Deuteronomy 8:1-10
Be careful to observe this whole commandmentthat I enjoin on you today, that you may live and increase, and may enter in and possess the land which the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors.Remember how for these forty years the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the wilderness,so as to test you by affliction, to know what was in your heart: to keep his commandments, or not.He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna,a food unknown to you and your ancestors, so you might know that it is not by bread alone that people live, but by all that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.The clothing did not fall from you in tatters, nor did your feet swell these forty years.So you must know in your heart that, even as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD, your God, disciplines you.Therefore, keep the commandments of the LORD, your God, by walking in his ways and fearing him. For the LORD, your God, is bringing you into a good country, a land with streams of water, with springs and fountains welling up in the hills and valleys,a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, of olive trees and of honey,a land where you will always have bread and where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones contain iron and in whose hills you can mine copper.But when you have eaten and are satisfied, you must bless the LORD, your God, for the good land he has given you.
Mark 2:18-22
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.People came to him and objected, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests fast* while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
“Fasting”
We have two contrasting readings this evening that circle around the notion of fasting. Fasting was in the Old Testament not a way of distancing oneself from the world but rather of repenting, literally turning around to set one’s face toward God and returning to God. In the second reading for this evening we meet Jesus and his disciples being confronted over the whole idea of fasting. It seems that Jesus wasn’t doing it right, at least in the thoughts of the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist who have questioned Jesus about how he and his disciples fast. There was an ancient pattern of fasting (repenting) on the Day of Atonement. The practice of fasting grew in time, so that by the seventh century fasting was being promoted at last four times a year. By the time of the Pharisees, fasting was done twice weekly. It was hoped by fasting, the return of the Messiah would come. The Kingdom of God would be renewed.
Jesus reminds his accusers that one does not fast while the Bridegroom is present. Indeed, in ancient Israel fasting was actually a time for celebration. Jesus thinks that rather than hoping for the coming of the Kingdom, fasting should celebrate the presence of the Kingdom now, the actually of God-with-us. In the midst of renewal, old ways may not be effective. So, are we thwarting the kingdom by encouraging fasting in Lent?
Perhaps the Deuteronomist can help us set a platform from which we can apprehend Jesus’ vision of fasting and discipline. The writer, looking back at the history and journey of the people of Israel, seeks to remind them of a tremendous gift that was given them. “For the LORD, your God, is bringing you into a good country, a land with streams of water, with springs and fountains welling up in the hills and valleys,a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, of olive trees and of honey,a land where you will always have bread and where you will lack nothing,” Like Israel we live in a land of plenty, and like Israel, we are bidden to give thanks to God for the creation of such a gift of abundance. In the face of such a gift we may be called to give up some of the plenty that has first been given us. As the Deuteronomist says, “But when you have eaten and are satisfied, you must bless the LORD, your God, for the good land he has given you.”Perhaps fasting is the passage to almsgiving – a way to share the wealth God has blessed us with. We get the gift of discipline and other get the gifts of the earth. Can you see the Kingdom of God in that?
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