Lenten Day III [Day]

Lenten Day III [Friday]

Collect of the Day [Rite I]

Support us, O Lord, with thy gracious favor through the fast we have begun; that as we observe it by bodily selfdenial, so we may fulfill it with inner sincerity of heart; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.  Amen.

Assigned Lesson

Isaiah 58:1-9a

"Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. 'Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?' Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord ? "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps 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 him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'

http://bible.com/59/isa.58.1-9.ESV

Lenten Reflection

This reading certainly says something about how we keep the Lenten fast.  Often we get to focused on the stomach and what we take into ourselves.  Thus by denying the self, rather by denying the stomach, we are tempted to think we have done a faithful thing.

Only fasting seems to me to be closely connected to defilement.  That may seem like an odd comparison to be sure.  But recall what Jesus says about the later and ponder it's possible application to the former, especially in the light of this prophetic word from Isaiah.  Jesus makes the case that, contrary to public teaching, that it is not what goes into the mouth and then the stomach that defiles a person, thus making them unclean, but rather that which flows from the heart.  And if defilement flows from the heart, how much more can it be believed through the observation of others that faith desired in fasting flows also from the heart.  This fast from the heart is not a matter of denying something from being taken into the body.  It is rather the giving of something for the good of someone else.  The prophet gives us a laundry list of forms of reaching out to others that exemplify this type of fast.  Note that this is not intended to be a complete list.  There are other options, as large as the imagination can envision as faithful application to the summary of the law as presented by Jesus.

Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith:

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.