who demonstrated justice, freed the oppressed, fed the hungry, housed the homeless, and clothed the naked.

Isaiah certainly was not implying that prayerful acts of piety are out of place or unnecessary. He was, however, pointing out that the service we owe to God consists not just in our chosen feasting or fasting but in giving attention to the totality of what God commands. Even as we begin our Lenten observances we must carefully and prayerfully contemplate what God wants from us and for us. In doing so, we fully join Jesus in the wilderness and in the Garden of Gethsemane, and pray "Not my will, but Yours be done." Not my choice, but yours.

Sing "Lead Me to Calvary"

Pray Psalm 51