Friday, 6th September 2020

Collect

Holy God, in love you gave your only – begotten Son to save the world; empower us to follow the example of his obedience that we will take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever . Amen.

Eucharist Readings:

1 Corinthians 4:1-5                  Psalm 37:1-11                 Luke 5:33-39

Luke’s gospel differs from the other three in that while they are each independent, self-contained writings about the life of Jesus, Luke is part of a two-volume work which deals with the beginnings of Christianity. Luke’s writing has four main characteristics namely: That he had fine literally gifts, and he used them to tell his story, he was more conscious of being a historian than the other evangelists, he wanted to show the theological significance of what had  happened and he had a pastoral concern for the needs of his readers.

The Pharisees required fasting twice a week, they systemized their religious observances and they fasted on Mondays and Thursdays. The Pharisees and scribes were shocked about the normality of the followers of Jesus. What is the definition or meaning of fasting? According to several dictionaries the definition is as follows: ‘To deprive or abstain from all kinds of food or drink for either religious observance or medical reasons’. Fasting biblically means an experienced discipline in both the Old Testament and New Testament eras to truly humble oneself in the sight of God. It enables the Holy Spirit to reveal your true spiritual conditions resulting in brokenness, repentance and a transformed life.

Jesus was opposed to religion by rule and therefore used the example of two people getting married in Palestine and for the week they would stay at home and kept their house open, they would dress in  their best and for that week their word was law. They would never have a week like that in their lives again and the favoured guests who shared the festive week were called the children of the bride chamber. It is significant that more than once Jesus likened the Christian life to a wedding feast and that joy is a primary Christian characteristic and sometimes people think of Christianity as something which compels them to do all the things they do not want to do and hinders them from doing all the things they do want to do. Our time of fasting should be a joy for us because it is their where we find our true selves, become still within and have the opportunity to listen to God, find our brokenness, where we repent and become transformed, Rend your hearts and not your garments , return to the Lord your God ;for He is gracious and merciful,  slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love . It should not be a religious ritual for us, but it should become part of us, part of our lives. Jesus knew that there would come a day when the bridegroom would be taken away and ahead, he saw the cross but even on the way to the cross he knew the joy that no one can take away.

The parable from verse 36-39 shows us that in people there is a kind of passion for the old and that the trouble with the Pharisees was that the whole religious outlook of Jesus was so upsettingly new they simply could not adjust to it. They were challenged. Maybe we are also challenged, because we also have our passion for the old, but the challenges  of a pandemic requires from us to do church differently , with all the protocols we need to adhere to, not having in person worship we had to adjust and familiarized ourselves with having church through live streaming, recordings, etc. and who knows maybe more adjustments would be needed, it does not mean that we are getting rid of  the old but we are required to be creative, innovative and transformative and be open for new ideas. Sometimes our minds are a bit shut for new ideas, but Jesus is pleading with us that we should not reject new ideas.

Maybe the pandemic gave us the opportunity for our fasting, maybe our in-person worship became just a ritual for us.