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jenny_islanderToday's post in this series is about the difference between a spiritual discipline and a commandment. Specifically it's about fasting.
There aren't a lot of commandments, and every Christian knows what they all boil down to: Be excellent to one another, and get over yourselves. (Simplified paraphrase of Matthew 22:37-39 et al.) But the working out of those two commandments can take an entire lifetime and then some. As Jesus observed: "All the Law and the Prophets [that is, most of the books of Holy Scripture] hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:40)
Modern American Christians can start from that point and get ourselves all tangled up in one question: Is [insert topic of debate here] Biblical? We can endlessly dice and remix various verses of Scripture, attempting to find "Biblical support" for whatever it is we are arguing about. But the danger of this kind of thinking is that we can want so much to be right that we commit offenses against reason. All sorts of things aren't Biblical unless you turn your head and squint and stretch analogies until they sag into nonsense. I am looking out of my window at any number of things that aren't Biblical, starting with the enormous expanse of water-clear glass that I am looking through.
It's much more difficult to begin instead with the Two Greatest Commandments and ask, "Does this fulfill or deny either or both of them?" Sometimes the answer is, "It depends." Sometimes it's "You should go and pray about that." Sometimes it's simply, "Do what you think best, and meet the consequences as they may occur."
Foster examines this question from the perspective of a theologian, so he begins instead with a brief survey of classic works on the subject of fasting as a commandment. His argument is too pithy to summarize, so instead of doing so I will repeat his observation that Jesus did not command anyone to fast but assumed that people would in fact do so. Remember that Christian spiritual disciplines are not unique to Christianity nor to Abrahamic religions. People have always longed to "go deeper," as Foster puts it.
Foster also observes that (at the time of his writing) it's easier to get people to give money than it is to get them to fast. "Perhaps in our affluent society," he says, "fasting involves a far larger sacrifice than the giving of money." Maybe that's it. Maybe it's the American Protestant ingrained distaste for anything that seems too Catholic. It's a question too large for me to resolve in the time I have.
Anyway, fasting may be a worldwide discipline, but fasting as Christians practice it must be done for the right purpose. (Many pixels have been sent forth on the topic of Christians obsessing over thoughtcrime. I concede that there is something to that assertion--but it is also true that your focus determines your reality.)
One wrong reason is the focus of Jesus' earliest recorded teaching on fasting. "When you fast, don't put on a gloomy expression and make yourself look a mess so that other people will notice. People who do that get what they want--they get noticed by other people. But if you groom yourself properly and don't let anybody know that you are fasting, God will notice. And that is a better reward." (Matthew 6:16-18, paraphrased by me from the Mounce Reverse Interlinear translation.)
Neither should we fast because it's socially expected, much less because it's easier than getting off our butts and helping people who need help. Consider the words of Zechariah. The descendants of those who had been taken away by a conquering empire had been allowed to return to Israel. During the generations of exile, they had developed a custom of annual fasting to mourn the destruction of the Temple. Now that they were home, should they keep the custom? Representatives went to ask the clergy in Jerusalem and those who were known to be prophets. And the Lord said through Zechariah that the annual fast had not been an act of worship, but a personal matter. So they were asking the wrong question. The Lord went on to say, "Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion to each other; and do not oppress or exploit the widow or the fatherless, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise or even imagine evil in your hearts against one another." (Zechariah 7:9, Amplified Bible.)
So what is fasting for? Foster notes the frequency with which fasting is mentioned in the same Scripture passage as prayer or worship. Fasting is, as I posted previously, a way to withdraw our focus from one part of the entire real world so that we can pay more attention to another part.
Fasting, Foster says, can also reveal us to ourselves. It's true that anybody can become negative and dwell on disgraceful thoughts when they are hungry. But if the same emotions and thoughts occur to you whenever you are hungry, it may be a sign of something you should not be ignoring--something that's easier to ignore when you are comfortable. And with God's help you can tackle it.
The focus of fasting, however, should always be outward. Once Jesus was resting from a long walk and teaching by a well. His disciples showed up and said, "You should eat something." But Jesus replied, "I already have food," and explained that at that time the nourishment of doing God's will was enough. (John 4) And so it is if you are fasting in the right way.
The nuts and bolts of fasting as a spiritual discipline are the subject of the next post.
There aren't a lot of commandments, and every Christian knows what they all boil down to: Be excellent to one another, and get over yourselves. (Simplified paraphrase of Matthew 22:37-39 et al.) But the working out of those two commandments can take an entire lifetime and then some. As Jesus observed: "All the Law and the Prophets [that is, most of the books of Holy Scripture] hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:40)
Modern American Christians can start from that point and get ourselves all tangled up in one question: Is [insert topic of debate here] Biblical? We can endlessly dice and remix various verses of Scripture, attempting to find "Biblical support" for whatever it is we are arguing about. But the danger of this kind of thinking is that we can want so much to be right that we commit offenses against reason. All sorts of things aren't Biblical unless you turn your head and squint and stretch analogies until they sag into nonsense. I am looking out of my window at any number of things that aren't Biblical, starting with the enormous expanse of water-clear glass that I am looking through.
It's much more difficult to begin instead with the Two Greatest Commandments and ask, "Does this fulfill or deny either or both of them?" Sometimes the answer is, "It depends." Sometimes it's "You should go and pray about that." Sometimes it's simply, "Do what you think best, and meet the consequences as they may occur."
Foster examines this question from the perspective of a theologian, so he begins instead with a brief survey of classic works on the subject of fasting as a commandment. His argument is too pithy to summarize, so instead of doing so I will repeat his observation that Jesus did not command anyone to fast but assumed that people would in fact do so. Remember that Christian spiritual disciplines are not unique to Christianity nor to Abrahamic religions. People have always longed to "go deeper," as Foster puts it.
Foster also observes that (at the time of his writing) it's easier to get people to give money than it is to get them to fast. "Perhaps in our affluent society," he says, "fasting involves a far larger sacrifice than the giving of money." Maybe that's it. Maybe it's the American Protestant ingrained distaste for anything that seems too Catholic. It's a question too large for me to resolve in the time I have.
Anyway, fasting may be a worldwide discipline, but fasting as Christians practice it must be done for the right purpose. (Many pixels have been sent forth on the topic of Christians obsessing over thoughtcrime. I concede that there is something to that assertion--but it is also true that your focus determines your reality.)
One wrong reason is the focus of Jesus' earliest recorded teaching on fasting. "When you fast, don't put on a gloomy expression and make yourself look a mess so that other people will notice. People who do that get what they want--they get noticed by other people. But if you groom yourself properly and don't let anybody know that you are fasting, God will notice. And that is a better reward." (Matthew 6:16-18, paraphrased by me from the Mounce Reverse Interlinear translation.)
Neither should we fast because it's socially expected, much less because it's easier than getting off our butts and helping people who need help. Consider the words of Zechariah. The descendants of those who had been taken away by a conquering empire had been allowed to return to Israel. During the generations of exile, they had developed a custom of annual fasting to mourn the destruction of the Temple. Now that they were home, should they keep the custom? Representatives went to ask the clergy in Jerusalem and those who were known to be prophets. And the Lord said through Zechariah that the annual fast had not been an act of worship, but a personal matter. So they were asking the wrong question. The Lord went on to say, "Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion to each other; and do not oppress or exploit the widow or the fatherless, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise or even imagine evil in your hearts against one another." (Zechariah 7:9, Amplified Bible.)
So what is fasting for? Foster notes the frequency with which fasting is mentioned in the same Scripture passage as prayer or worship. Fasting is, as I posted previously, a way to withdraw our focus from one part of the entire real world so that we can pay more attention to another part.
Fasting, Foster says, can also reveal us to ourselves. It's true that anybody can become negative and dwell on disgraceful thoughts when they are hungry. But if the same emotions and thoughts occur to you whenever you are hungry, it may be a sign of something you should not be ignoring--something that's easier to ignore when you are comfortable. And with God's help you can tackle it.
The focus of fasting, however, should always be outward. Once Jesus was resting from a long walk and teaching by a well. His disciples showed up and said, "You should eat something." But Jesus replied, "I already have food," and explained that at that time the nourishment of doing God's will was enough. (John 4) And so it is if you are fasting in the right way.
The nuts and bolts of fasting as a spiritual discipline are the subject of the next post.
