Fasting for Lent

Matthew 4:2-  “He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.”

From the earliest days of the church, followers of Jesus have undergone a time of spiritual preparation for the celebration of Easter.  Though the amount of time and the individual practices have varied throughout history, the time has always included two major elements-  meditating on baptism and confessing or doing penance for one’s sins.     In our modern context, many people embrace giving up some desirable item or practice throughout the Lenten season.  Though we don’t often use the term, the practice of giving something up is a form of fasting.

The spiritual founder of Methodism, John Wesley, fasted two days a week throughout much of his ministry.  According to historian Charles Yrigoyen Jr, “Wesley was convinced that fasting, abstaining from food or drink, was a practice firmly grounded in the Bible. People in Old Testament times fasted (Ezra 8:23). So did Jesus and his followers (Matthew 4:2; Acts 13:3), and Wesley saw no reason why modern Christians should not follow the same pattern...He found that fasting advanced holiness.”  

I think Wesley hits on the key to making the process of giving something up at lent more transformative. We shouldn’t give something up just for the sake of giving it up- we should seek transformation of ourselves and the world around us.  If you want to give up chocolate- great.  But do more than give up chocolate.  Spend a bit of the time you would use eating chocolate to thank God for the many gifts in your life that allow you to enjoy such a luxury.  Don’t just pocket your chocolate buying budget, take that money and donate it to something that will do some good-  like a hot meals program or the food bank.  This way, giving up chocolate causes you to enter into the practice of being more thankful and helps to transform the lives of the world in which you live.  That’s what it means to live into your baptism-  to strain everyday to allow the love of God to help you live as God intends.  It is only when that transformation occurs that we will truly be ready for the restored life promised in Jesus’ resurrection.

Learn more about John Wesley’s view of fasting in his sermon- "Upon the Lord's Sermon on the Mount."

New Social Issues Forum

John Wesley was a firm advocate of personal and social holiness.  Personal holiness meant learning how we each individually needed to grow in perfection so that we might conform to the image of Christ.  Social Holiness, however, went beyond the individual.  Social Holiness embraced the idea that we had to change more than ourselves-  we had to work to change our societies so that it was more in line with the Kingdom of God that Jesus had proclaimed.  As such, Wesley decried slavery, argued for more human prisons, and took on the rich for their mistreatment of the poor.  He encouraged his followers to search their heart and consciouses and to seek to transform the world through their actions and their voices.  Thus, they would apply scripture, tradition, reason and experience and consider the important issues of their day.

As spiritual decedents of John Wesley, we are called to do the same.  Through a spirit filled and democratic process, the United Methodist Church has taken a position on a whole range of social issues including immigration, human trafficking, global climate stewardship and more.  Starting Wednesday July 13th at 7:00 pm, we will begin the process exploring the UMC position, how it was arrived at, and learning to discern for ourselves what God’s will might be in our contemporary society.  These forums are not meant as debates so that we may sway one another, but opportunities to learn to share how the Holy Spirit might be working in our own lives.  The first meeting will be an introduction to one method of discerning God’s will in community while the rest will tackle a specific subject.  Our initial schedule, subject to change, will be as follows:

7/13- Discerning God’s will in the Wesleyan tradition

7/20 Rights of the Aging

7/27 Persons living with HIV & AIDS

8/3         Genetic Technology

8/10 Rights of Immigrants

Join us as we seek to discern the Spirit’s will for the world.