The Fast of the Lord and the teachings of Jesus

          Yes, I am jumping ahead for this post.

              The Fast of the Lord  ---  Isaiah 58 with Matthew 25

            Take note of the key question in verse 2 of chapter 58.  The biting phrase in the question is " as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness."  Of course, they thought they were a godly people that practiced righteousness.  Ritual, and  sacrifices and worship attendance and fasting made up their definition of what practicing righteoousness consisted of.  And observance of the purity laws likely rounded out their understanding of what a godly person did to put faith/ the covenant into practice.

            The shocker of "The Fast of the Lord" prophecy is that compassion action to hurting humanity has taken first priority in God's definition of godly living.  These ancient Hebrews were skipping meals, when what they needed to do was share their food.  The Lord did not want them to do without, but rather by their sharing make sure others in dire poverty had food to eat.  

           Here the Almighty God needs nothing from human hands, but expects us to provide for others.  The ancient conventional and zealous follower felt he or she had pleased the Holy One of Israel by the institutions of Temple, Temple worship with sacrifices, prayer and fasting.  In this these ancient Jews were much like modern Christians, focusing upon the institutions and rituals of religion with practical compassionate action taking a second or third place in the list of spiritual duties.  

         "Not so," declares the Prophet Isaiah in emotionally intense poetry.  The requirement of good practice is sharing, helping the hungry, the homeless.  

         Overall, "The Fast of the Lord' is one of the most emotionally powerful and important prophecies of all Scripture.  The New Testament parallels are in two parables of Jesus and in the exhortations to practical acts of mercy in the little Book of James.  

        The Seperation of the Sheep from the Goats" parable (Matthew 25) matches Isaiah's "Fast of the Lord."  Both Jesus and Isaiah refuse to define right living, godly living as religious ritual and conventional religious practice.   At times it seems that Jesus feels that conventional organized religion gets in the way of 

understanding the life that God smiles upon.  

      The parable of Lazurus diying at the rich man's gate is the other parable of Jesus that matches Isaiah's 

Fast of the Lord prophecy.  Food and practical help are the focus of Isaiah and Jesus.  Both the parables of Jesus are stories of judgment.  If we were missing the Gospel of John with its focus upon belief and if we were missing certain parts of the Apostle Paul's writing, then surely many Christian would believe that the road to hell was found by refusing to help the hungry, naked, and homeless.  As it is, multiplied millions of believers would barely mention the judgment that could await the hard hearted who can allow the needy to 

perish at their doorstep. 

      James, traditionally understood as the brother of Jesus, holds that faith that does not lead to practical acts of mercy must be dead.  Perhaps we should understand dead here in the sense that a mule is reproductively dead, sterile.  A sterile faith may assert many things that it claims to believe, but such sterile faith in Jame's sight is like the fear of devils and demons who tremble when they think of the Almighty Sacred Life.  What kind of faith leaves life unchanged in selfishness and the refusal to share.  It is not the faith that saves says James.

                                     Questions To Ponder:

    1. )  What happens to the prayers of those who fail to practice compassion?

    2.)  Why does food take center stage when the Bible speaks of genuine righteousness?   Why does Jesus speak of a heavenly feast to which many are invited?  Why is a wedding feast used to portray salvation in the last book of the Bible?  When the prodigal son returns to the Father, the celebration of his salvation was a barbecue with a dance, why is food and feasting again the focus?

    3.)   Do you think Christians and churches today teach accurately what the Bible teaches on holy living/ righteousness/ a godly life?

But what can we do?

                           What can we do?  We can pray.

          Again, a tragic mass killing has struck America.  We add the name of Arorea Colorado to the list of shocking, senseless violence.  We all remember them -- Oklahoma City, 9-11, Virginia Tech, Columbine, Fort Hood, and Phoenix, Arizona  And now another is name is added to the list.

         What we can do immediately is pray.  I hope that as a people we will do more than pray.  But the first order of business is to pray.   I hope that in time we will as a nation do something wise and practical to reduce the violence.  What we are doing now certainly is not working.  But before we can do more than pray, we need to pray.   

                A Call To Prayer: A Poem After the Violence in Aurora, Colorado

                                                                                                 by bruce williamson

          Each tragedy makes our land sadder -- a truck bomb in Oklahoma City,  air attacks on 9-11,

murders at Virginia Tech, at Columbine, at Fort Hood, and on a sunny parking lot in Phoenix, Arizona.    Each tragedy is a new terror.   More crumpled bodies fall.  Some soon will be cold and still.  And now another tragedy in a dark theater Aurora, Colorado.  It is all getting to be too much.  It is certainly time to pray.

         Again we light candles.  Again bagpipes play; again the bell will toll.  The names of the dead will be read.  In civic gatherings we will stop in silence to remember the fallen, to pray for the grieving, to pray for the wounded.   

        Let us pray that we not fall into the temptations of despair and hate.  Let us pray that we escape from the evils of bitterness, unending grief, and loss of faith.  O Lord, deliver us from evil.

       If we can, although it is impossible for human flesh to soar like angels above the flight of eagles . . .

Yes, if we can, through the power of God within us, let us even pray for the killers.  

      Let us pray for the healing of our land.  Let us pray without ceasing.  Until God's Kingdom of peace comes upon this earth, or until we reach heaven's shore, let us continue in prayer. 

                                 

         -------------------------------------------------------

           From memory I have typed out this poem this Saturday morning.  In a few weeks I will post the more polished version of the poem.  But the main message is here.  We need to pray.

Poem - Aurora, Colorado Tragedy Again

                               Silence Again After Mass Violence 

     At midnight in a dark theater Aurora, Colorado violence shouted out profanities --  crumpled bodies fell.

Violence screamed out blasphemies.  Then there was silence.  

     Again we light candles.

     Again bagpipes play. 

     Again the bell will toll,

the names of the dead will be read.

     In civic gatherings we will stop in silence again to remember the fallen, to pray for the grieving, to pray for

the wounded.  In the darkness of pain, steel pins will try to hold shattered bones together.  And some wounds we will never see.  But there is more.

    In the silence the sun will rise, again.   In the silence the sun will shine and pour light over this dark earth.

In a million places light and kindness will overcome darkness and despair.  For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, the dawn whispers its quiet message,

       " Light overcomes

                               darkness."