Christian spirituality is best defined as a relationship with God the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Organized religion is the system you use to strengthen and uphold that relationship. A lot of people diss organized religion, though I can't figure out why. The opposite of organized religion is disorganized religion, which generally makes people think they're going somewhere spiritually - though for the most part they're not – in fact all they're getting is nice feelings and being reassured they're 'good' people.
The inner life of the Spirit is something to which everyone must make a serious commitment. You all know that in the area of outer religious life and inner spiritual experience I'm not a minimalist, I'm a maximalist. Every single person on this earth is supposed to make a total commitment to Christ and ALSO to growing in spiritual depth as well as serving others with compassion.
It's my role to urge everyone to continue moving forward in their spiritual lives, to never slacken the pace, and to never ever give up. In that sense, I guess, my job as a spiritual guide is to be like a Cheer Leader, or a Marine Drill Instructor - without the yelling and cussing.
Personally, I'm sort of glad when Lent comes. It's during the winter that I tend to go for the carbohydrates and sweet things. When it's hot and bright outside I am happy with vegetables, fruits, a bit of meat and dairy. But come winter.... So, it's good that Lent comes this time of year on more than one level. In midwinter I need some support when it comes to self-discipline, and that's an aspect of the usefulness of organized religion. Religion helps provide external context for inner development. Since the earliest times the Christian religious system has emphasized fasting.
In Matthew 9:14-15 we read, “Then John's disciples came and asked him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.”
Fasting is a spiritual practice which draws you closer to God. It isn't always about not eating, but rather, fasting is voluntarily abstaining from certain acts or activities and also taking on certain acts and activities. On Ash Wednesday, according to the practice of the Historic Church, we receive ashes on our foreheads as a Biblically recommended mark of humble repentance. But then you must wipe the ashes off as you leave church in order to avoid scandalizing others by pridefully displaying your humility and repentance, thereby losing the heavenly reward promised to the humble and penitent (as Jesus would put it ).
Then there's God telling us in Isaiah 58:6 "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?
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? 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.
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, 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.”
It's very, very important that no one think, even for a moment, that doing good somehow diminishes the absolute necessity of repentance and committing all your life to Christ. At the same time, repentance and commitment does not mean that you get a free pass from doing acts of justice and mercy.
A rather simplistic definition of fasting means reducing the amount of food you eat, and/or avoiding certain foods for specific time periods. Lent is a Church season of repentance and self-denial. It fits into the Christian religious system as crucially as Christmas and Easter are seasons of celebration. Part of the practice of denial of self is fasting from food -or foods- and also from specific activities, especially sin!
At Trinity Church we're really good at doing compassionate activities. We are one of Hospitality House's founding churches. At the last Hospitality House we had 16 volunteers serving and a total of 22 people who brought food. As a church body we also support the Emergency Action Coalition, the Nevada City Food Closet, the Kellermann Foundation, Bwindi Community Hospital, the Batwa Development Program, and the Pygmy Education Fund.
Gluttony is the opposite of fasting. I often hear people in social situations describe their past lunches and dinners (but seldom breakfasts, for some reason) in loving detail. Sometimes it's just a way of making small talk, of being communicative, making a personal connection. Sometimes, however, it's a disturbing indication of that person's life orientation. Gluttony isn't just overeating and drinking, or eating delicious and artistic culinary creations. Gluttony is eating just for pleasure, the pleasure of pleasing one's self physically and psychologically without reference to God, who is supposed to be the central reference point of everything you do.
Yes, you can eat to the glory of God! We eat to God's glory on important feast days of the Church, like Christmas and Easter, for example. Eating to the glory of God can take place when you eat to celebrate what God has done, either in the liturgical year, or in your own life, eating a meal in celebration of a birthday or some blessing you have received. At that time, eating while keeping God's mighty blessings in mind is a particularly powerful kind of prayer. The food itself, in a sense, becomes a means of receiving God's blessing.
Christianity is an incarnational religion Every Christian is must strive (with the help of God) import his or her faith in every detail, without exception, into daily living. We can eat to the glory of God any time at all, so long as we remain mindful of His presence at the heart of our eating, and the joy we take in His presence in our lives. It goes without saying that no human being can manage to be a perfect vessel of the Holy Spirit. That's what repentance -correcting in flight- is about. Going off course is not a big deal. Recognize that you drifted off course, make a correction, and keep moving forward. On Ash Wednesday we formally make a new beginning in the quiet solemn liturgy.
“Taste and see that the LORD is good; happy is the man who takes refuge in Him”, Psalm 34.8 encourages us. This particular text urges everyone, by using the word 'taste”, to experience God in the most personal inner way. No one else can experience what something actually tastes like in your stead. Equally so, no one can experience God in your life except you. Inner experience of Christ-in-you and faithfulness to that experience is the essential key point in the entire Christian life.
Using your physical tastebuds to give yourself mere sensory and convivial pleasure without reference to God is not unlike using any other sense to mindlessly please yourself without reference to God. So, therefore, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride, which are the seven deadly (or capital, which means soul-killing) sins is the doing of -or even focusing on- those things in and for your earthly self alone.
The seven capital sins are summed up in the last one on the list, pride. Pride is putting yourself first in your life, and putting God and everyone else, everything else, second. Pride cuts you off from an authentic relationship with God and other people. Pride, it is said, is the source off all sin. Pride is called the reason for Lucifer's fall.
Fasting from food is a good starting point during Lent. Lent, which is forty days long, is sort of like practicing anything for forty days. It helps you make a start which you can carry over into the rest of the year. Some people fast on Fridays year-round, to commemorate Good Friday, and to give themselves a weekly spiritual reminder. Perhaps on that day they fast from meat, or from other foods, like dessert.
Fasting is supposed to be joyful! You are doing a profound spiritual practice in order to diminish your false ego, your pride, and to thereby draw closer to God. What's not to like about that?
I'd suggest two aspects of fasting for each person at Trinity Church to work on this Lent. First of all, fast from food (reduce your food intake a bit and finish your meal while you still feel somewhat hungry, or cut out a certain kind of food or foods) and also fast from the sin of evil speech (saying bad or denigrating things about anyone at all). If you discover you've set your (food) fasting goal too high, don't give up, just lower it a bit. Take on something as well, like going to Stations of the Cross, praying more on a regular schedule, and reading an edifying book. During Lent I say all the Psalms aloud each week, a certain number each day.
As for evil speech, it is the sin most condemned in the Bible. There are over 2500 commands in both the Old and New Testaments to avoid speaking evil of another person. At my own house, whatever I repeat most often to my kids is what I most want to be done, or not done. If God says in the Bible to avoid something thousands of times, what do we think that means? Indeed, in saying something bad about someone else you break 31 different commandments. That's why Jesus said that evil speech (inaccurately translated as mere “gossip”) is worse than murder.
Don't forget, as you fast from food during the week, that Sunday is always the Feast of the Resurrection. On Sunday you're dispensed from your food fast on that day and can, as a special act of worship, deliberately eat what you've been fasting from, but always eat to the glory of God!
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