This Sunday, we had our Worship through Work activity with an abbreviated worship service, which did include celebrating the Lord's Supper. I had intended to have a brief sermon (5 minutes or less), but it got a little long. To preach a short sermon like that demands the sermon be very focused. I did not achieve that either!
Here is a link to the Last Supper painting I mentioned in the sermon. LmpwZw.jpg I actually had never seen it, just read about it. Seeing it, I realize that the way I described it did not really reflect what it looks like (I blame Nicolas Sparks for that). A member of the congregation noted she had seen the painting, which led me to look it up on the Internet (should have done it before the sermon). It does not look like what I expected, but the painting does jar our expectations.
“Called to Feed” Isaiah 58; SAPC, Denton; February 5, 2023; Calling All Disciples series Richard B. Culp
Isaiah 58: 1-9 Shout out, do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practised righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgements,
they delight to draw near to God.
‘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 rearguard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
Introduction: We continue our preaching series “Calling All Disciples” and the invitation to reflect on our own sense of what God is calling us to do.
As we did last week, this week we are looking at particular aspects of your call. Today’s conversation may not address your exact call, but perhaps it can be a springboard for you to consider different aspects of your own call.
Move 1: Prophet Isaiah uses the food context to make his point.
a. what fast is acceptable to our Lord?
1. Fasting is a fairly common term these days with the popularity of intermittent fasting as a way of dieting or living in a healthy fashion.
2. Isaiah, of course, is referring to fasting as a religious practice, a ritual people did as a response to God.
3. In part, Isaiah connects fasting with the concrete example of feeding people.
c. Sara Miles, in her book Take This Bread, tells the story of her becoming a disciple of Christ as well as starting the Food Pantry, which provides free groceries to over 1200 families at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal church in San Francisco.
In a carnival-like atmosphere, each Friday night families arrive at the sanctuary to “select the food they need from a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, rice, pasta, beans, cereal, and dry goods The Food Pantry is run entirely by volunteers, most of the people who came to get food and stayed to help out. It is supported entirely by donations:(Read more about it at https://www.kqed.org/bayareabites/52648/the-food-pantrys-sara-miles-on-serving-the-citys-hungry or https://sara-miles.squarespace.com/the-food-pantry
She asks the question: “How could I take communion, read the Bible, and not feed people?”
Sounds like Isaiah asking the question: is it not the fast of righteous people to share your bread?”
So we go from our Lord’s Table to pack meals today to help feed the hungry in the world.
Move 2: But Isaiah uses the term fast in a broader sense than just food.
a. He asks:
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?
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?
doing more than just answering the call to feed the body;
also hearing the call to meet the needs of the world.
b. I am reminded of the story Nicolas Sparks tells in his autobiographical work titled, Three Weeks with My Brother,
1. He chronicles his life through the three weeks he and his brother travel around the world seeing some of the great sites.
2. When they are visiting the Inca civilization in Peru, he describes what it was like when the Spanish missionaries arrived to convert the Incas to Catholicism, they’d had to blend the religion with local culture as a way to make it more palatable to the natives. An example was a painting of the Last supper that the missionaries commissioned a local artist to paint. the painting has, as expected, Jesus surrounded by his disciples as they gathered around the Table.
there was the bread and wine prominently displayed. And there was another platter in front of Jesus with a roasted pig on it. Three Weeks with My Brother, Nicholas Sparks, 114).
The Incan painter could not imagine any great meal, even the Last Supper, without a roasted pig in it.
3. A reminder that we incorporate our faith in the context of our lives.
4. As you lay claim to Isaiah’s call to fast, you live it out in the context of your own life and your particular call.
is the fast you choose, in your context,
to feed the hungry;
or to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
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?
Conclusion: You listen for God's call and the choose your fast.
No comments:
Post a Comment