Sacred Invitation - Fasting

Mark 2:18–22 NIV

18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” 19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. 21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

In Scripture we see several purposes for fasting. It's part of the discipline of self-control; it's a way of sharing that we depend on God alone and draw all our strength and resources from him; it's a way of focusing totally on him when seeking his guidance and help, and of showing that you really are in earnest in your quest; it's also, at times, an expression of sorrow and deep repentance, something that a person or community will do in order to acknowledge failure before God and seek his mercy.

We tend to think of fasting as going without food. But we can fast from anything. If we love music and decide to miss a concert in order to spend time with God, that is fasting. It is helpful to think of the parallel of human friendship. When friends need to be together, they will cancel all other activities in order to make that possible. There's nothing magical about fasting. It's just one way of telling God that your priority at that moment is to be alone with him, sorting out whatever is necessary, and you have cancelled the meal, party, concert, or whatever else you had planned to do in order to fulfill that priority.

James Packer, Your Father Loves You,  Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986, p. 14.

Fasting is a popular topic this time of year. I often hear conversations about what people are giving up for lent or what might be required of them by their particular denominational affiliation. Even though we often think about food when we talk about fasting, as I mentioned a moment ago there is more to it than just going without a meal. We can fast from other things, but it is the reason why we fast from something that is important. It is supposed to be about spending that time with God allowing us to grow in our intimate relationship with him. However, I often find myself wondering if we truly understand the importance of fasting in our personal walks with Christ.

Ever wondered how your practice of Christian devotion affect others? LiveScience Senior Writer, Stephanie Pappas reports that for some Ethiopian Christians, their practices of Lenten devotion don't just affect other humans. She writes:

Humans aren't the only ones who give up certain foods for Lent. In the 55 days before Easter in Ethiopia, hyenas are forced to turn from scavenging to hunting to make up for Christians' fasting traditions.

Members of the Orthodox Tewahedo Church give up meat and dairy during the Lent period in Ethiopia. Now, a new study of hyena droppings finds that local hyenas, deprived of butcher scraps during this time period, supplement their diets by hunting donkeys for food instead. ...

Colossians 3:7–8 NIV

7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

Ok, so most of us don't aspire to affect the eating practices of hyenas. But we can be sure that our acts of devotion don't just affect ourselves, but others around us. If we fast from anger, bitterness, malice, envy, greed, gossip, or any other sinful attitude or behavior, those with whom we have relationship also end up fasting from the negative effects of such attitudes and actions. We pass the fast on down the spiritual food chain. In the end, we are all the better for it! (https://illustrationexchange.com/illustrations?category=82)

In the church, we like to pride ourselves on our ability to sacrifice. We often talk about and sometimes even lament the “sacrifices” we are making by giving up things such as alcohol, or depending on the tradition dancing, movie theaters, jewelry, and the list goes on. However, I wonder if we were to look at the heart behind these things we sacrifice what we might find. My guess is that they started out with the best of intentions and out of immense love and a desire for holiness.

For example, did you now that not dancing started out having more to do with where dancing took place than the actual act of dancing, for example. Holiness people weren’t supposed to frequent brothels, and because there was a high emphasis on generosity toward the poor, it wasn’t considered prudent to attend dances hosted by the wealthiest members of society. These were the two main places where dancing occurred at the turn of the century, so choosing not to dance by way of not going to these places was a way to sacrifice something, in order that one might be made more holy.

But like many things, over time we lose the historical reasoning and sense of why these things were in place to begin with. Often, it is easy to look at these things and go that doesn’t make sense, and maybe today it doesn’t. However, we see some of these things remain in certain circles and it isn’t because of the historical reasoning, but rather because it has become about legalism and quick avenues for “justice” while frankly being able to exclude people from the fellowship of the body of Christ.

Giving up things has often become a source of pride for us, not just in the Holiness tradition but also in broader culture through activities like fad dieting and the ways we celebrate those who “give up” certain things in order to maintain some sort of physical ideal. Of course, we are not talking about the simple act of changing bad habits in order to become more healthy; we are talking about when dieting and exercise are used as ways to worship the physical form.

It will come as no surprise that this has been a problem for humans for a long time. Sin has a way of twisting good things and good intent, turning them into damaging things. Our text today shows us that this was an issue for the Pharisees as well. To them, it was more about following certain rules and checking certain boxes rather than what the act of fasting was intended to be in the first place. It was not about the grace of God, but instead a checklist of how they thought they could earn God’s favor. The problem lies in the fact that when we water down meaningful practices to a checklist rather than dwell on the purpose and importance of it, we do not often see that there is collateral damage as a result.

There are many issues with this type of legalistic approach to fasting, but one dangerous aspect of collateral damage happens when we are so focused on fasting that we lose our ability to feast. The Pharisees had lost it, and we are in danger of losing it too if we aren’t careful. Fasting is not supposed to be practiced at the expense of the feast. Instead, it is supposed to draw us closer to the Lord during both the sacrifice and the time of praise. Fasting is supposed to make the feasting more meaningful.

At the beginning of today’s text, we see that the Pharisees and John’s disciples were fasting. Both the Pharisees and John’s disciples were part of the movements concerned with the renewal of Israel and for them, fasting was penitential. It seems from the text that the Pharisees weren’t merely following a strict interpretation of the law but were actually adding to it—making it more difficult for people to follow. The Pharisees prided themselves, as we see all throughout the Gospels on being the people who did thing the “right” way. They prided themselves on following the rules (that often they had put in place) so they could be “better than others.

The Pharisees were doing more fasting than the law commanded, which wasn’t bad or sinful in and of itself. In fact, this additional fasting may have begun in a good place and with good intentions. But they began to sin when they commanded others to follow an example the law did not mandate, and then judged those who didn’t. They were not only placing a great burden on themselves with fasting, but also with their self-righteous judgement of others. They put stumbling blocks and additional obstacles in the way for others to worship.

We talked a bit last week as we wrapped up our series in Acts about how the church sometimes can so easily expect things from others that can become stumbling blocks and obstacles to worship and grow their relationships with Christ. This is something that we see date all the way back to New Testament times and I’m hopeful that the church can move past this type of behavior as we repent and seek God’s face as we work to reach lost and broken people.

While we need to understand what the Pharisees were doing, it is also important that we not see them as evil. Remember that Jesus was on earth among them and they did not understand what was happening right in their midst. We know from Matthew 5:17 that Jesus came to fulfill the law, but we see that Jesus faces continual criticism throughout his ministry, particularly when he did things on the Sabbath that the Pharisees had decreed were not to be done. Jesus’ entire earthly ministry wasn’t about breaking the law, but to help us understand what it looks like to get back to the heart of the law, the reason for the law in the first place. From the beginning, that was about love, grace, and connecting with God in meaningful ways. Thus, fasting. The Pharisees and others had lost the heart and purpose of the law and had fallen into the trap of checking the religious boxes.

The law ultimately was supposed to be about love for God and others (Galatians 5:14): Even the Ten Commandments, when broken down and examined carefully, can be seen to focus on love for God and others. Love is to be at the heart of the law, but it was being misinterpreted and twisted into legalism even in Jesus’ day. Unfortunately, we still see much of this play out today in certain parts or segments of the church.

I want us to catch something else critical for us this morning, and it ties back to one of the reasons the discipline of fasting is so important for us. The Pharisees and John’s disciples were so busy trying to work out the law and follow it to the tee that they missed the presence of Jesus right in front of their faces. This is one of the main reasons why I believe fasting is so important for us today. Fasting helps us keep focused on the presence of Jesus, if we are doing it for the right reasons. Fasting is about giving something up in order to replace that something with time in the presence of Jesus.

The Pharisees and others in that day were so focused on what they thought the Messiah would be that they completely missed him. Many were waiting for a military messiah that would overthrow Rome. Some were waiting for the grand entrance of a King, not a humble entry into this world in a barn, in a feeding trough. They expected the Messiah to come on their terms, in the ways the expected and desired. They missed the point, which is what can so easily happen to us if we are not careful to keep our focus off of us.

Here is another important point for us to think about this morning. We often look at the Pharisees and want to vilify them for not getting it, for missing the Messiah. While their good intentions turned to leagalism, we must remember that they truly thought that they were honoring God. Despite not understanding, they were trying to honor God the best way they knew how. Their issues weren’t with the original intent—the desire to honor God. The issue was that they lost sight of the original intent. The focus was no longer on love and grace but on who was right.The focus became about working harder to do things that went beyond what the law explicitly stated—as though holiness were a competition to be won instead of a state of relationship with God.

This is something that we so easily forget today as well. We are living in one of the more divisive times in our history. We are divided politically to the extreme right now. We are divided over how to handle the pandemic. We are divided over who belongs and who doesn’t, and we often villainize the other side. We think we know best and the other side is just wrong. If you don’t believe me, spend just a little bit of time flipping between various news networks on both sides of the aisle. You will quickly see how different the reporting is and where the biases lie.

We’ve forgotten as a society how to be civil. The last several weeks, I have really appreciated the Saturday small group. As we dug deeper into Acts, we were discussing some difficult ideas and topics. And we certainly did not all always agree. However, it has been so encouraging to watch the group listen to others perspectives and even see some things in a bit of a different light along the way. Just yesterday, someone asked a question and Pastor Jillian was able to provide some contextual background that gave insight into a question this person had for years!

I think we sometimes forget that we are supposed to be people of love, not law. Like the Pharisees, we can easily fall into the trap that our actions make us holy, thinking that we can do and be enough. The problem is that often we quit relying on God and rely more on ourselves than we realize and we start to expect things to go the way we expect, that the rules be what we think they should be. This misguided behavior leads to our wrongly viewing other people as needing to be fixed rather than viewing them as the beloved creation of God, made in God’s image and burdens us and others with impossible standards.

We’ve talked quite a bit over the last few weeks about how we are to not make it difficult for people to see what God is doing and not make it difficult for people to find him by setting expectations that are not necessary or helpful. When we set such high standards for people to come to Jesus, it gives the sense that one can’t live up to them and they miss out on seeking God in those moments when he might be softening their hearts to his message. We can get in the way and we need to consciously, focus on love in order to do so.

Mildred Bangs Wynkoop said in her book A Theology of Love: “Love takes the harshness out of holiness. Love takes the incredibility out of Perfection. Love takes the antinomianism out of faith. Love takes the moralism out of obedience. Love takes the gnosticism out of cleansing. Love takes the abstraction out of truth. Love puts the personal into truth. Love puts the ethical into holiness. Love puts process into life. Love puts urgency into crisis. Love puts seriousness into sin. Love puts fellowship into perfection.”

Holiness is rooted in love, not in our effort. While love and holiness should and will lead us to action, it is not the type of action that we must do in order to earn something. It is the type of action that is motivated by our relationship with God—not by shame, fear, or guilt. The primary action toward holiness is the action of God toward humanity. The Holy Spirit brings about holiness in the lives of people.

We cannot forget that it is God’s prevenient grace that draws people to his own heart, that it is his saving grace that draws people into relationship with him, and that it is his sanctifying grace that transforms a person into a holy being that reflects God back to those around him/her. God will pursue us and go to any length to draw us into relationship with him, short of forcing us. He respects the free will that he gave us to choose, but that does not stop him from pursing us.

When we focus on our effort, we miss out on the reality that God is at work in the world already, often in ways we don’t expect. The kingdom of God is already here but not yet completed. Jesus initiated the new kingdom, and we bring the kingdom on earth when we act in love, do what is just, live lives of humility and grace, and exhibit righteousness

The last thing for us to grasp this morning is that we need to learn to temper our fasting with feasting. This is what the Pharisees did not recognize. Even in the midst of Lent—a time set aside to fast—we fast not out of a sense of guilt or legalism but out of a desire to be formed more deeply like Christ. Our fasting should not cause us shame but should cause us to reflect more deeply on how God loves us and on our love for God. Our fasting should also spur us to act in love toward the world around us. Our fasting should be a way that we see the kingdom of God lived out in the world around us.

Did you realize that the 40 days of Lent does not include Sundays? Sundays are to be feasting days, which is just as much a part of Lent as fasting. Feasting helps us remember that the bridegroom has come and that Christ left the Holy Spirit to be present with us. Feasting also reminds us that Christ will come again to restore all things.

Feasting is a spiritual discipline as well. We must learn to celebrate well, to receive and praise the goodness of God in spite of the darkness we may currently be experiencing. This is why we will be incorporating a new aspect to our services here at Hope Community. We are going to celebrate something that God is doing each week. It might be something here locally or something that we are seeing God do across our country and world through our participation in the World Evangelism Fund or Compassionate Ministries.

Here’s a story on the Nazarene news site that I read yesterday that I think is a great celebration moment. It is about a church in Springfield, Missouri. On January 31, they held a night of celebration baptizing 32 people, welcoming 53 new members, and issuing 11 local minister’s licences. They do a night like this quarterly just to celebrate what God is doing. Here’s the part that almost brought me to tears. Many of those becoming members or being baptized had come through the church’s recovery program, “Redemption.”

Here is a quote from one of the people that was baptized that was shared in the article:

“I completely condemned myself and became suicidal and empty inside,. Four years ago, I was stabbed in the heart from a bad drug deal and God intervened in my life. I knew it then yet still wasn't spiritually mature enough to understand it. Entering The Well, I have begun to learn of God's attributes, and I'm getting completely plugged in serving on the security team, tithing, and being discipled by fellow members. Networking with the church has drastically changed my outlook on life, and the gospel of Jesus Christ has brought a joy back into my life that I never thought would be possible again. There is victory in the process. I have faith beyond measure, and through Jesus Christ all things are possible!”

God is on the move! Even in the midst of a global pandemic, in the midst of the political chaos, in the midst of so much division God is moving. We serve a God who is bigger than all of this and is still at work in the world! Amen?!?!

You see, Jesus’s disciples didn’t fast because Jesus was with them. In the same way, we feast because of the hope we have in the confidence that Christ has come. We feast because of the hope Christ’s resurrection brings. We feast because of the hope of Christ’s return. We fast as well—because the kingdom of God has not yet been fully realized. We fast to draw closer to Christ while we await his return. We fast in order to create space to hear God more clearly. We fast to make room for the unusual ways that God often works in the world. We fast not out of shame, guilt, or a sense of earning God’s love but out of an understanding of our need to commune with this God who loves us so much. We fast for a world longing for the redemption of all things.

As we close the message and transition to a time of celebrating communion together, I want us to consider a couple of questions:

What might it look like to practice feasting, even—maybe especially—in seasons of darkness?

How does practicing feasting remind us and the world of hope and love?

Let’s be careful to remember that our fasts can sometimes turn into stumbling blocks for ourselves and those around us. We may forget why we started doing them in the first place. Are we motivated by love or by shame? Are we judging those around us by harsh standards that God has not asked of us? We fast for a reason—and often a good one—but we must not forsake feasting in the midst of the fast. We must remember even now, in this season that is often dark and heavy, that God is present with us. That the bridegroom came and is coming again. That we can celebrate the goodness and graciousness of God, and remind ourselves and those around us of the deep ways we are loved by God.

PRAY PRAYER OF REPENTANCE AND CELEBRATION

RITUAL

The Communion Supper, instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a sacrament, which proclaims His life, His sufferings, His sacrificial death, and resurrection, and the hope of His coming again. It shows forth the Lord’s death until His return.

The Supper is a means of grace in which Christ is present by the Spirit. It is to be received in reverent appreciation and gratefulness for the work of Christ.

All those who are truly repentant, forsaking their sins, and believing in Christ for salvation are invited to participate in the death and resurrection of Christ. We come to the table that we may be renewed in life and salvation and be made one by the Spirit.

In unity with the Church, we confess our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. And so we pray:

PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND SUPPLICATION:

Holy God,

We gather at this, your table, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who by your Spirit was anointed to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, set at liberty those who are oppressed. Christ healed the sick, fed the hungry, ate with sinners, and established the new covenant for forgiveness of sins. We live in the hope of His coming again.

On the night in which He was betrayed, He took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, gave it to His disciples, and said: “This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Likewise, when the supper was over, He took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to His disciples, and said: “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.” Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And so, we gather as the Body of Christ to offer ourselves to you in praise and thanksgiving. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us and on these your gifts. Make them by the power of your Spirit to be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the Body of Christ, redeemed by His blood.

By your Spirit make us one in Christ, one with each other, and one in the ministry of Christ to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

EXPLAIN ELEMENTS

The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.

The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.

CONCLUDING PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING AND COMMITMENT

And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, let us pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.