God Wants Activists Who Fast

Acknowledging God

Follow in My Ways

Keep My Statutes and Ordinances

Isaiah 58:6-12 The Message

6-9 “This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
    to break the chains of injustice,
    get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
    free the oppressed,
    cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
    sharing your food with the hungry,
    inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
    putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
    being available to your own families.
Do this, and the lights will turn on,
    and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
    The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
    You’ll call out for help, and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places

9-12 “If you get rid of unfair practices,
    quit blaming victims,
    quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
    and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
    your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
    I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
    firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
    a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
    rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
    restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
    make the community livable again.

For Reflection

Have we learned so little that this passage is as pertinent today as it was to the Hebrews thousands of years ago?  We are still as plagued by our lack of visions for compassionate societies.  We still fear the impact of justice and grace and support those whose solutions to world relational problems are the centralization and abuses of power and position.  We still operate on the basis of fear.  Christians become complicit in the injustices when we remain silent.

It is not enough to scream and yell and stamp our feet or carry placards into the street.  A life in Christ calls us to bear the burdens of the cloaks we wear.  If we want a just society, we perform justice. If we want a compassionate community, we perform compassionate action.  Where there is darkness, shine a light. Where there are shadowed lives, bring sunlight. 

Pray

Pray for compassion and God will provide opportunities to be compassionate.  Pray for justice, and God will ask you to be a stumbling block for injustice.  Ask for forgiveness and God will ask you forgive.  Pray for peace, and God will ask you to become a peace-maker. Call on God to help, and God will help you make communities livable.

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