Rend Your Hearts and Not Your Clothing

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, a day which marks the beginning of the season of Lent.

We will not host an Ash Wednesday service, but the sanctuary of the church will be open from 7:00am - 7:00pm for personal prayer, reflection, and confession. There will be a small card with a prayer and scriptures to guide your own time of reflection.

I was interested to learn that John Wesley did not promote the formal celebration of Ash Wednesday services in his early groups of American Methodists. Wesley found the ritual of administering ashes on a person’s forehead unnecessary because, in his mind, Christians ought to be in a constant state of repentance and renewal. I have been to many beautiful Ash Wednesday services, and have found them to be very spiritually edifying, but I also think Wesley is right. We should not wait for Ash Wednesday, or the season of Lent, to be repentant. We ought to be willing to repent of our sins, and reorient our lives around the gospel of Jesus Christ, at any and all times.

What is Lent?

Christians have been observing the season of Lent for at least 1,700 years. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, this is a season lasting forty days that emphasizes repentance from our sins. However, it is also a season of renewal as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus at Easter. It has also historically been a time marked by personal prayer and fasting, as well as an opportunity for those outside the church to be welcomed back in to the church, and for new Christians to prepare themselves for baptism. I think this should still apply. In a season marked by repentance, we ought to be prepared as a community to welcome back those who have been away from the church. We ought to even extend a warm invitation to those we know who have been away from the church for a while, to consider coming back during the season of Lent—a season when we are all bound by a shared repentance.

What is fasting?

Fasting, put simply, is abstaining from something for a set period of time. More recently, Lent has been utilized as a time to fast from various consumables you and I partake in on a daily basis as American Christians. In recent Lenten seasons, I have personally fasted from various television shows, social media, and even my Apple AirPods. This is all well and good, as we absolutely should be in the habit of being disciplined in our consumption of the variety of things that can become vices to us. In the last few years, however, I have returned to a more classical Christian approach to fasting from food. In the rhythm of the ancient church, I began fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays each week, usually from sunrise until 3:00pm. Since I first began integrating this practice into my routine, my prayer life has greatly improved. On those days when I feel as though I don’t have anything to say to God, my hunger becomes my prayer. I literally hunger for God. This, I believe, is the essence of fasting.

In a sermon on fasting, John Wesley wrote:

“And fasting is chiefly an aid to prayer, so much so, that it has frequently been found a means, in the hand of God, of confirming and increasing, not one virtue, but also seriousness of spirit, sincerity, sensitivity and tenderness of conscience, deadness to the world, and consequently a love of God, and of every holy and heavenly feeling.”

The primary purpose of fasting is not to prove our holiness to others, but to aid our personal prayer. The results, according to Wesley, and in my own experience, are a an increase in our sincerity, sensitivity, and most especially a renewed sense of our love and dependence on God. So, with my own personal conviction around fasting being slowly shaped, you can imagine my enthusiasm when I discovered this in the archives of Fillmore Wesleyan Church:

This is an entry from the founding membership roll of our church dating back to 1843. For those of you who, like me, cannot read victorian-era cursive, this particular entry reads:

“The Friday preceding each quarterly meeting is to be observed as a day of fasting and prayer. This rule should be observed invariably by all that call themselves Wesleyan Methodists.”

It is unclear whether these early brothers and sisters were meeting for public worship quarterly, or if this was referring to a quarterly membership meeting. Whatever the circumstance was, there was the requirement that everyone observe the preceding Friday as a day of fasting and prayer. What a beautiful, communal moment of prayer and fasting—a public preparation to hear from the Lord. This is what the season of Lent is all about.

An invitation to pray and fast.

My invitation for us this Lent is to do the same. Rather than simply give up something for Lent as an individual, I am inviting us as an entire community to pray and fast together every Friday for the duration of Lent. Beginning this Friday, March 7th, and ending on Good Friday, this will comprise seven Fridays in total. Specifically, I invite each of you to join me in fasting from dinner on Thursday nights until 3:00pm on Friday afternoon. If you have any health concerns, I recommend you consult your doctor beforehand. We can find an alternative way for those with health concnerns to participate in this communal fast if necessary. My hope is that this will increase our sincerity, sensitivity, and hunger for God, not only as individuals, but as an entire community.

When fasting, we follow the instruction of Jesus not to “look somber, like the hypocrites, who mark their faces to show others they are fasting (Matthew 6:16).” Instead, we are joyful in our fasting, because, after all, its function is strengthening our connection with and dependence on God—a God who commands us to “rend your hearts and not your clothing (Joel 2:13)” in our repentance.

I look forward to seeing what the Lord does in our community during this Lent season, and pursuing Him with sincerity alongside each of you.

Yours,

Pastor Mark