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| "Pacific Currents" by Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast,
Conference Minister, March, 2000 Rumbling Into Lent
March is here. We're rumbling into Lent. For many of us it's an ill-defined time on the Church calendar. We older folk who came from the more regimented Christian traditions may connect these forty days before Easter with what seemed like dour and arbitrary edicts to forgo meat, forsake candy, and stay away from public amusements. This was all done to foster a sense of penitence, sorrow for one's sins and shortcomings. The scripture readings for the kick-off events often included the verse from Isaiah 58, "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?" If only I'd listened more closely, or read the passage in its entirety I might have found some comfort, some support for my niggling suspicion that compulsory vegetarianism, periodic subduing of one's sweet tooth, and missing Disney's "Pinocchio" were not the full rendering of what repentance was all about. It would have been good to consider the story, to hear about the people of Israel, our spiritual ancestors, the ones who turned to Isaiah for guidance. They'd been through so much. Returning, after years and years of captivity in Babylon, they find the holy city in ruins, their beloved Jerusalem in wreckage. That devastation hints at a fracturing of the relationship between the Creator and the people. There is an urgency, an intensity, in their desire to restore their connection with the Almighty. They approach The Holy One daily; they delight in seeking God's ways yet somehow nothing is working. In frustration they turn to Isaiah, the prophet in their midst, saying, "Look, we're fasting, we're praying, we want to be close to the God who has given us life and delivered us from captivity, but nothing is working. What's wrong here? We're doing all the right stuff and still God pays no attention! Why isn't what we're doing acceptable in the sight of the Almighty?" And Isaiah searches the prophetic tradition to which he is heir and scans the horizon for what's happening right now and most likely looks deep into his own heart while probing the hearts of those around him and rises to the prophetic occasion. He speaks for God and says, in effect, "You say you're seeking God; you say you want to follow the ways of The Holy One, but here you are squabbling over the proper forms for the rituals. Fasting!! Fasting isn't magic. Fasting isn't luxuriating in your self-induced feelings of virtue. Fasting means nothing unless it connects you with all those around you who hunger--for food, for justice, for an end to oppression. Fasting means nothing unless in the emptiness of your belly, right in your gut, you are making yourself open to the spirit of the Almighty, unless you are willing to be swept up in the Creator's roaring clamoring ravenous hunger for compassion and mercy. It is the Author of the Universe who says to you, 'I don't want you obsessing about putting on sackcloth or spreading out ashes. I don't want to mess around with all your self-indulgent trying to please me by bowing just right. I don't want some abstract disembodied experience of spirituality. 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?'" "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, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?" Not to hide yourself from your own kin. Some translations into English use the phrase not to hide yourself from your own flesh. Flesh. Kin. The intertwining of the subtleties of meaning give depth to the concept. All flesh is related. All human beings are garbed in the same suit of flesh. Flesh, the soft tissue--not skin, not bones. Below the externals; above the rigid framework: Flesh. Not implying corruption. Not defined as the antithesis of "Spirit" but flesh. The only way we can live in the world. Enfleshed. Incarnate. Share your food. House the homeless. Clothe those who are in tatters. And understand that all human beings are your own kin. Oh. Well. Maybe this is more than I was looking for. Maybe the vastness of the panorama of fasting and penitence is more daunting than exhilarating. Or maybe not. The demands of The Most High thunder onto shore like the majestic rolling surf. And as they recede we find ourselves not only chastened, but awed and replenished. The sparkling sand at our feet shimmers with the promise, "The Holy One will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in." Fast and pray, dear people. Fast and pray. ~ Mary Susan |
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