At last evening's Ash Wednesday service, the scripture lesson, Isaiah 58:1-12, struck me in a new way. Yes, fasting has been a Lenten practice since the beginning, inherited from our Hebrew forbears. But there is fasting . . . and there is fasting.
What struck me as I pondered the scripture reading -- and I agree wholeheartedly that Holy Scripture is indeed a window into the heart, mind, and intentions of God, so there! -- was the body-language in the text, which it links deeply to our activity as a people of God. As I said in yesterday's post, Lent is a time which hopes to form us corporately and individually as a people of God. And, as Christians who follow Jesus Christ, we have been baptized into the "body of Christ." So "body-language" is most pertinent here. By "body of Christ," Paul understands the community of disciples committed to the Way of Christ to be the living embodiment of Christ, animated by the Spirit of the Risen Lord. Paul sees "Jesus, and him crucified" as living now through the Spirit-enabled ministry of the members of the community of faith -- the Church. "Body of Christ," then, is not a badge of honor, so much as it is a way of acting in the world. Our activities embody Christ. We are the living continuance of his ministry.
How does this connect to the aforementioned "body-language"? Isaiah was doing nothing so much as declaring a new "Body-language." Notice the various physical actions: "Shout" (v. 1), "fast" (all over the place -- stay tuned), "quarrel," "strike with a wicked fist" (v. 4), "bow down the head," "lie in sackcloth and ashes" (v. 5), "pointing of the finger," "speaking of evil" (v. 9). That's what God/Isaiah says we human-types do already. But notice, now, how God through Isaiah starts to get meddlesome: "loose the bonds of injustice," "undo the thongs of the yoke," "break every yoke" (v. 6). And then God/Isaiah cuts loose and gets downright personal: "share your bread with the hungry," "bring the homeless poor into [gasp!] your house," cover the naked, not hide from responsibilities toward family members (v. 7), "offer food to the hungry," "satisfy the needs of the afflicted" (v. 10). Only if we do this Revised Version Fasting will our "call" be answered, our "cry for help" be answered by God: "Here I am" (v. 9).
All of these actions are acts of bodies. And God is summoning us not simply to the traditional ways of fasting, you know, bowing down, doing the sackcloth and ashes thing, and so on. No, God is asking -- commanding! -- the body of believers to offer their bodies in service to those whose bodies have been ravaged. Body ministers to body to bring the blessings of God. One human body takes responsibility for another human body.
Notice how unimpressed God seems to be with the traditional forms of spiritual athletes. "You just disguise your contempt for each other, and for Me, by showing off," is the essence of the message. "Spiritual exercises" build "body-mass" (no pun intended) (okay, maybe just a little), not by focusing inward, but specifically by focusing outward, toward others in need. In fact, one might justifiably ask, "just who is really in need here? The excluded folks (homeless poor, hungry, naked, needy) -- or the excluding folks?
Fasting: denying something for the sake of focusing on God, removing the distractions, ignoring the pains of "withdrawal" whilst experiencing a gathering clarity. And just what is God/Isaiah saying that we should deny here, in this newfangled method of fasting? We deny not some but something, but someone: our own imperious selves. Not in order to demean ourselves, reduce ourselves, eliminate ourselves, destroy the person called "me." But rather to enlarge the entire person by including other people who have been excluded into the circle of "me-ness." By "enlarging the body" through bodily actions. Specific, caring, bodily actions that address individual and social needs.
The New Revised Version of fasting creates a new anatomical reality, for individuals, as well as communal bodies. By swapping a "me" totally wrapped up in "myself and I," for a "we" that is radically inclusive of others at the utmost depths, in the broadest social sense, we offer our bodies to our God. As Christians stumbling our Lenten journey along Christ's Way, we might just discover a new way of being. Together.
Who knew that God was in the "body-shaping" business, sculpting a buff new "body of Christ"?
Pushing the limits of viewing the body of Christ as a literal description of the church intrigues me. Our body is made up of cells that we believe to be unconscious, that unwittingly produce our physical bodies, and, in the case of brain cells, perhaps our counsciousness. Likewise, we are organisms that literally make up the church. Perhaps Lent is like a detox regiment that should remove impediments to a healthy church. Each organ functions in a more healthy way when we remove inhibiting chemicals from them, but the real benefit of the detox is not to the organs, but the organisms. Hence, perhaps Lent is about the Body not the bodies.
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