“Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.“ Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? 

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?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator 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 for help, and he will say, Here I am. “

-Isaiah 58:1-9

We know how to do church and we do it well. We come to church most Sundays, we worship God, we praise Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, we sing worship songs, we give when the offering plate is passed, and we fast during Lent. We pray and study Scripture, and we each practice regular spiritual disciplines allowing us each to connect with God. While the practices are good and right, and they position us to receive God’s holy transformative gift of grace in increasing measure, if we stop there we will not experience the fullness of God’s glory available to us. God calls us to allow Him to transform our spirits and souls so that we are able to go out into the world as His servants shining His light on the darkness we encounter.

Isaiah spoke to a congregation that did church well, but stopped progressing along the path towards God with doing church. They longed to know God; they went to church worshiping Him; they humbled themselves before God; they fasted; and they presented themselves as righteous people; yet they continued to feel a distance between themselves and God. They sensed that God was not pleased with their worship; they failed to experience the fullness of God’s blessing on their lives; and they wondered why.

God encouraged them and encourages us to view our lives through holistic lenses. He desires relationship with us and He also desires that we join our brothers and sisters in the wholeness of true relationship. While the Israelites worshiped God, they failed in their relationships with other people – they allowed injustice to continue oppressing people around them; they failed to share their excess food with hungry people; they failed to share their excess space with people in need of shelter; they failed to love their neighbors in need through tangible action.

He connects the word “fast” with a call to eliminate injustice in the world. I normally think of fasting as an inwardly focused endeavor undertaken to enhance my connection with God. I think of it as something exclusively between God and me. The passage above encourages us to see that acting in the world to end injustice and to help people in need are also forms of fasting. In fact, according to the passage, it is the form of fasting God desires.

I recently read Martin Luther King Jr.’s book Why We Can’t Wait in which he details the thoughts and strategies behind the Birmingham boycotts that took place during the summer of 1963. He discussed the “black church” and the “white church” as two separate entities. According to King, most white Christians in Alabama saw that their black brothers and sisters lived in poorer circumstances with fewer opportunities for advancement and fewer freedoms than they had; yet they were oblivious to the horrors inherent in the situation and the need for change. The scene they saw had become normal. They were unable to see the situation as an opportunity to act, so they failed to act. They did not help; they did not speak up; they sat back in silence.

I wonder what events swirl around me that I fail to see? What opportunities to be an agent of change in the world am I failing to act upon? Who am I failing to help? What injustice is standing, hidden in plane view because I am too oblivious to see it for what it is?

We are called to seek first God. We are called to allow His holy grace to transform our spirits and souls.  We are called to practice spiritual disciplines regularly. And we are called to act in the world as His salt and light. We are called to help people in need and “to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.”

May God fill us with His holy discerning spirit. May God enlighten our eyes to see the injustice around us, may He open our minds to see the avenues available for us to help, may He fill us with His power, courage and strength that we might act as His people making a difference in the world.