Fasting while there's a Feast
Notes
Transcript
Anzac day 2020
Anzac day 2020
A dawn service at 43 Lord St. The Neighbours ere there … but that was it
A most solemn occasion!
a sad occasion;
almost like a funeral.
or a multi funeral ...
For a little while, it was like fasting!
Consider the reasons in the Bible why people fasted, and you will see why I say, Anzac day is, for a few short hours, anyway, like fasting:
Fasting is offered as an expression of grief.
12 They mourned, wept, and fasted until the evening for those who died by the sword—for Saul, his son Jonathan, the Lord’s people, and the house of Israel.
Those who died
“We shall remember them ...”
LIke those who died by the sword
… or by the bullets ripping through flesh all around them, mortars and landmines both sides of barbed wire ...
“We will remember them!”
As we stood there last year, the street dark and lonely, none but our neighbours and our family standing there with our flickering candles, it was a moment of sadness. Especially as you heard lone buglers plying the last post ...
One can imagine a school pupil woken up by their parent, to ply his bugle, or perhaps his trumpet, all the while trying to teach them , about war, about death and dying ...
Anzac day is about death and dying
and remembering the dead ...
But it is also about so much more!
It is about remembering, and honouring the memories of those who have died ...
but for Christians, it should also be about understanding death and dying in a way that the world will not, until they come to Christ!
Like the lame man, perhaps?
Remember him?
3 They came to him bringing a paralytic, carried by four of them.
4 Since they were not able to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after digging through it, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying.
5 Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
And he stood up, and was able to walk again!
That man no longer had reason to dwell on his past paralysis!
He was healed !
Did he go and institute a feast “remembering his days of being stuck to that begging mat of his, unable to move from where someone had put him down?
No!
12 Immediately he got up, took the mat, and went out in front of everyone. As a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
I wonder what people “remembered” this morning during the Anzac Day commemoration services?
And what good is remembering,
if there is no hope of deliverance over death and suffering, and war, and famine?
What good is it that we “remember” the great flu epidemic, and the Plague, and the Tsunami, in which a 1/4 million people died, if remembering is all that we have?
Fasting was given the people of Israel, to remember.
It had as it’s purpose, above all, that they would remember … God!
It was given them to strengthen prayer … to God
23 So we fasted and pleaded with our God about this, and he was receptive to our prayer.
God sees us when we remember, and grieve, and He Hears us, when we remeber Him in prayer!
I wonder how many people remebered God, on this Anzac Day?
And fasting was given to the people of God, to Israel, to us ...
so that we will humble ourselves before God!
27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put sackcloth over his body, and fasted. He lay down in sackcloth and walked around subdued.
28 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite:
29 “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? I will not bring the disaster during his lifetime, because he has humbled himself before me. I will bring the disaster on his house during his son’s lifetime.”
I wonder how many people hum,bled themselves before God this Anzac day, as they remembered their fallen loved ones?
I wonder what the disciples of the Pharisees were thinking, while they fasted, there in the presence of the one who would come to ensure they would not have to fast forever, soon, as He died on the Cross, so that they could live - and stop fasting!
And stop having to remember, but be reunited with those … who had remembered God, while they were still alive?
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. People came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
They had remembered, you see, but they remembered still very much in vain. It was remembering for remembering’s sake!
They had remembered the ritual
but forgotten the God that delivered them on so many occasions!
That, you see, is the real purpose, instituted by God, behind remembering!
And now they had placed any semblance of hope, in the ritual!
That is hopeless, remembering
Like the attendance at the Lord’s Supper, for the wrong reason!
Like prayer … for the wrong reason...
(The power of prayer)
And so Jesus says, again, you do not get it yet, do you?
19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast.
You see, their hope, their longing, was amongst them!
Jesus had been born, and while they did not know it yet,
nor understand how scriptures was saying to them
“A time will come when you no longer will have to “remember” anymore, because those who you think you need to remember, will be with you, all of you together, in the presence of God, forever!
Remembering in this life can be good
it is the right thing to do
But.... remember
New clothes!
......//////.... New wine
New life, so full of potential and expansion...
((Is yours a new life?
Friends, the groom is with us, now … but not yet!
And it is good that we remember that!
It is a certainty that we will be reunited!
Until that day, it is good that we remember our fallen, our dearly beloved departed ...
But we should never forget
that God will never forget us
and a day will come, again, when we will be with Him, again!
On this day, let us say:
“Lest we forget!”
Amen