LENT 2020: Week 1, Day 4

• LENT 2020: Week 1, Day 4
• Saturday, February 29, 2020:
  Psalm 51; Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 18:1-7

When we hear the word, “Lent,” the first thing most of us think of is fasting.

Lent is a foreign concept to most of us Baptists and, although one of the features that makes our Baptist church unique is the fact that we follow the liturgical calendar, it’s not our native tongue, if you will. What we know about Lent, we mostly know from popular culture. And in pop culture, if Lent is about anything, it’s about giving something up. More specifically, it’s about giving up some kind of eating or drinking.

And that’s not wrong. Fasting is a part of Lent. But we often overemphasize the fasting. As a result, it becomes all about us. And that’s the exact attitude we’ve been reflecting on, and trying to change, over the past two days.

Today’s reading from Isaiah exposes such hollow fasting.

“Why do we fast and you did not see?,” complain the people. “We afflicted ourselves and you took no note?”

The people are wrong, for God notices: “Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers!”

What does God want instead?

Is this not the fast I choose -
to unlock the shackles of wickedness,
to loosen the bonds of the yoke,
to set the downtrodden free -
and to break every yoke?

The purpose of fasting is not the fast. The purpose of fasting is to refocus our attention on the things that matter.

And justice, says the prophet, is what God desires.

May we have ears to hear.