There comes a moment in our lives when
we all realize that we are all carrying around way too much extra baggage and
we need to let it go. The baggage may look different for each of us, and it may
be easier for some of us to hide than others, but at the end of the day, we all
have it. Maybe for some, there is a relationship that doesn’t serve you anymore
and you need to remove that baggage from your life so that you can walk a
little lighter. Maybe you have been hanging on to anger or resentment over something
that a loved one said or did to you, and while it may feel good to hang on to
that righteous indignation, all it does is add weight to your load. Maybe the
thing that needs to be removed from your life is an addiction, a fear of change
or some other fear that is holding you back, or something that is causing
damage to you or others around you without you even knowing it. And we must
also recognize that while all of us carry around a lot of our own baggage,
there are also times when other
people lay baggage on us that we didn’t even want. Baggage that has nothing to
do with us but yet we still carry it around as if it were our own and we become
oppressed by it.
We have gathered tonight to celebrate
Ash Wednesday- a time where we come face to face with our humanity, with our
flesh, with what it means to be human, have a body and acknowledge that that
body is not going to last forever. We acknowledge our brokenness and our sins
and our need for God to take them away from us. Psalm 51 which we read tonight
is a psalm of confession- blot out my iniquities, create in me a clean heart.
Take out the heart that is broken and replace it with a clean spirit. Cleanse
me of my sin. Image after image of our need for God to intervene in our lives
and remove the burden that sin creates.
Last night we celebrated what the
church calls Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras- where we focus on abundance before a
time of scarcity. Last night we feasted to get ready for what we are going to
do tonight. Traditionally, Shrove Tuesday was about more than just feasting on
delicious food, it also encompassed a time of confession. The word shrove or
shrive actually means to confess your sins. And so the days leading up to Ash
Wednesday were traditionally a time of confession; a time to be absolved of
your sins and unburden your soul before you begin a period of self-reflection
and spiritual deepening. It is a time to let go baggage so that you can walk
through at least the next 40 days a little lighter.
What is so interesting is that the root
of the word carnival, which is this period that leads up to the start of Lent,
actually comes from two Latin words- carnis, which means “meat” and levare
for "removal." So it makes sense then that many Catholics give up or
remove meat from their diets throughout the season of Lent. And while as
Methodists we don’t typically follow this practice, we do give up other things.
But as I have been reflecting over this season of carnival and Ash Wednesday
and Lent, I am beginning to wonder if perhaps removing flesh, fasting, has less
to do with becoming a vegetarian for 40 days, and more to do with this practice
of letting go, removing from our
flesh, the baggage that we so often carry with us. Taking off the weight of all
those things that hold us down and prevent us from experiencing life as God
intended it to be. For most of us when we think about confession, we think
about guilt, but really confession is about naming and letting go of anything
and everything that we don’t need or want in our lives anymore. Anything that
doesn’t serve God’s purposes for our lives or the life of the world.
So fasting, then, essentially becomes
about letting go and removing from our flesh, the baggage that weighs us down
and prevents us from experiencing full life in God. What is the extra baggage,
the things that don’t bring you abundant life, that you need to let go of or
remove from your life in order to follow Jesus more closely? That is one part
of what it means to fast. But that’s not
the whole picture, because we also read tonight from the prophet Isaiah. And
the prophet has some harsh words for Israel. Just to give context- Isaiah is
speaking after Israel has returned from the Babylonian exile. They are allowed
to go back to their land and are trying to rebuild everything that has been
lost. And so as they go through this process of rebuilding they are also going
through the motions of all these religious rituals that they think make God
happy, so that God will bless them and guide them in this process of rebuilding.
And the thing about going through the
motions is that while you may look good to those around you, and you may feel
pretty good about yourself, you will never be able to fool God. God will always
see right through it. So God sends Isaiah to say this to Israel,
Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
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?
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?”
That is not the pat on the back the
Israelites were expecting to hear. Because instead of telling them, “good job”,
God is essentially redefining their understanding of what a fast is. Removing
the yoke, removing injustice and oppression from the flesh- Fasting is so much
more than just giving up a certain food. It is about so much more than denying
ourselves the pleasures of life to create self discipline. Now, that can
certainly be part of a fast if those things that you are giving up are keeping you
from following Jesus and if giving them up helps you to embrace a fuller life
in Christ. But Isaiah reminds us that fasting is ultimately about so much more.
It is about loosening the bonds that keep all of God’s children held down and
undoing the ties keep us from being free; taking the yokes, the baggage, off
our backs.
And while we typically look at fasting
as an individual endeavor, here God is saying this is about so much more- its
about community. It’s not just about removing and letting go of baggage in
weighs us down. Here Isaiah says that a fast that is pleasing to the Lord means
removing that which weighs down other people’s flesh as well. All flesh. Remove
the bonds of injustice and oppression. Literally untie and take off the
bandages that have tied up people’s bodies for so long. That is the fast, the
removing from the flesh, that God desires and longs for.
I will be honest and say that there
have been many years I have tried to go through the motions of a fast by giving
up something like sweets or chocolate for Lent, when really I was trying to
serve my own purposes of losing a few pounds before Easter. And ultimately I
know that the point of my fast is not pleasing God by losing 5 pounds because I
know that God’s primary concern is not what I look like. But I do know that God
is deeply concerned about the full life of all of God’s children. And I know
that God cares about protecting and defending the most vulnerable. I also know
that if we’re going to talk about chocolate, West Africa is home to 2/3 of the world’s cacao beans (cocoa), the main ingredient in
chocolate—a product that fuels a $90 billion a year industry. And in
between the years of 2009 and 2014 the number of children working in the cocoa
industry has increased 51%, even after many of the worlds leading chocolate
producers, companies that we all know and love, promised to self regulate and
end child slavery in their businesses by 2015. These children working for these
cocoa producers range from ages 11-16, many trapped in isolated farms where
they would work 80 to 100 hours a week.
“To let the
oppressed go free and to break every yoke.”
So maybe then, fasting is not just
about giving up something for the extra benefit of aesthetic purposes, maybe
fasting has more to do with researching where the things that I use and enjoy
in my day-to-day life come from- my coffee, my chocolate, my clothes, so that I
can support those businesses that have ethical practices and are not contributing
to the oppression and endangerment of the most vulnerable among us. So that in
some way shape or form I as an individual and we as a community can help remove
the yokes, the injustices that have been oppressing God’s children for so long.
Because if you know anything about a
yoke, it isn’t worn alone. It is actually what ties two cows together. So it’s
really interesting that this is the language that Isaiah uses with the
Israelites. He goes on to say in verse 9- “If you remove the yoke from
among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 10if
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.”
Friends we are all in this together. We belong to each other, literally yoked
together, tied together. And yes, we are even yoked to people on the other side
of the world whom we have never met. What ties us together is our common
humanity, the fact that we are all children of God that God created out of dust
and called good and desires freedom and full life for all of us. And we will
not be able to fully let go of our baggage, take that weight off of our flesh,
and live into life as God intended it to be until we take off not only the part
of the yoke that’s on us, but help take it off from our neighbors as well.
Then, as Isaiah says, ancient ruins will be rebuilt and streets will be
restored, we will be fully healed. Then the kingdom will become a little more
present among us.
What is the yoke, the baggage that God is calling you to
take off and let go of in your own life? And where might we begin to look for
the yokes that are weighing down our brothers and sisters all over the world
and use our voice or our money or our power to in some way shape or form untie
the ties that are keeping those yokes weighing down on them?
“Come to me, all you that are weary and
are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you,
and learn from me.”
This isn’t something that we can do by ourselves.
It is only through the grace of God and by the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus
issues us an invitation to let him place his yoke on our shoulders, because
that yoke is one that brings freedom and life. But in order to do that, the
oppressive yoke must be removed, all the baggage that doesn’t serve us anymore
and that prevents us from experiencing abundant life. And it can’t just be removed
from our flesh, we must take it off of our neighbors’ too. Because we belong to
one another and we belong to God. This is the kind of fast that is acceptable
to God. This is what God longs for and desires for each and every one of us.
This is what will allow all of us to truly embrace what it means to be fully
human.
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