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“Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, 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. 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? Is 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? 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?
Then 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 rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.
-Isaiah 58:1-12
Although we have only just begun our Lenten journey, it feels like we have been on the journey of these forty days for a while. In this year of the pandemic, our bodies have been yearning for new life and resurrection. We’ve been longing and waiting for restoration, just like the Israelites who the prophet addresses in Isaiah 58. Isaiah speaks to the Israelites who have returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Exile after decades of waiting to be released and are waiting to rebuild.
We’ve too have been longing and waiting for resurrection.
Waiting for the pandemic to end.
Eagerly longing and itching for some kind of normalcy again.
To be in person together and to hug one another again.
Waiting for justice for all people.
Waiting for more lives to be saved.
Waiting for resurrection and new life.
Waiting so much that we are tired of waiting.
And yet in the midst of our waiting, just like the Israelites Isaiah addresses in our text for the day, God invites us to rebuild and restore. Growing up, I never really thought of Lent as a time of “rebuilding.” I always thought of it as the time when I was supposed to give something up. I always gave up things I loved, like sweet tea or all things chocolate. What I didn’t realize then, was what the season of Lent, a time penitence, pilgrimage and preparation, could offer us beyond what I understood as “fasting.”
When we limit our understanding of fasting on our Lenten journey as an inward experience, we miss the depth and breadth of life God offers us. The brackets we put around Lent then limit the incredible work of God’s work in our lives and in the world. What the prophet Isaiah is telling the Israelites is that yes, God will restore and rebuild on their journey, but on the journey, God is also calling for justice. On our Lenten journey, God is calling us too to loosen the chains of injustice, to set the bound free, to share food with the hungry, to provide shelter to the poor, to clothe the naked, and to do away with the yoke of oppression.
As we journey on through this Lenten season together, may we be reminded that in our “fasting” God is actually leading us on this journey out of our narrow lanes into something bigger than ourselves, which gives and sustains life itself.
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