American Fast

So, let's talk about Christian fasting. 

Last week I had to prep to teach Isaiah 58, which basically says "Ya'll are fasting to get me to hear you. Why don't you quit finger-pointing in ALL-CAPS at each other on Facebook and oppressing your poor? If you start caring for my children out of the good things I've given you, I'll hear your prayers, reward your fasts, and raise you up to glory."

I've never really been an advocate for fasting, and I was not sure how this chapter was supposed to make me into one, but I researched. That's one of the cool things about teaching through a lectionary instead of hunting and pecking your way through the Bible. You have to deal with stuff you usually ignore. I researched ... and came away less of a fan of fasting. 

It was all good until I decided to research Jesus' statement, "this kind only comes out with prayer and fasting" in Matt 17:21. Suprise! Matt 17:21 was not in my Bible. Suddenly, the game was afoot. It had a note telling me it was "included in some versions" and was a parallel of Mark 9:29, so off I went. Yeah. Mark 9:29 only said prayer, not fasting. But the King James said fasting in both places. 

More digging. 

It turns out several original Greek texts don't say fasting but several times more originals do say fasting than don't. The mystery deepened. If the majority vote in favor, why have all the modern versions picked the minority? 

Well, it turns out there's one more key verse in this mystery. 1 Corinthians 7:5 says you can defraud each other only for a time and only to engage in prayer and fasting. Yeah, the modern versions have omitted fasting there, too. This time, though, it's an open and shut case. They can clearly see when someone added the words "and fasting" to Paul's original text. They know the versions without fasting are correct. 

It seems the early church got all obsessed with the idea of fasting, to the point the Didache actually misquoted Jesus saying you should fast for your enemies when he actually said to pray for them. Big difference. 

Fasting was a big deal among the Jews, and therefore among the early Christians. Jesus clearly lays down some ground rules for how not to fast. Paul owns that he has fasted often. But, if you're going to look for advice on how to fast in the New Testament, you're going to look long and hard. 

We want our prayers to be loud before God, for him to hear and heal our land. It would be nice if skipping a handful of meals would make that happen, but the testimony of Isaiah 58 is unambiguous. Fasting without mercy and without self-sacrifice amplifies his anger toward you, not his grace. Mercy and self-sacrifice without fasting amplify his mercy. 

If America wants mercy from God, it must show mercy to his children.

+ Begin meaningfully comforting refugees who show up on our borders

+ Hear people when they cry out against wage slavery

+ Break the yokes when 500,000 people protest oppression in 500 places and 26 million overall

+ Make the courts a place where the poor can win

A Brokenhearted Ebenezer

The Ebenezer stone was precious, even though it was erected in the middle of a mess. 

Samuel (1 Sam 7:10) stands up the Ebenezer stone saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." They had just been granted a big deliverance from and victory over the Philistines (after 20 years of failure), and they now have a big chunk of the promised land. They called on the LORD, instead of trying to do it all in their own strength, and he answered. They had "done good", and they had done it by the LORD's mercy. 

The moment deserved to be commemorated. Their thankfulness was utterly appropriate. Their worship was timely. 

And soon they called for God to let them follow a king instead of him. Soon they chased after idols. Soon they followed Saul into pride. Later they let their idolatry offend God so much the North and then the South were carried into captivity. After such glory and promise, their story continued to be filled to the top and overflowing with shame. 

After centuries of loss, after all the pain and shame, they returned from Babylon to Israel. The Ebenezer stone was still standing there. 

What were they to make of that stone 500 years later, after 500 years of shame and failure, 500 years of shattered promise?

Did that stone now testify against them? Did it mock them? Did it, 500 years later, tell them "no further will God help you, after all you've done"?

I look back, and my life is filled with forgotten Ebenezers, moments that the LORD delivered me by grace and following moments when I failed all over again. There are many of those places God fought to turn me toward Him, to grow me toward truth, and where he succeeded only to have me find some new way to fail all over again. There are many places I grew toward him and not away, only to fail all over again. 

I have hid my face in shame from those pregnant moments all these years. I could not bear to remember the face plant following each of them. I remember where the LORD took my hand and brought me "thus far" only to watch me stumble again from the path. 

It helps a little to see each Ebenezer as, rather than a boundary, a mile marker. I can hold my progress "thus far" precious as I remember the markers laid down those sad years ago, and remember mile marker flowed after mile marker. If I can remember each Ebenezer, maybe I can believe there's another left to me, somewhere out there, another place to which the LORD will take further. 

Perhaps, God still has a beautiful plan for my life. 

Me and My House

In Joshua 24, Joshua himself tells the people to choose whether they will worship their old gods, or YHWH, who had loved and saved them. As for him and his house, they would serve the LORD. 

The people agree to do the same as Joshua. Joshua responds by saying they think they can, but they cannot. They will fail, because God is a jealous God. 

In Sunday School I learned today something of what Joshua meant when he said those words. 

No god, before that time, had ever been jealous. 

The people of Israel had some history in Babylon, lots of history in Egypt, and a growing history of Canaanite religions in their toolbags. They knew the gods. They were men of the world, and they knew how things worked. What's more, Joshua knew they knew. 

Today, if you want your car fixed, you go to a mechanic. If you want your back fixed, you go to a chiropractor. If you are having allergies, you go to CVS and pick up some Benadryl. In each case, you provide the same things: you describe your need, you lay down some money, you go out and do something with the guidance you receive. 

In Joshua's day, if you wanted a good crop you offered a part of your dinner to the god of crops. If you wanted children you made a larger offering to the fertility god. If you were headed out to battle you offered something huge to the god of war. The gods of storms, of sun, of rivers were the CVS, the Well Fargo Bank, and the 401k's of their time. You went to the appropriate god, laid down something of value to the god, and went out to do the things the god would bless.

None of those gods was jealous. No more than CVS is mad when you put money in your 401k, or Wells Fargo hates when you visit your mechanic, did Ba'al hate when you offered good things to Astarte. Dealings with the gods were business. The gods had needs and so did the people, so one could scratch their backs and hope they would scratch happily back in the right place. Joshua told the people YHWH was like some giant amazon.com in the sky offering every service, in the midst of the great economy of gods, and if they transacted with any god but YHWH he would destroy them. YHWH was jealous.

Joshua's words were so foreign the people quickly agreed to them without even noticing they had no idea what he was talking about. The Book of Judges reveals just how short the people fell from understanding what they affirmed. 

I think we find ourselves in the same situation. 

The Holy Spirit has promised to guide us into all truth, but we mingle our ideologies. Confronted with a ballot, we consult the god of capitalism for guidance, the god of socialism, the gods of Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. We hear the multiplied voices of those who decry abortion or gun violence screaming in our ears, and we seek out the right crowd to follow. 

Jesus warns us broad is the way and many are those who travel in it. 

Today, in this environment, I'm not sure yet I understand Jesus or the guidance of his Holy Spirit any better than those enthused Israelites who knew exactly the right words to shout to Joshua. 

The Righteous Live Together

In Romans 1:17, Paul famously says, "the just shall live by faith", but less famously the real question in Martin Luther's mind when he saw that verse was the beginning phrase, "the righteousness of God is revealed". 

There are 3 righteousnesses in play in this verse. There's the righteousness of the Jews in obeying the law, the righteousness of the Greeks in ignorance of that law, and the righteousness of God in accepting the Gentiles unfairly, without conforming to the holiness of the law. You may not have heard that last one fully, so I'll repeat it. The Jews were worried God would be made unrighteous if he accepted the Gentiles before they conformed themselves to Sabbath, Circumcision, and dietary laws. 

The Jews worried about making God unrighteous. 

It is to laugh.

But, when we laugh, let's be sure to laugh at ourselves with them. EVERY reference to the Jews can be fully, accurately, and fairly replaced with a reference to Hypocrites, and that's my tribe. I'm a hypocrite of the hypocrites, circumscribed in my theology on the eighth day (and then again and again and again over the years). I remember being raised Pentecostal and arguing God always wanted to heal, so if we were not healed to admit it was not God's fault. I remember when I learned Calvinism arguing God could not save the reprobate without sullying his own holiness. I remember saying if you're not near to God, it's not him that moved. 

I would argue the Gentiles/Greeks stand in well for all Lawless people in Paul's argument. They are the ones who ignorantly do what comes naturally, which in this American century encompasses a lot of options. I cannot talk much about the Lawless, because I was wired for legalism from day one. 

The amazing thing about Romans is how Paul argues 3 righteousnesses. Paul argues the Hypocrites and the Lawless can both be made righteous, and even better, God can rescue both those tribes (even if neither knows they need it) while remaining righteous himself. 

It was for this reason Paul wrote the book of Romans, his only written, complete argument. The church in Rome was brand new, constituted suddenly when Nero allowed the Jews back into Rome. This was a fresh start with fresh people. He knew and loved all the people he lists in the 16th chapter, but he also knew a bunch of his Judaizing enemies had come to be part of that fresh start. Paul knew they'd come to Hypocritize this new church, and he wanted to cure the problem before it even started. The Letter to the Romans was his scalpel. 

Look what he does. 

He anticipates a brutal, legalistic attack on what will and must become a key church throughout the empire in its very first days, and look what he does. 

He makes room for Hypocrites and Lawless to be joined together into one living body. He gives a formula, not whereby "his team" will win, but whereby both sides can move forward together. 

You doubt this. 

You think Paul fought for grace against legalism without remorse. Or, at the very least, you think Paul was just teaching the pure gospel to pure hearers. You doubt this book was written to head off a fight between Hypocrites and Lawless. 

I submit to you Romans 14 as the "therefore" of the book. Just give it a read. 

When the righteousness of God is revealed, it can meld the Hypocrites and the Lawless together into a single, righteous body. 

Amazing.