Isaiah 58:1-9a, (9b-12)
Epiphany 5 - Year A
Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12)
Psalm 112:1-9 (10)
1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)
Matthew 5:13-20
Time and again we come to ask the question of - what's in it for me? And time and again we come to be asked – what's in it for others?
An awareness of the distinction between whether we are asking or being asked focuses us on whether or not we sense our sense or common sense or human wisdom is the chief measuring rod of life. If it is, we have seen evidence of our following prescribed rituals such as fasting and finding their limit in justifying what we are currently doing.
If our sense is that these ritual righteousnesses have their place but there is a mystery of more-life that takes place beyond them, then we may find another level of fasting and living. If this is the case, we have evidence that our actions can have a positive effect in the lives of others that echo in our own.
If fasting from anger doesn't loosen bonds we wrap around another, our fasting only makes us look tolerant.
If fasting from greed doesn't loosen a yoke we place around others to provide our well-being, our fasting only makes us look philanthropic.
If fasting from food doesn't loosen our hold on our bread, our fasting only makes us look sleek.
If fasting from sloth doesn't loosen our regard for privacy, our fasting only makes us look kingly in our castle.
If fasting from comfort doesn't loosen our closet locks, our fasting only makes us look the emperor in new clothes.
If fasting from jealousy doesn't loosen our remembrance of injuries done to us by those who love us, our fasting only makes us look justified.
Fasting for our benefit is one thing. Fasting for the benefit of another is another.
- - -
a cosmic aarrgghh
rumbles forth
I write of fasting
and take a break
for cheese and crackers
for but a bit of
lovely Wensleydale
how Wallace and Wesley
could go on and on
oblivious to anything but
honey-tinged Wensleydale
hopefully with the help of
a faithful friend
we will muddle through
steady of heart
triumphant in the end
pray all cosmic aarrgghhs
will come 'round right
to comic har-har-hars
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
From what would you fast if your fast were to be evidenced by sharing your bread with the hungry? Privilege?
Yes, sharing with others means less for you. Yes, that means this kind of fasting as a result of sharing does have consequences. Yes, we are up to facing them (both others and less).
For what would you fast if your fast were to be evidenced by sharing your bread with the hungry? Healing?
Do you want you food to be correctly seasoned? Share. This is how saltiness is maintained.
Do you want to see your food, because we eat with our eyes before eating with our mouth? Share. This is how your light stays lit.
Obviously this kind of fasting goes beyond food. It encompasses every basic need. Only when we are engaged in the process of kindliness and care do we season one another's life and light the way for one another. To avoid a need is tasteless and darkening.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/02/isaiah-581-9a-9b-12.html
Live your reality, don’t hold back. We need many analyses of our situation. Easy answers and deeper responses help one another clarify where we are and are not.
If we are interested in participating in divining a movement beyond our current limits it is important to draw near to a creating, repenting and resurrecting G*D. This will let us be honest about the way in which we excuse our oppression of others because of our particular religious practices, theories, creeds. To use the fasting example as a stand in for any and all ritualistic responses to lived experience shows how in our fast from available food we can so easily begin to blame those without food for their hunger.
If fasting doesn’t sensitize us to another’s hunger so we will share our bread, our space, our time, then our analysis is only blame, not change.
Receive this blessing:
May your light gently and gradually dawn
and be received as healing
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/02/isaiah-581-9a-9b-12.html