Fasting versus justice and mercy
In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men, to entreat the favor of the Lord, and to ask the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, "Should I mourn and practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?" Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: Say to all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink only for yourselves? Were not these the words that the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, along with the towns around it, and when the Negeb and the Shephelah were inhabited?
The word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear. They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. Just as, when I called, they would not hear, so, when they called, I would not hear, says the Lord of hosts, and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and a pleasant land was made desolate.
And today, again we are reminded of God concern for the widow, the orphan, the alien, and the poor. Or as Jesus would call them, "the least of these."
In Biblical times these groups of people were considered the least. They had unprotected status. Often these days they still do.
The questions Zechariah asks in the first paragraph for God - "When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink only for yourselves?" are ones that get to the heart I think of God's hope for relationship with us. When we follow the law, do we do it simply because God has told us to? Or do we do we participate in it as we do things that bring us joy - because it we feel compelled physically to do it?
As far as eating and drinking goes, during Lent, I admit that sometimes this has been where I've come from: I give up something because I think I should. But boy…when it is time to eat it again, I partake with my whole being!
God's after our whole being, and quite simply, being in relationship with God - through prayer, worship, service, and really, just plain old faith, is the way be begin to get a glimpse finally of who that whole person is.
Relationship is so important to God it includes even the least of these. We are reminded of that over and over again by the prophets, and then by Jesus himself. As we begin to see those who normally don't fall on our radar as part of the wholeness of God's plan for the world, we begin to feel whole ourselves. Our wholeness is expressed then not alone, but with others always. And those others might not be the ones we would naturally think of first.
Saving God, you want us to be whole. You want for us good and right relationships that both strengthen ourselves and strengthen your communities. Cleanse our hearts and open our eyes so that we can see those before us who you are calling us to help make whole. Amen.
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