Isaiah has a challenging message for us. I tried not to minimize Isaiah's words, but just give it a context in which to hear. Not sure how it worked, but I enjoyed preaching this brief sermon!
“Why Do You Fast”, Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; Isaiah 58: 1-12
Isaiah 58: 1-12
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. 2Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.
3“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. 4Look, 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. 5Is 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? 6Is 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? 7Is 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?
8Then 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. 9Then 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, 10if 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. 11The 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. 12Your 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.
Rachel story - one year, Ash Wednesday arrived at the Ole Miss campus unnoticed by my youngest daughter who she was a student there.
Unnoticed, until several young women, friends of hers, were sitting around the dorm took talking after dinner.
A couple of them were Catholic and had grown up going to church for the imposition of ashes as on Ash Wednesday, as had my daughter for all her years in the Presbyterian Church.
A couple of them were from church traditions that did not have Ash Wednesday services, so they talked about what Ash Wednesday was (I would have liked to have been a fly on that wall)
after their conversation about Ash Wednesday, they decided they wanted to take a moment and do the imposition of ashes themselves.
they had no worship service;
no scripture;
no liturgy
but they did have figured a Presbyterian minister’s daughter, who surely would know what to do
so she became the de facto minister imposing ashes.
of course, they had no ashes from the burning of they previous year’s palm branches,
so they used eye shadow.
she made the sign of the cross on their foreheads with the eye shadow as she said,
“Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
apparently, the Presbyterian minister’s daughter could remember the words said at the graveside, but could not remember the words said with the imposition of ashes.
they had their Ash Wednesday moment, and then we out on the town with eye shadow crosses on their foreheads.
The marking of ashes on your forehead, even done exactly the way the early church designed it, will not make you closer to God
the marking of ashes on your forward, even if done perfectly with exactly the correct words, will not somehow cause you to repent
the marking of the ashes on your forehead no matter how well done will not change your life.
indeed, fasting
or giving something up for Lent
or adding some spiritual devotion to your life for all of Lent will not make a difference either.
Why do we fast O God and you do not see?
Unless,
unless in the marking,
unless in the fasting,
unless in the looking for spiritual growth,
it pushes us to change our lives and choose the fast God puts before us:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
to share our bread with the hungry,
to bring the homeless poor into your house;
to clothe the naked,
and to reconcile with your own kin.
Conclusion: then, and only then, when our rituals shape us into choosing the path to which God calls us in the service of others.
Then,
then, the light shall break forth like the dawn. Amen.
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