conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

what fast will you make?

Well, I have been busy with everything else but sermon preparation. Wow. It's been a full week. I have been thinking about the subject for the last few weeks, and that is a plus. Tomorrow will be a sermonating day to be certain.

So, the sermon title is something I chose a while ago: What Fast Will You Make? There are so many ways to understand the import of the discipline of fasting. I have included some quotations if you are interested. Follow the extended link. Some of them are quite challenging and get us away from simple denial for denial's sake. Christian denial always has an end in mind...a telos...the sanctification of the believer and the world.

All right Christian discipline is this.

I have a funeral to preside over on Monday morning. There is a Bible study and a sermon between now and then. It will be a full weekend...and Monday. May God grant peace to the departed and solace to the living. May we all, at our end, find such grace as God's own love.

The classical Disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths. They invite us to explore the inner caverns of the spiritual realm. They urge us to be the answer to a hollow world. - Richard J. Foster * Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? -Isaiah 58:6-7 * If the body goes without food and drink for even a day,...it immediately weeps and lets out a roar, and there is a great rush to bring it help. But the soul fasts for whole weeks from its food, or languishes under wounds received, or even lies dead, and not one takes care of it or shows it pity. Therefore, visit your soul more and more often... - The Mind's Assent to God, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) * Virtually anything can be processed into a consumable to satisfy our appetite for pleasure or entertainment. 'Have it your way' is the mantra of the marketplace. Can we have it our way without the risk of forgetting God's way? Can we hunger for Christ, the Bread of Life, when we are full of dishes enticingly served up on the steam table of a prosperous consumer culture? From what do we need to fast today so that we may develop strength of soul tomorrow? - John Mogabgab * [Fasting] isn't only about reduction. It can be understood to be about learning to give oneself ample space and time to focus.

and...

Anyone who empties enough to truly experience that they are loved is filled to the brim. Then we can move readily into voluntary simplicity. We can begin to give back. We can slowly become more conscious of where we overuse resources or under use the gifts we have been given to share. Every act of voluntary simplicity is a paradox and a mystery. It is a fast that limits in order to free. Ultimately it is a courtesy we can offer our communities, our families, and the planet. - Gunilla Norris

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Jesus began his public ministry with a long fast in the desert where he confronted the human ambition to gain control, importance, and power. From his reflective silence and hunger he went out among ordinary people to offer healing, hope, and sustenance. - Elizabeth J. Canham

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[Fasting is] voluntary abstinence from available satisfactions for the sake of spiritual awareness that affirms the priority of love and obedience over satisfying the appetites. - Marilyn Chandler McEntire