Isaiah 58 should probably make us all sit up and listen. It is not enough, says the prophet, to go through the motions of religion, even to go through the motions thinking that we truly mean what we are saying and doing, unless we are engaging with those around us - especially those who find themselves on the down side of things.
This is one of the balances which Jesus sought to redress in his own ministry. Somehow the prophetic voice of the Old Testament had been made a lot easier to listen to by encasing it in layers of regulations which could be kept while keeping oneself safe from the other.
The voice which cries in Isaiah is one which we will do well to listen to. This God who loves us, this God of relationship demands our fast is one which is not just with good intent, not just a matter of self-discipline but a matter of removal of hunger and suffering in our world
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? (isaiah 58:6)
I am not sure that the prophet is decrying fasting but rather saying that when it is seen as full service to God then it falls short of what God is asking. What about us - is our service to God simply communal worship, simply giving money or writing letters or are we willing to follow the radical voice and invite the stranger into our home.
Of course, I can think of a million reasons not to, most of them sane and common sensical. However, I am left with the uneasy feeling that the prophetic voice which God uses is beyond a tidy sanity and that common sense might not be so common after all - not in the world of making God's justice in God's world.
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