It Is to Your Advantage
Week 5: Lenten Fast 2024
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
Acts 17:26-27
Pray
From Fasting to Feasting
Lord, in your goodness, take away the things that conceal your presence in our lives. Help us to remember and crave what you’ve given for us to enjoy by turning us away from the perversions that come from the hands of men. You are worthy of all praise, and we find our purpose in our together-worship by faith — faith in our sacrificial lamb, the son of man, in whom your church’s soul find its restored identity and rests secured. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
Relationship and Restoration
The Christian life is a life of fasting.
When something isn’t right or true or good, do we pray God would restore it?
And if we pray, do we then, in faith, work toward that restoration?
Saint Jerome, a theologian known for translating the Hebrew Old Testament into Latin Vulgate, lived in the fourth century. In a letter to a Roman noblewoman named Demetrias, Jerome wrote of fasting,
You must not go on fasting until your heart begins to throb and your breath to fail and you have to be supported or carried by others. No; while curbing the desires of the flesh, you must keep sufficient strength to read scripture, to sing psalms, and to observe vigils. For fasting is not a complete virtue in itself but only a foundation on which other virtues may be built.
Though the Christian life is a life of fasting, it is not life’s purpose to fast. Fasting is instead a basic means by which we come to know and remember our purpose.
Our purpose is to be in relationship with our God for his glory and our enjoyment. Simply: our purpose is to worship God.
Fasting symbolizes being without, which is a key truth of humanity’s relationship with God.
When Adam and Even disobeyed, their shame and fear separated them from fellowship with God in the garden. They were without. They tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves. But that didn’t fix it. Humanity was cursed and thereby separated from God.
Adam and Eve had it good before that. The garden was full of all they needed for life. But their desire for more — for the knowledge of good and evil — caused them to lose everything.
It wasn’t long after their disobedience that they felt the reality of their loss.
Their relationship with God was severed because their human desires concealed the spiritual abundance given to them.
The way a thick layer of sugary caramel conceals natural sweetness in an apple.
The way a social media feed conceals true connection in a friendship.
The way another fancy outfit conceals a broken and contrite heart.
The way another outburst of moral indignation conceals a soul at peace.
When we go without what is right and true and good, something inside of us begins to crave anew what we lost.
It is a paradox that our fasting is for our feasting.
Our fasting brings us to a keen awareness of the good we never realized we lost, so that we might enjoy it again. The flavor in an apple. The love in a relationship. The spirit in our heart. The wholeness of our soul.
Christ was sacrificed. And before Christ’s disciples were without him, they fretted about the potential of his departure. Jesus assured them.
But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
John 16:6-8
Jesus came, went, and sent a helper to us that we might curb our desires, seek God, and be restored.
So, we should feel our way around — and even find him — because he is not far from us.
This is the liturgy of our lives together: our common work remembering what we lost and praising God for being found.
Our relationship is restored by the death and life — the fast and feast — of the Lamb of God. In him we “have sufficient strength to read scripture, to sing psalms, and to observe vigils.”
Proclaim Christ exalted.
Let us fast from all food together from 12 noon on Wednesday until 12 noon on Thursday. Please feel free to define your own parameters for joining in this fast, e.g. times, days, and dietary needs, as we seek to draw near to the Lord during a season of penitent prayer.
