Understanding Fasting

Series: Rhythms: Spiritual Habits for Soul Health

“Understanding Fasting”

Message @ Jericho Ridge– Sun, Feb 14 2021 (Series: Rhythms: Spiritual Practices)

 

Hello, friends.  My name is Brad and I’m part of the teaching and leadership team here at Jericho Ridge.  I want to take a moment to extend a special welcome to those who are joining us for the first time as we launch on Telus Optik TV today and broadcast our livestream on the Telus network to anyone in BC and Alberta on channel 878.  We are grateful for this new partnership and so if you are joining us for the first time, I want to say welcome & happy Valentine’s Day.  I am glad you made the choice to be with us today and to invest in your spiritual and relational health.   

 

I don’t know about you but I have found that one of the hardest parts of this past year has been finding a new rhythm.  Or really, any sense of rhythm!  The things that normally give shape to my life, the well-trod paths and habits have been more difficult to maintain.  I am a bit of a high-structure person and so a shift to my patterns of life leaves me feeling a bit lost and vulnerable. 

 

I have been working at re-rhythming my life.  At creating or practicing the necessary habits that will lead to health (or at least survival) in this season but it is hard work!  Maybe you feel the same way.  If you are joining us on our church online interactive platform live, maybe type in the chat: what is one rhythm you have struggled with in this season?    

 

One of the things that I find helpful is that we are not alone or left to our own devices to create some of these rhythms.  For centuries, Christians has submitted themselves to the church’s liturgical calendar which provides some shape to the rhythm of the year.  The Christian year begins at advent with a sense of longing and anticipation, then moves into Christmastide and the celebration and hope in the coming of Christ. The rhythm of the calendar alternatives between preparation and celebration.  And this week, we will enter the season of Lent.   

 

Lent is the period of 40 week-days beginning on Ash Wednesday and leading up to Easter Sunday.  Traditionally in the church calendar, it is a season of getting our hearts and lives ready to experience the gravity and the majesty of Holy Week. It is a time to practice spiritual disciplines like giving, and praying fasting.  So we are going to take the next 4 weeks to explore four spiritual practices or disciplines that if you are willing to experiment with them, can help bring a sense of rhythm back into your life. 

 

We’re going to talk talk today about fasting, next week Meg and I will talk about the discipline of community, week 3 we’ll explore the practice of Sabbath rest and finally, Kevin O’Coin will share his journey on the practice of simplicity.  So if you are ready and willing, let’s dive in together, shall we?

 

One of the practices most associated with Lent is that of fasting.  Richard Foster, author of the classic book Celebration of Disciplines, defines fasting as a “voluntary denial of an otherwise normal function for the sake of intense spiritual activity.” 

 

In other words, you are giving something up from the normal rhythm of your daily life in order to be more intentional about pursuing God.  Most often when we talk about fasting, we think about the giving up of food, but it is also quite fair to think about the voluntary denial of other parts of our lives – some people fast from sweets, or one time I fasted from caffeine, or alcohol or social media.  Really, any area of our lives that has capacity to or is producing addictive tendencies is a prime area for experimenting with fasting.  The question of “can I give this up?” and “what will I give myself to instead?” becomes a good starting point.   

 

Now, note how this is different from the recent health craze of intermittent fasting.  Intermittent fasting is a structured regimen of eating and abstaining for the purpose of physical health or weight loss.  But the Christian discipline of fasting is linked to our desire for deeper spiritual health.   

 

Foster again: “We fast for many reasons. We fast because it reveals the things that control us. We fast because it helps to give us balance in life. We fast because there is an urgent need. Most important of all, we fast because God calls us to it.”

 

Fasting has its roots back in the Old Testament.  We see example after example after example of people who fasted.  Moses fasted on Mount Sanai. Hannah fasted when we was praying for a child. Daniel fasted on multiple occasions. Esther fasted when her people were faced with extermination.  Many of the prophets called whole groups of people, sometimes the entire nation, into times of prayer fasting.   

 

If we move into the New Testament and we see Jesus fasting as he begins his ministry.  This week I was reading in our Life Journaling in the book of Acts Paul fasted as soon as he came to a saving knowledge of Jesus as well as inviting others to join him at key moments of discernment such as the appointing of elders in local churches. The bible is FULL of people who made fasting a part of their spiritual rhythm of life.    

 

Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 6:16-18. I want to read these verses for us because they underline something that we often overlook about the practice of fasting.  In Matthew 6, Jesus is teaching on giving to those who are in need, then someone has asked him about how to pray.  So he teaches and gives the model of the Our Father or the Lord’s Prayer. 

 

And immediately following this, Jesus says in Matthew 6:16:

“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. 17 But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. 18 Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”

 

I want us to note a few key things here in this text:

1) Jesus seems to assume fasting as a normal part of a spiritually healthy routine

 

Jesus expects that just like his followers will compassionately give to those in need and He expects that just like they will engage in conversation with God in prayer, that they will also engage in the practice of fasting. 

  1. 3 – when you give to someone in need, v. 5 And when you pray… v. 16 And when (not if) but when you fast.

 

Jesus sets out the invitation to fast both in his words, and also in his own rhythm of life that he models for us as His followers.  Jesus fasted during times of temptation and spiritual warfare.  So it was a regular part of His routine. 

 

In our day and time, talk of self-denial can feel legalistic and fake or forced, but Jesus invites us into a practice is about the interior vibrancy of a spiritual life, not the external ritual. 

 

Similar to Jesus teaching on generosity, fasting here is about the private places in our heart, not about making a public spectacle.  “OK, gang… I’m fasting from social media for Lent so if you can all take a a moment to put in the comment box how awesome I am, that would be great!”  (um, No thank you!)    

 

If we say yes to Jesus’ invitation to fast, it is because we are interested in what is going on inside of our hearts, not about how hard it is that you are entering a period of self-denial! Make it part of your routine, but don’t brag.

 

Second reason you might consider fasting:

2) It opens us up to God in an intentional and powerful way

 

I know for me, that some of the times I have felt close to God, the times when I have heard God’s still small voice giving me direction, or comfort or insight into challenges have been during times of fasting and prayer.  There is something about fasting that opens us up to God in an intentional and powerful way.  Our capacity to hear increases.  This is ofen why Christians throughout history have fasted at key moments where they needed discernment or wisdom. 

 

This is because one of the beautiful gifts of fasting is the gift of time: we can take that time and effort and energy which we normally dedicate to meals or food preparation or TV or social media and we can offer our time and attention to God in a more focused kind of way. 

 

Nathan Foster in his book The Making of an Ordinary Saint: My Journey From Frustration to Joy with the Spiritual Disciplines, says this:  

“While the physical aspects of fasting intrigue us, we need to remember that the major work of fasting is in the realm of the spirit. The spiritual discipline of fasting can bring breakthroughs in the heart and mind that will not happen in any other way. It is a means of God’s grace for the continuing formation of the human personality into the likeness of Christ”

 

Jesus fasted at strategic moments in His life: for 40 days at the start of his ministry, he fasted when faced with temptation, he fasted when faced with the demonic or prior to miraculous healings. So friend, if you are in a season of life where you need to know God’s presence and power in a renewed way, you might consider fasting.  But there’s a shadow side of this approach which we’ll come to in a few minutes so stay tuned….

 

The third reason you might want to consider fasting is that

3) It helps us to break free of addictive tendencies or things that can control us

 

Fasting is the process of voluntarily laying something down for a season of time.  Maybe you choose to fast from online shopping – and you begin to realize a pattern than we you are stressed or anxious, your first response is to head to the mall or purchase something online as a way of keeping the loneliness at bay. 

 

Maybe you fast from alcohol, or maybe kids, you decide for one weekend you are going to fast from your favorite toy or book.  You can think “it’s only giving up one small item… what could that possibly accomplish?” But if you are giving up a meal, as your stomach growls, you can choose to turn your thoughts and attention to feasting on “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).   Skip social media for a day and see how fidgety you become when you are waiting in line with nothing to distract or occupy you.  Fasting exposes where we turn for comfort and sustenance in our lives.   

 

Adelle Calhoun in her excellent resource “Spiritual Disciplines Handbook” reminds us that “Through self-denial we begin to recognize what controls us. Our small denials of the self-show us just how little taste we actually have for sacrifice or time with God.” 

Fasting has a way of exposing our dependencies and can be a good step in breaking the power of them in our lives.   

 

But fasting in and of itself is not some kind of magic.  You can fast for the wrong reasons or in the wrong way.  Take this guy, [cartoon] for example, his wife is calling him to account for fasting from moderation for Lent. That’s not a legitimate fast.  To fast from Moderation (or your job, or kids). 

 

We see, particularly in the Old Testament, that God has strong opinions on how NOT to fast.  Let’s look together at Isaiah 58.  This is one of the longest and most extensive treatments of fasting in the Scripture and it contains a few surprising pitfalls that we can stumble into while fasting so I want to highlight some dangers for us. Let me read verses 1-10…

 

“Tell my people of their sins!... they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me. 3

 

‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers. 4 What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.

5 You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord?

 

6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. 7 Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

 

8 “Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. 9 Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply. “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors! 10 Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.”

 

We see in this text that you can be going through the motions (including fasting) all you like, but you can still get it all wrong.  Let me give you three ways you know you are doing Fasting Wrong. You’re doing it wrong if:

You’re using your fast to try and manipulate God

 

Fasting is not twisting God’s arm.  We have a name for that kind of manipulative tactic: it’s called a hunger strike!  In 2014, Norwegian convicted murder Anders Breivik wrote a 27-page letter to the Associated Press, in which he threatened to go on a hunger strike if his demands were not met.

 

He requested better conditions on his morning walk, complained that his prison cell was not decorated and did not have a picturesque view.  He also demanded that his Playstation 2 be upgraded to a Playstation 3 with access to more games “that I can choose myself.” According to the UK’s Daily Mirror, Mr. Breivik had previously gone on a hunger strike because he was not allowed moisturizer and his coffee wasn't hot enough.”  (ouch)

 

Of course, people can go on hunger strikes for causes that a just, such as one of Gandhi’s 17 hunger strikes to draw attention to the plight of injustice in the world.  But we need to be clear that hunger strikes are not fasting & fasting is not a hunger strike.  Hunger strikes are an attempt to get someone to do something that they are unwilling to do, usually by making them feel guilty or stirring up awareness or sympathy. 

And at some points in conversations on fasting, it can feel like that is what people are trying to do: to twist God’s arm to make God do something.  So they up the anti: “Oh, God didn’t respond to my prayer for x or y.  Well, maybe if just fasted, it would get God’s attention!”  Friend, don’t waste your energy.  God will not be manipulated into giving you something just because you add fasting on top of your list of demands.  That isn’t how relationship with God works. 

 

Secondly, you are doing fasting wrong if you are

  • You think you’ll earn merit

The Christian life is not like a brownies or scouting program whereby you complete a list of exciting and sometimes difficult assigned activities that forge you into a better person and then you get a badge to prove how meritorious you are.  There isn’t a merit badge for fasting. 

 

And in fact, we have to be careful with all of the spiritual practices that we are doing to discuss that we don’t see them as individual means to self- improvement.  I like what theologian and author Scot McKnight says is his wonderful little book entitled Fasting:

 

“fasting in the Bible is rarely, if ever, a means of personal sanctification and far more — if not exclusively — a response to a grievous condition one experiences. That is, people fast because they realize their sin, because they see death, because they realize God is about to judge the nation, because they fear the foreigners will invade … in other words, the Biblical emphasis is that fasting is a response by which we identify or side with God rather than a means or instrument to make us better.”

 

What breaks your heart in the world?  Is there a cause or an issue that you want to engage more deeply in? Fasting can be “a response by which we identify or side with God.” On that.  This is why you are doing it wrong if  

  • Other parts of your life remain unaffected

If you fast and yet you have no concern for those who are suffering from unjust laws in India or those who are imprisoned for their faith in China or those who are dying of starvation and malnutrition in East Africa or those who are living through the ongoing strife in Syria or the person who is homeless during this cold snap….  If you heart isn’t filled with compassion, don’t bother emptying your stomach and fasting.   It will ring hollow. 

 

But when we catch a vision of it done well, and we engage our whole selves and our whole lives in it, fasting and prayer can become a way that we move to action in the world.  We choose to humble ourselves.  We choose to align with God’s heart for justice and peace in the world. 

I know some of our people here at Jericho have eaten a diet of rice and beans for 40 days and taken the money they would have spent on groceries over that period of time and donated it toward reducing global hunger and poverty.  This is a form of fasting that moves beyond passive spiritual contemplation & involves more of our lives than just our stomachs.    

 

So friend, as we come into this season of Lent, & we explore these four practice, I want to open up a space for you to try something new.  Maybe consider joining me in a

Consider a Lenten fast

  • Maybe skip a meal to pray
  • Reduce news or social media
  • Give up a toy (or your phone)
  • Identify a grievous condition you want to see changed   

If you want some coaching in an area, email me and I’d be happy to give you some tips and we can keep each other accountable in this journey. Fasting can be a time of deep formation and transformation, if we let God work in us – emptying us of ourselves and filling us up with God.  

 

As we move into this time of responding to God in worship in song, let me lead us in a prayer written by the online ministry of Creighton University:

 

“God, as we give you thanks, we are mindful of those who have so much less than we do. As we share these wonderful gifts together, we commit ourselves to greater generosity toward those who need our support. Prepare us for [the season of Lent].

 

Tasting the fullness of what we have today, let us experience some hunger tomorrow. May our fasting make us more alert and may it heighten our consciousness so that we might be ready to hear your Word and respond to your call.

 

As our feasting fills us with gratitude so may our fasting and abstinence hollow out in us a place for deeper desires and an attentiveness to hear the cry of the poor. May our self-denial turn our hearts to you and give us a new freedom for generous service to others.

 

We ask you these graces with our hearts full of delight and stirring with readiness for the journey ahead. We ask them with confidence in the name of Jesus the Lord.” Amen.  Let’s worship together as we respond to God.”

 

 

Benediction:

 

Friends, our commission and benediction today is by Nathan Nettleton from Laughing Bird Liturgical Resources:  It is based on

(based on Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:9-15, Luke 4:1-13)


Go now, and live in the spirit of your baptism,
even when you are led into wild and hard places.
With repentance and trust, give yourselves to God,
and with fasting and prayer,
strengthen yourselves against the ways of the tempter.

And may God enfold you in tender and lasting love.
May Christ be beside you in times of struggle.
And may the Spirit guide you back to the path whenever you stray,

that you may keep the covenant.

We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,

In the name of Christ. Amen.

 

Thanks for being with us. See you next weekend where Meg and I will explore the discipline and benefits of community.

Some people have a practice of fasting for Lent. What’s the purpose and importance of fasting? Is there a difference between intermittent fasting for my health and fasting for spiritual purposes? Do I have to fast only from food or can I give up other stuff? (like Facebook). Join us for a discussion on what to do and what not to do with regards to this overlooked but dynamic spiritual practice.

Speaker: Brad Sumner

February 14, 2021
Matthew 6:16-18

Brad Sumner

Lead Pastor

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