Now I have a question for you all. How are you fasting for Lent? Maybe. Better question is this. Are you fasting for Lent?
Now I'll be honest. I am not sacrificing cookies for Lent this year. I discovered that there are some things that are just too difficult even for a pastor.
So one of the things that's fun about this is you think about all the different ways that people may be giving up something for Lent. But as I say this, the first thought for some people may be, why are you even assuming that I will be fasting at all pastor?
That's expecting quite a bit. Now we know that fasting is a practice that can be done in various ways. Whether by giving up eating for a period of time each week during the season of Lent, or by not eating or doing something in particular for the season,
or even often times asking the question of could we then replace something with doing something beneficial for the community around us. Fasting can look in many different ways.
Now as we consider the season of Lent, I want to be sure to say something to you that will offend some of you. Who am I kidding? I'm trying to offend all of you, but I'm not always successful. So I'm going to do my best to offend as many of you as possible.
But one of the things that we hear is the definition of fasting. And I want to read this to you and I want you to think about how you feel about this definition.
Fasting is regarded as an act of worship to become more aware of God, to develop a sense of piety and to submit to God's will. The devout see benefits that include practicing self restraint, growing closer to God, cultivating gratitude, and empathizing with people who are poor and hungry.
Now, all these sound good, right? But the reason why I would say that this might be offensive is that I found this particular definition by researching the meaning of fasting for the Muslim community during Ramadan.
Now, you may be wondering, Pastor, why are you using a Muslim definition for a Christian time of fasting? I realize that I am turning 45 this month, but no, I have not gone see now.
The reason is because we as Christians cannot pretend that we are the only ones who have some monopoly on dedicating a fasting experience to God. But not only that, we must consider that fasting is actually assumed for Muslims in general.
It's not just something that people might consider doing and maybe make a joke about it or hope that they make it through the whole season.
But it's an assumption for the entire community, even to the point where if somebody has to miss any number of days for reasons outside of their control, they will have to make it up again later.
But Pastor, all of our good works are completely free and not required. Isn't that the point of the gospel? Yes, yes, it is.
But why wouldn't we want to emphasize these things even more because of that?
In our society today, I'm going to say this, and in case I didn't offend all of you, I'm going to try harder this time. I would say that as much as we discuss that we live in a Christian nation, I would actually go as far as to say we do not actually worship God.
I would say that in reality, our society worships freedom.
Now, I'm going to say that again. Our society does not actually worship God. Our society worships freedom.
Now, that's not a reflection on anything to do with anybody in our military or our founding fathers, because when we look at what they had actually fought for, when then we actually may begin to understand the point.
See, freedom has been meant to be worshiping God as he calls us, not as directed by rulers. Freedom is meant to be working jobs that fit not an obligation someone has made for us, but rather our passions and abilities.
Freedom is supposed to be the right to do what is good rather than having to fight for the whims of some tyrant. These are the things that we know of as historically what we have fought for.
However, instead, we today are so in love with anything that feels like freedom that we will do whatever it takes or avoid whatever we can in order to have more of it.
It doesn't matter if our choices and decisions are harming us. If we believe that anything is somehow required or that somehow we have to put aside our own freedoms, even if we believe it would be loving toward God or our neighbor, then we will fight it at all costs.
This is not what God wants from us, but this is what our culture has encouraged of us. And that is where we struggle in ways that those in the Muslim community may not.
See, while their culture may be worshiping the wrong God or the wrong understanding of God, their culture expects that God is meant to matter more than their personal sense of freedom.
See, when we are given freedom in the gospel, it is actually not with the understanding that we're meant to do whatever we feel like at any moment in time. It is that we are called to live our free lives in a way that rejects the sin and selfishness of the world that traps us.
It is that we can become free of the bonds of sin, death and the devil. Everything that calls us to be God's people and to live accordingly is not meant to bind us, but rather is meant to free us from the harms that this world keeps doing to us.
The more that we're bound to Christ, the more that we are called to follow Him. And in so doing, we're not given freedom to do more of the things that can harm us, the things that we think we want, but rather freedom to escape what is actually destroying us.
Yet even now declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding instead fast love.
And he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God.
When was the last time you wept and mourned, not because of circumstance, but for your own need to repent and change?
Knowing God and honoring his name, not just with our words, but with our actions is a way to pursue life and true actual freedom.
The world continues to distort our minds, our hearts, our views. The world continues to bind us to misusing our bodies and ways that do not please God, our lusts, our greed, our abandonment of preserving life both before and after birth,
our pursuit of gain over pursuing God's will or even saying that it is God's will to pursue wealth for its own sake.
We are continually being bound by the world's views and the world's culture.
So why wouldn't we want to have a fast so that we can reset and seek what is good and right? Wouldn't we want to have some practice that helps us to separate from the things that keep pulling us down and destroying us from the inside out?
Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the people, consecrate the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, even the nursing infants.
Is it time for Christ Memorial to call an assembly and be consecrated with fasting?
We are not trying to get some sort of reward or make something out of ourselves. The whole point is just to know God more clearly.
We don't need to keep focusing on eating all the time. What are we going to eat today? Do I want a number three or a number five? Do I want curly fries? Do I want a soda?
Do we really need to be focused on this all the time? We don't need to gorge so much and not just with our bellies.
We don't need to satisfy every impulse that comes up every natural desire. Our bodies are meant to obey us, not the other way around.
So let's ask, how can we know God more clearly, more dearly, more nearly?
Couldn't think of another word that rhymed with nearly.
Three is enough. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is.
There your heart will be also. We have already been given everything in Christ.
Why not focus more on this and seek him more clearly in a world that continues to push us and manipulate us?
Isn't it time that we ask how to let go of the world and pursue the one who truly gives us freedom each and every day?
Because why should the Muslims have all the fun?
But more than that.
Isn't it true?
We admit how things have controlled us and ask God to help us let go so that we can cling to him more closely.
May we this season and always be willing to sacrifice what is harming us.
The treasures of this earth as we cling to the only lasting treasure, the life of actual freedom in following after our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us.
Amen.