Imagine a people whose homes have been destroyed by war. Now imagine seeing this not as a crisis to be addressed, but an opportunity for a peace prize.
Imagine a dam being breached, destroying hundreds of homes downstream. Now imagine someone donating money to have the damn rebuilt, but with their name attached.
Imagine children dying of disease. Now imagine donating money to have one’s own name on a children’s hospital.
We remember those who received peace prizes and whose names are on dams and hospitals.
But maybe it’s more important to make a positive difference than to be remembered.
Let’s go to God in prayer.
God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, to help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.
Amen.
One of the streams that converged to create the United Church of Christ is the Congregational Church. It is also the denomination that part of our church belonged to before the UCC was created.
The Congregational Church has a lot of individual churches named “Plymouth,” “Pilgrim,” or “Mayflower.”
There’s a reason for that: The Congregational Church was formed by the Pilgrims whose ship, the Mayflower, landed at Plymouth Rock .
The way the Pilgrims are remembered by most people were faithful people who had been persecuted and who escaped to the new world where they struggled through the Winter and who were helped by the Indians, eventually beginning the tradition of Thanksgiving.
Football and Black Friday sales came later.
But the Pilgrims were Puritans. And Puritans were not just an oppressed minority. They had a bit of an agenda. They were anti-Catholic, which was not surprising for 16th and 17th century Protestants.
But they were also unhappy with the Church of England, which we would call the Episcopal Church in the United States. They didn’t think it had been reformed enough, and was too much like the Catholic church.
Not surprising for a group names “Puritan,” they strove for purity – not only in their theology and church practice, but in their daily lives.
In worship, they rejected both transubstantiation and consubstantiation, believing that Christ was not present in the bread or cup but that the people received Christ spiritually.
They rejected choral and instrumental music, sometimes destroying organs with axes.
Famously, Puritans were concerned about demons and witchcraft.
At home the man was the head of the family, with the wife and children under his rule. Wives were to exhibit submission and humility.
Socially, they outlawed celebration of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. They prohibited swearing and blasphemy was punishable by death. Other punishments included whipping and branding.
We still see the effects of these ideas today, especially in the United States of America. There’s an emphasis on piety and an outward appearance of purity.
Usually on Ash Wednesday we read the Gospel reading. It’s always the same story:
Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
- Matthew 6:1, NRSVue
But this year I thought we’d look at what the prophet Isaiah had to say.
Through Isaiah, God observes that the people “want God on their side.” – Isaiah 58:2, NRSVue
The people ask
“Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
– Isaiah 58:3, NRSVue
We’re performing all of the right acts and you still aren’t taking care of us.
And through Isaiah, God speaks to the people of Judah:
3 Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day and oppress all your workers.
4 You fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.
5 Is 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?
– Isaiah 58:3-5, NRSVue
God is not impressed with our public performance of piety.
So what is it? What does God want?
6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 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 them and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
– Isaiah 58:6, NRSVue
- Freedom from injustice.
- Freedom from oppression.
- Feeding the hungry.
- Housing the unhoused.
- Clothing those with inadequate clothing.
- Rebuilding relationships with your kin.
Every one of these things is about our relationships with others, and none of it is about our public appearance of sacrifice and humility.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to wear a cross of ash on one’s head or hand, or to give up chocolate or social media.
That’s not the problem.
But what God really wants to see is not our self-sacrifice, but how we care for others.
We can do this directly by giving what we have.
We can do this indirectly by calling on our governmental representatives to give what they collect from us.
We can do this systematically by changing the social structures that keep people oppressed, poor, and hungry.
So my challenge to all of us this Lenten season is to ask ourselves
- Is this fast to make me look good?
- Is this fast to make me healthier?
- Is this fast to make God like me?
- Or is this fast to improve life for the most vulnerable of our neighbors?
Let us find ways to fast that show our love for our neighbors.
Amen.
* Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue
* Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.
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