“What are you giving up for Lent”? That is question many of us still hear starting the week or so before Ash Wednesday. The more theological articulation of that question might well be, “What are you fasting from this year for Lent”? It is a natural question, as fasting is one of the classic Lenten disciplines, and a spiritual practice found in a wide variety of religious traditions around the world. Fasting usually refers to giving up food or drink in some form, but one can also fast from other practices—taking a break from Facebook for Lent, for example, is a fairly common Christian practice in the United States.
This familiar interpretation of Lenten fasting makes this passage from Isaiah all the more remarkable, as it turns fasting on its head—describing this practice not so much as a giving up but as a taking on: taking on the responsibility for challenging injustice and taking on the needs of the neighbor and the stranger as one’s own. In his commentary on Isaiah, Walter Brueggemann names this interpretation of fasting “neighborly affirmation,” and he argues that Isaiah here is presenting ‘fasting’ as denying self-indulgence for the sake of those in need. Brueggemann argues that Isaiah calls us to turn from our self-absorption “in order to assert that we are ‘members one of another’.”
The point in these verses, then, is that we cannot worship God without serving our neighbor; the turn to God inherently contains within it a call to turn to the one in need as well. This call, however, is not a word of law but gospel—it is a gift and a privilege, something made possible for us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the conforming of our life to Christ’s, to which we are joined in baptism. It turns out that service and love are markers of Lent as well as fasting and prayer; our life with God is not lived in isolation, but only in life together with each other.
The Rev. Kristin Johnston Largen, PhD
President
Wartburg Theological Seminary