Creating Space for God: Fasting and Slowing
Scripture Passages: Isaiah 58:1-9a, Matthew 6:16-18

Slide 1

A. Beautiful Messy Relationships
B. Creating Space for God
1. Silence and Solitude
2. Fasting and Slowing

Slide 2

Giving something up or adding a discipline?

Slide 3

As common as prayer and giving to Jesus
16 “When you fast..."

Slide 4

Part of the Lent awareness
“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.

Slide 5

What is the sin here?
2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
...They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.

Slide 6

The danger of being a good religious person
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’

Slide 7

Jesus' concern: appearances
16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full

Slide 8

Internal vs External
17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Slide 9

Fasting, feelings, and fighting
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists

Slide 10

Not a long fast, a deep one
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?

Slide 11

"To the least of these...to me"
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 them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Slide 12

Results: healing and hearing
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear;
...9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

Slide 13

So how does this work?
1. Start small: 24 hr partial
2. Move to total (only water)
3. Consider repeating and lengthening

Slide 14

What to expect
1. Surprisingly easy
2. Hangriness
3. Growth from "I did it" to "reflection" to "feasting"

March 13, 2022 - Creating Space for God - Fasting and Slowing