Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Righteous fasting

Friday, February 11, 2005

Isaiah 58:5-9
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen:
To loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,
To set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter -
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
Then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say:
Here am I.

Honor among thieves calls for the lowest of the low to help each other. People who live in poverty often share more readily than do those of us who have more than enough. God is not pleased.

Richard Rohr, founder of the Center of Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, grew up in Kansas in the 40's and 50's. At the age of 18 he joined the Franciscans and took their vow of poverty. An accomplished writer and speaker, he searches for accurate ways to approach biblical truth and apply it to our lives. Rohr writes,

From the very beginning and throughout the Bible, God's privileged one is consistently the enslaved instead of the supposed free, the outsider instead of the insider, the sinner instead of the righteous, the wounded instead of the healthy, the lay instead of the clergy, the poor instead of the rich. I dare you to try to disprove that. It is the "theme of themes," so consistent and so demanding, that it has been ignored and avoided throughout most of Christian and Jewish history. We would rather be self-designated liberals or conservatives than take the defenseless and vulnerable side of reality that Abraham, Moses, and Jesus took. It always looks naïve.*

Rohr says the perspective God wants us to have is always from the bottom. Jesus may have been the son of God, with the bearing of one who was in authority, but he consistently saw things from the bottom, not the top. And he most often touched those who spent their lives at the bottom, unrewarded by the system.

What kind of fast does God want from me? Not to turn away from the naked, the hungry, the sick ... my own flesh and blood. There are no shortcuts or rationalizations here. To know Jesus requires me to go where he goes. That is where I will find him.

Jesus, you have touched sores on my body and my soul. Surely I can pass that on. Strengthen my hands and heart.

* http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/movie_911.html

Devotions Archive

Righteous fasting

Friday, February 11, 2005