Going Beyond Giving Up
Ash Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Homily delivered at Hands On Hartford Ash Wednesday Breakfast
by Pastor Terry Davis, First Presbyterian Church, Hartford, CT
Matthew 12:43 - 45 43“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. 44Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.”
Lent of course begins today and when the average Christian thinks of lent we tend to think about what we will give up for Lent. Some Churches have carefully defined rules about Lenten fasting, but the trend is much more toward leaving it to the believer to search her or his own heart and to make some sort of sacrifice as a spiritual discipline.
The more I come into contact with our Muslim brothers and sisters the more I am impressed that they take the matter of fasting much more seriously than we Christians do. During the month or Ramadan they fast every day from any food or drink during the hours between sun up and sun down. I assure you that during this kind of fasting they become keenly aware of what hunger really is. They claim this is a spiritual discipline and that it brings them into solidarity with the poor and needy of the world who know hunger on a daily basis. Some members of our community will also engage in significant fasting by living for days, or weeks or even a whole month on a food stamp budget of $4.00 a day for food.
But the rest of us do well to decide what we will give up for Lent. One person says they are going to give up red meat for some or all of Lent’s 40 days, another will give up chocolate or perhaps even give up sweets altogether, some people will try to give up smoking or give up using beverage alcohol during lent. Many of us who have good intentions at the beginning of lent find that our resolve has weakened long before Easter arrives, just as happens with our new year’s resolutions.
I suggested in my Lenten pastor’s column that if we took seriously the Isaiah passage we read for our call to worship we would not be fasting from food or drink, but we would give up narrow mindedness and prejudice; we would give up looking down on other people who are different from us; we would give up every jealousy and hatred. I asked our members and I ask you now to suppose we were to give up complaining and criticizing and instead resolve to do an act of kindness each day. Just think if we did 40 new acts of kindness, it might become habitual!
I believe my sisters and brothers in Christ that if we are really gong to grow in our faith during this Lenten season we need to go beyond giving up anything and instead begin to develop some new habits of faith.
If our Lenten discipline is only about “giving up” then we may end up like the soul from whom the unclean spirit was cast out. This person failed to bring anything new into the heart and as a result the unclean spirit moved back into the empty house along with seven others and the last state was worse than the former. I believe this a part of the reason that Alcoholics Anonymous and similar 12 step programs work. The AA member does not only try to evict drinking from his or her life, but puts something new and positive in its place. Going to meetings and drinking coffee takes the place of going to the bar and drinking. Instead of a drinking buddy you now have a sponsor. Self destructive behavior is replaced by working the program.
Giving up food is not enough; we need to share our food with the poor and needy. Giving up indifference to others as well as hatred and prejudice is not enough, we need to replace indifference, hatred and prejudice with love and empathy and kindness.
We need to give up complaining about how bad our Church is how bad our schools are, how bad the economy is and instead rolls up our sleeves and work for the coming of that kingdom where justice rolls down like waters and righteousness flows like an ever rolling stream. We need to be willing to go into failing schools and be willing to mentor our community’s children. We need to work tirelessly to change the failed policies of division and to work for reconciliation among people and nations, beginning in our own neighborhoods and communities.
Let us move beyond “giving up” and instead in this Lenten season to consider what new habits and disciplines we will cultivate that will bring us into a new relationship with our neighbors and with our God. When we do this then our light shall rise in the darkness and our gloom be like the noonday.
When we dedicate ourselves to rebuilding community and rebuilding lives in our city then our ruins shall be rebuilt; and this community in Christ shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.
6 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?
7 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?
8 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.
9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
10 if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.
12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.