Friday February 20

Scripture: Isaiah 58:1-9

“Lent is a time for us to share our bounty with the poor, to pray, and to fast.”

Today as we approach the first Sunday of Lent, we are reminded that we are to find ourselves to be transformed and not conformed to the world.  I find that for me it means that I am called to share with those who are the least, the lost, and the lonely.  To find ways of sharing not just my treasure, but also my talents and time.  Rather than just sacrificing, I need to do more in my life.  Fasting means not just refraining from meals but also how I choose to spend my time.

Fasting according to Isaiah is

6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

Indeed that is what I believe about fasting.  Jesus in Matthew 25 spoke of the same concerns that when we do it for the least of them we do it for him.  Lent is about remembering the grace and mercy God has shown us and to reach out to others.