Homily for Ash Wednesday – Cirencester PC 2010.
Isaiah 58, 1-8;  Matthew 6, 16-21.

All three of the great Abrahamic faiths – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, have within their liturgical observance a period of fasting or abstinence.

Islam has Ramadan, Judaism has Yom Kippur, and we have Lent. Good Muslims, good Jews, and good Christians, will observe this period according to their commitment.

I have been in an Islamic country, Tunisia, during Ramadan. It is an extraordinary experience, for in our hotel we saw a Muslim waiter having a sly cup of coffee behind a curtain. When I caught his eye, he laughed and said it was a special Ramadan coffee he was drinking.

In the same hotel we ordered some drinks. They were served just before the canon was fired to mark the end of the day’s fasting. The barman disappeared in a flash, and we only paid for our drinks when he returned having had something to eat and a cigarette.

Fasting has ‘fast’ become unfashionable in Christian circles, yet it lies at the centre of the discipline of three great faiths. The giving up of chocolates, or sugar in your tea, hardly endears us closer to God. However neither does the harsh imposition of a Ramadan discipline if it makes the person who is fasting irritable, unpleasant, or even violent.

The OT reading for today puts all this into context. Characteristically Isaiah is remarkably blunt, and his observations on fasting very human and all too true. He begins by asking the human question – what is the point of fasting if God doesn’t even notice. Good observation. How many of us mistake fasting for a time to diet – more to do with image that with deepening our relationship with God. The prophet goes on to say , ‘The truth is that that at the same time as you fast, you pursue your own interests and oppress your workers. Your fasting makes you violent, and you quarrel and fight’. So in truth if fasting does this to us, how can it possibly be aiding us spiritually, as all things spiritual should be leading us to a more godly way of life.

This is where Jesus picks up and goes even further. He observes the fanatical fasting of the mega-religious. Truth is, its all for show, and it doesn’t make them any better, because in the depth of their piety they don’t look after the poor, the homeless, the oppressed. In other words, the wrong type of showiness about fasting has nothing to do with the kingdom. If you are to fast it must be a fasting that affects the individual’s regard for the kingdom of God – it must be a discipline that makes us sharper in our commitment to look after the vulnerable in our society.

So Jesus is not against fasting. But picking up Isaiah’s criticisms, he takes us a stage further. Fasting must really make a difference. If you are going to be edgy in fasting, let it be an edginess for people on the edges.

So does God regard fasting? Does he notice? Does he care? The answer is no, if all that means is that you parade the degree of your fasting before others without it changing your heart. If it does change your heart, and you become more conscious of the Kingdom, then of course God regards, it, notices it, cares for it; for his Kingdom has been advanced by us, and has come closer to being on earth as it is in heaven.

I’ve been reading a book in the series called ’Ancient Practices’. In it the author asks the question about the point of fasting for Christians, Jews, and Muslims. For all of us, it interrupts the normal routines of life. We take so much for granted, and in the familiarity and stability of our lives we run the risk of failing to see the needs of the kingdom. An interruption to this can heighten the senses, make the mind more acute in relation to the mind of Christ. He goes on to say,

What is more normal or regular for us than eating three meals a day? What is more habitual and routine than our personal or social customs of coffee and toast, sandwich and a drink, meat and potatoes, rice and beans? To forego normal eating – whether through a complete fast or through a partial fast – becomes a type of dietary pilgrimage, a way of making sure we haven’t let the rhythms of the everyday put us to sleep, a way to make sure that our habits have not become addictions, that our kitchens have not become prisons…fasting is an exercise in extraordinary intentionality.’ Finding our way again. McClaren. Publ Thomas Nelson.

Seen in this light fasting has a positive place in our keeping of a holy Lent. It certainly has made me think. However tell me if it makes me irritable – and if it makes me that irritable I may slap you for telling me. If that is the case at least I can quote Isaiah back at you. Blessed Lent!