March 5, 2025 ~ Ash Wednesday
Drink from the Fountain of Grace
Rev. Beckie Sweet
Today is Ash Wednesday ~ the Holy Day that always sneaks up on me, no matter how disciplined I am about planning ahead for the season of Lent. Yes, this is the first day of Lent, the season of repentance and preparation for the grand celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
But this time of preparation is so much more than packing a suitcase for a trip, or studying a pamphlet describing an historic site. It is more than walking to the grocery store, or cleaning the winter collection of leaves from the storm drains. The Christian tradition of fasting is often practiced during this season as a means of getting in touch with our true identity in relation to Christ, so that we may repent of our past sins and start afresh to experience an abundance of joy in the faith.
At the beginning of Lent, we often read the gospel passage describing Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness, following his baptism and prior to the formal start of his earthly ministry. You might remember that in Luke’s gospel, we are offered a description of the devil tempting Jesus to use his divine powers to overcome three human needs: bread for hunger; power for ultimate control; and, super-human deliverance from harm and death for eternal life.
But what about this fasting business? It doesn’t sound very protestant!!
The passage shared from the prophet Isaiah, chapter 58, connects the practice of fasting, which Christians often observe during Lent, with the reality of what is happening in the world around us AND how we are called by God to respond to it. Long before the time of Jesus, the Jews, during times of crisis, when the people of Israel felt God was far away, would fast as a way to repent and mourn.
Yet in this passage, the people wonder why God is not responding to their fasting in this time of trouble. In verse 3 the people plead with God, saying, “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” The prophet tells the people that their fasting is not pleasing to God because they are only engaging in a ritual. Their focus is on what they, themselves will get out of the practice, rather than how the fasting will equip the people to bring about a just and peaceful future. Their fasting was superficial, or just for show.
From the first century onward, those who believed in Jesus would fast, or “give up something” during Lent. The purpose is to engage our whole bodies in repentance – turning away from sin and turning toward God – remembering that we are human creatures with human needs. Fasting can help us focus on God and prayer, following Jesus’ example in the wilderness. But, like the people of Israel in our Scripture text, our fasting, too, can become just a ritual with no meaning. Worse yet, our fasting can become like a transaction with God: “If I fast, or give this up for God this season, then God should answer my prayers, God should do something for me.” If one is giving up food/alcohol/swearing, and the like, is it to focus on God, or just to lose a few pounds or improve one’s image in the community? Isaiah calls out this type of thinking.
Then Isaiah points out that the self-denial of fasting is hypocritical if those who practice it are serving their own interests and oppressing others. Fasting, by itself, is not real repentance. Through the prophet, God reframes what real fasting, repentance, and self-denial entail. Isaiah asks his listeners in verses 6-7, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
7 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…”
It’s like the person who posts on social media about the sin of racism, and then in person uses racial stereotypical descriptions of persons of other races, and treats them with a lack of dignity and respect. Then, when a racist joke is told, that person remains silent, rather than challenging the appropriateness of the joke.
It is like the person who posts a warning for all to read about the dangerous effects of climate change, but refuses to recycle. That one can identify the harmful issues, but then is unwilling to take action to help reverse or at least slow the ill-effects.
Whether you choose to fast, or just look at your own life and repent, the Good News is that real repentance is possible. Real repentance is active (not passive). And real repentance brings healing to the world, to those around you, and to the one who repents. When our calls for God’s help are matched with actions that bring about God’s kin-dom, this is what happens, according to Isaiah: “8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and God will say, ‘Here I am.’”
We do not just fast, but in our fasting, we are better able to feed others. And we, ourselves become “like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.”
This Lent, we will “Drink from the Fountain of Grace.” Throughout history and scripture, we hear many accounts of God sustaining God’s people in the most basic ways: physically, with food and drink for the body; and, spiritually, with food and drink for the soul. This season we will find refreshment and inspiration through the images of different cups, which will help us to explore different aspects of our relationship with God.
Today we start with the Cup of Fasting. On Sunday, we will examine The Broken Cup. Then move on to the Cup of Living Water, The Cup You Choose, The Cup of Discipleship, the Cup of Compassion, on Palm Sunday-The Cup of Humility, Maundy Thursday-The Cup of the New Covenant, on Good Friday-Jesus’ Cup for Us. And then on Easter-The Cup that Never Runs Dry.
Since the Cup of Fasting requires active repentance, I would like to make a suggestion. Most of us here know where our next meal will be coming from, and do not fear the plight of hunger or starvation. Let’s literally fast, whether that involves one meal a week, or NOT buying coffee out, NOT eating meat every day, or giving up ice cream. Place the money you have saved while fasting into a cup. Then, after Easter, we will be taking up a special collection for the Ithaca Kitchen Cupboard, one of the wonderful ministries which feeds the hungry of this area. Place what you have collected in your cup in that collection, so that your self-denial will benefit those who do not have enough.
As we drink of God’s grace, may we become a source of Grace for others. Amen.