TRUE FAST FOR A SACRED MOMENT (Scott Todd) Imagine a young couple in the labor and delivery room experiencing the birth of their first child. Hear her groans, see the sweat, and feel the anxious tension. Now place a bag of potato chips in the husband’s hands and picture him munching away as he watches his wife give birth. As if it were on TV. It’s just wrong! Or picture a man standing in the baptismal with his pastor. He’s wearing a white robe and preparing to confess Jesus as Lord of his life as he publicly identifies with the death, burial, and resurrection of his Lord in baptism. Then, out from the folds of his robe, he brings forth the bag of chips and starts munching. Never! “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” “Her mother and I.” Munch, munch. These are sacred moments. And in sacred moments, we do not eat. It seems wrong to eat. We don’t think about not eating in the moment - it simply feels unnatural and unthinkable. Scott McKnight defines fasting as the “natural response of a person to a grievous sacred moment. McKnight emphasizes that fasting is a natural response. Like not eating during your wedding vows because the moment is too sacred. Like not eating as you look into the casket at a funeral because the moment is too grievous. McKnight emphasizes that fasting is a response to a very serious situation, not a device to take us from a good level to a better level. Did you get that? Fasting isn’t an instrument to get God to hear our prayers or to help us master a primordial impulse or to accomplish anything. It’s something you do when circumstances are bad enough that you don’t want to eat, and it would seem wrong to do so. Or when circumstances are incredible enough that you don’t even think about food. Our bodies also respond to tragic moments by natural, nearly unstoppable expressions of sorrow. The body responds instinctively, almost uncontrollably, in grievous moments. Whether it is as profound as the death of a sister or as trivial as winning a football game, when we feel a major experience deep in the gut, our bodies will be compelled to respond. McKnight writes, “Sometimes we yearn so much for what we know God wants for this world, and sometimes we become so depressed over what our world is like in light of what God wants for us, that we are compelled to fast.” We’re living in a grievous, sacred moment. Grievous because almost eighteen-thousand children continue to die every day from preventable causes. Grievous because we give far less than 1 percent of our personal incomes to anti-poverty work. Grievous because our nation allocates only 0.17 percent of its budget to help the poor, although the average American thinks we give 20 percent. Grievous because our churches spend 96 percent of their offerings on themselves, to pay for the facilities, staffing, and production costs of our weekly experiences. Of the 4 percent that does go beyond the church walls, only a small fraction goes to anti-poverty work. Meanwhile, the Goliath of extreme poverty is defying the army of God and slaying the innocent in the valley. Eighteen-thousand every day. It feels as though we are munching potato chips while staring into the casket. Yet this moment is also sacred. As we’ve shown, extreme poverty has already been cut in half. Preventable child death has been cut in half. We are witnessing a groundswell of new intentions and expectations among God’s people. We have been defeated twenty-nine times in a row, but we are ready to boldly declare that today, in our generation, one dynasty ends, and a new one is born. It is a sacred moment because our generation has the unprecedented and history-making opportunity to eradicate extreme poverty from earth. This is our moment. And if we feel the trembling possibilities of this moment, we won’t even be able to think of munching down the chips. When we feel in our guts what God feels when hungry children die while those who claim His name spend millions on worship centers, we will physically respond. An instinctive, nearly unstoppable action. A response driven from our alignment with God’s heart. We will be compelled to drill water wells in Africa, fight government corruption, and ensure that children don’t go hungry. Have a blessed Friday everyone..
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 01:43:06 +0000
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