Spiritual Discipline and Love for the World

Opening and welcome

Why Do We Practice Spiritual Disciplines

Isaiah 58:1–5 ESV

“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?

In this passage Isaiah is calling for the repentance of God’s people. It seems that the people were angry that their fasting and observance of grief over their sin had not resulted in God’s forgiveness and blessing. In verse 3, Isaiah lays out the problem: “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.” Their fasting only resulted in hypocrisy, not true repentance and worship. Thomas Constable explains verse 5: “It consisted only in His people bowing their heads, not their hearts. Bowing the head like a reed expresses formal worship, like a reed automatically bending in response to wind.”

We often measure our obedience to God by our church attendance, tithing, or outwardly moral behavior. God is not impressed or accepting or behavior that is merely formal.

Matthew 6:2–4 ESV

“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

God's nature is to give himself away to those who can never repay him. There is no clearer evidence of the presence of God in a person's life than a replication of that same behavior" (John Oswalt, Isaiah 40-66, New International Commentary on the Old Testament [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986], 497).

Our Growth and Participation in Mission are Linked

Isaiah 58:6–8 ESV

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Example of breathing in and out. Ask people to hold their breath for a moment.....ask them to breathe out and then breathe out again without breathing in

In his book Dwell: Life with God for the World, Barry Jones gives an image for holding the tension between inner spiritual growth and outward mission: breathing. “There is a rhythm of life that pulses through the biblical vision of what it means to be human. A kind of breathing in and breathing out. An inhale and an exhale. The breathing is our participation in the divine life. The breathing out, our participation in the divine mission” (Barry Jones, Dwell: Life with God for the World [Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2014], 12.) Our spiritual habits and disciplines cultivate an inner spiritual health and manifest themselves in our work in the world. Isaiah’s message to God’s people was a reminder that they were inhaling without exhaling—something that only results in death. It also doesn’t even work—it’s impossible to keep inhaling without exhaling the CO2 from your body. It’s not just that these empty rituals were only half of the breath, the absence of the exhale was evidence that no one was truly inhaling at all.

Lent is a time for Fasting, Prayer, and Community

Isaiah 58:9–11 ESV

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Verse 10 tells us that if we empty ourselves for the sake of “the hungry” and “the oppressed,” we will be filled with light. There are three traditional means of observing Lent: fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Part of grieving our sin is grieving the sinfulness of the world and way that brokenness is now a part of every human society and system—including poverty and injustice.

One way of grieving this sin is to address it with our own two hands. As we think about spiritual disciplines to put into place, we ought to think of the ways that our fasting can in turn bless others. If we chose to fast from coffee or fast food, that money can be used to pay for the meals of the homeless. If we chose to spent increased time in prayer, we can pray for refugees or those caught up in sexual exploitation, we can fast some time and give to worthy causes in the community

Altar Call and Closing