March 12, 2006
The Spiritual Disciplines of Fasting/Abstaining
Matthew 6:16-21 (Joel 2:10-20)

On Ash Wednesday, we commemorated a year of natural and humanly wrought disasters, from the great Southeast Asian tsunami of the last days of 2004 through the terrible mudslides of the Philippines of mid-February, 2006. There is much to mourn about those, and all such tragedies, but I must confess something quite personal and perhaps a bit self-revealing. All-too-often as I watch news stories about tornados or earthquakes or hurricanes, I notice the stuff tossed around on the ground or floating in the water. I focus, if only for a second, on all the things people have lost. I wonder if I could stand loosing my things.

Usually I pull myself back quickly and look at the bigger picture and the terrible toll taken on God's created order and all the human lives, both those killed as well as those injured and others who have survived. But give me your permission for just a moment to meditate on the lost things of our lives, and what I suspect is the confession of at least most of us living in the so-called developed world as to how important things really are in our lives.

Today's theme, the Spiritual Disciplines of Fasting and Abstaining, addresses ancient practices that have been and are still today more often than not related directly to food. Most often, but not always. I would like to use this expanded understanding of fasting and abstaining. This will, I hope, help us gain perspective on all of the stuff that we take into our lives, and how separating our spiritual health from this intake, food or things, even if temporarily, can offer profound and enduring nourishment for our spiritual lives.

I make this connection under good authority. Our scripture text today from Matthew sets side by side Jesus' teachings on fasting and his poetic and provocative warning about storing up treasures and a gentle reminder about where our hearts truly lie. When you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face prepares us to hear For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Yet, let me be clear and careful from the beginning: I am not and will not say that possessions are bad and all possessions are to be given away to free your soul from temptation. I'm not Jesus, you know! I do believe that we human beings are so very creative that we attach a wondrous world of emotions, symbolism, and traditions to our things. We have the capability of using things for great deeds, from helping an elder remember the treasures of her childhood to walking on the moon. Things are tools we have to use to transform our world.

But we humans are susceptible to the temptations that also come with things: hoarding, obsessing, coveting, manipulating, lording, taking, misusing things. So, fasting or abstaining from the use of things for a period of time offers the possibility of putting them into a healthier perspective.

First, what is fasting and abstaining? Fasting most usually means the avoidance of eating solid foods, and the drinking of liquids only, for a proscribed period of time. More stringent forms of fasting entail the drinking of water only, though most fasts of any significant length allow for the drinking of pure vegetable or fruit juice or teas. An absolute fast allows for no intake of any food or drink. I don't recommend absolute fasts for beginners!

Abstinence may include fasting, but usually refers to other activities or behaviors from which one refrains, such as working, smoking, having sex, or even bathing.

Many Roman Catholics may remember that prior to 1966, fasting was required for every Friday of Lent. Today in the United States, there are only two obligatory days of fast - Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence: those observing the practice may not eat meat.

Pastoral teachings since1966 have urged voluntary fasting during Lent and voluntary abstinence on the other Fridays of the year. Fasting in this tradition is the reduction of one's intake of food to one full meal (which may contain meat) and two small meals. Eating solid food between meals is not permitted. Complete abstinence is the avoidance of meat for the entire day. Partial abstinence prescribes that meat be taken only once during the course of the day.
 

For most Protestant traditions, including our own Disciples of Christ, fasting, often accompanied with prayer, is a recommended though not required part of Lenten spiritual devotion.
 

Why does one fast? Religiously, fasting is done for three primary reasons.
1. To atone for sins, either individual or communal, your own or another's. The people of Ninevah fasted after Jonah's preaching. Mordecai fasted after the Jews of Susa had been murdered at Haman's command.
2. To commemorate a particularly mournful event in one's religious history. Most of the fasts in contemporary Judaism involve commemorating the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, such as the fast of Tisha B'Av.
3. To offer gratitude to the divine for what has been given. The prophet, Anna, who rejoiced in the birth of Jesus, fasted out of joy and thanksgiving.
 

Throughout the Bible there are numerous examples of fasting:
o Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights while he was on the mountain with God.
o King David fasted in petition for one of his sons who was sick.
o King Jehosaphat proclaimed a fast throughout Judah for victory over tribes who were attacking them.
o The prophet Isaiah chastised the Israelites in Isaiah 58 for the unrighteous methods and motives of their fasting.
o The prophet Joel called for a fast to avert the judgement of God.
o The people of Nineveh in response to Jonah's prophecy, fasted to avert the judgement of God.
o The Pharisees in Jesus' time fasted regularly. Jesus rebuked them, however, for doing so to gain favor from men. He preached to them that they should fast in private, not letting others know they were fasting.
o Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights while in the wilderness, prior to the three temptations.
o The prophetess Anna fasted regularly.
 

Fasting is part of almost every human religion, ancient and modern.
 

Islam:
Allah informs Muslims in the Qur'an that fasting was prescribed for those before them (i.e., the Jews and Christians) and that by fasting Muslim gains 'taqwa', which can be described as the care taken by a person to do everything Allah has commanded and to keep away from everything that Allah has forbidden. Fasting helps prevent many sins and is a shield with which the Muslim protects him/herself from jahannam (hell). The holy month of Ramadan has fasting as its central discipline.
 

Judaism:
Observant Jews fast on 7 days during the Jewish year. Five of these are considered minor fast days, and on these days fasting is observed from sunrise to sunset. On the two major fast days, Jews fast from sunset to sunset the next day. The first major fast day of the Jewish calendar is Yom Kippur. It is also known as the Day of Repentance, and is considered the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. The second major fast day is Tisha B'Av, a 25-hour fast that mourns the destruction of the first and second Jewish Temple, and other tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people.

Now, let's get back to our personal application of fasting. I do quite seriously believe that traditional fasting is needed even more so today than ever before, not because we necessarily have more sins for which to atone or things for which to be grateful, but because we consume more. For most Americans, even those on limited incomes, both our diets and our closets bulge with far more excess than we physically or spiritually take in. This is a spiritual crisis.

Fasting and abstinence can help us to focus ourselves on what is important and recognize that not all that we cling to is as necessary as we may feel, especially without time & space for reflection. Fasting provides that time and space, even if only for a short moment.

Two contemporary writers capture what I think are the real benefits of fasting, abstinence, and simplicity in general. Melody Beattie writes,

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Thomas Moore, in The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life, writes,

You can't force simplicity; but you can invite it in by finding as much richness as possible in the few things at hand. Simplicity doesn't mean meagerness but rather a certain kind of richness, the fullness that appears when we stop stuffing the world with things.

So you've never done a fast before? Start out slowly and simply. Perhaps improving your diet, eating reasonable portions and lowering your intake of sugars, red meats, alcohol, caffeine, and fatty foods would be almost as good as a full-fledged fast! Just eating well could be your fast.
 

The next reasonable level is to recognize our lives have a built-in fast already. Eat a healthy evening meal early in the evening, avoid midnight snacking and such, get a good night's sleep, and eat a healthy breakfast in the morning. Wait, did I say break-fast? The meal to end your regular daily fast! There's a fast already present in your life - take advantage of it!

The first one-day full fast (actually 36 hours, including the nights-from 8 p.m. one night until 8 a.m. the following day) might give you a chance to see what a short fast can be like, to see that it is not so very difficult and does not cause any major distress. Eat dinner on one night. The next day drink lots of water, 100% juices, maybe some decaffeinated herbal teas, and then have a light breakfast the following day. Most people will feel a little hungry at times and may experience a few mild symptoms (such as a headache or irritability) by the end of the day, usually around late afternoon or dinnertime, but this depends on the individual.

You will be amazed. If you take this earnestly, this can be transforming. To get the best benefit, plan during the time of your fast opportunities to pray or meditate, exercise, read or write for pleasure, get a massage, or clean your body or your home. Do things that focus on the three religious themes: atoning for sins personal or communal, commemorating sad times, or offering gratitude to God for all that God has done in your life, will make the fast deeply spiritual.

Let me end where I began, and that is the realization that ancient spiritual disciplines such as fasting and abstaining are of particular importance in a culture such as ours where consumption of things has become an end unto itself, and our dependence upon this stuff has gotten dangerously close to idolatry.

Perhaps an appropriate spiritual discipline for this Lent might be abstaining from dependence upon a particular thing in your life that has come close to being an idol, something worshipped instead of God. If it is your car, try using public transportation instead. If it is your television, try reading books instead. If it is your radio, try going for walks instead.

This Lent, let us together seek to clear from our lives things that might get in the way of our true purpose in life: to love and serve the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. And in the words of one of the most profound fasters of modern times, Ghandi, let us The rich must live simply, so that the poor may simply live.

Amen


Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
www.FranklinCircleChurch.org


 

Copyright 2006 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096