Thursday after Ash Wednesday (February 15). The true fast

Prepare to Listen.  Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
 
Prayerfully Read Isaiah 58:5-9a
5Is such the fast that I choose,
   a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
   and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
   a day acceptable to the LORD?
6Is not this the fast that I choose:
   to loose the bonds of injustice,
   to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
   and to break every yoke?
7Is it not 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?
8Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
   the glory of the LORD shall be your rearguard.
9Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
   you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
What do you think it would mean for you to fast God’s way as described here in Isaiah?
 
Fasting can be a serious act of faith and worship or a self-serving sham with nothing to do with faith or worship.  Isaiah accused Israel of self-serving sham.  Their fast embodied a distortion of Yahweh, resulting in a distortion of social relationships.[1]  They turned worship into self-indulgence and one-upmanship and then complained because God ignored their efforts and the fast of their choosing (v. 4).  They urgently needed the lesson the prophet gives on the meaning of a true fast, one acceptable to God.
 
The fast God desires isn’t a false piety of individualistic self-discipline.  God’s fast has to do with “neighborly attentiveness.”[2]  The prophet spells it out in verse 7.  The fast God desires:
a) shares bread with the hungry,
b) shares home with the poor,
c) shares clothing with the naked.
We share with the hungry, the poor, the naked, that is, those most needing our attention, because they are, says the Lord, “your own kin,” that is your own family, one of your own.  Remember, even Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves, that is, if they were ourselves.
 
Sharing with those in need mitigates against self-indulgence and individualism so evident in our affluent American society.  This neighborly fast is the fast most urgently needed today.  When we choose this difficult fast then, and only then, will our light shine and God’s healing touch and presence be experienced.
 
How can you practice the kind of fast that God desires this Lent?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord, you generously offer to hear us when we turn from self-indulgence to our neighbors, the hungry, the poor, the naked.  Help me practice a true fast during this season of Lent.
 
Live obediently.  Practice a social fast that benefits neighbor.
[1] Brueggemann, Walter.  Isaiah 40-66.  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. 1998, p. 188.
[2] Brueggemann 1998, p. 191.