Is not this the fast that I choose:
    to loose the bonds of injustice,
    to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
    and to break every yoke?
 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
    and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them
    and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

-Isaiah 58: 6-7

 On Ash Wednesday we read Isaiah 58:1-12. I commend it to you to read and reflect upon in its entirety. It is a powerful passage!

As Lent begins, it is good to reflect on our religious and spiritual lives – our fasting, our practices, our prayer and rituals. What is the fruit that is born when we live out and express our faith in these various ways? Does our piety lead us to justice, to mercy, to kindness, to love of God and neighbour?

If not, we hear in Isaiah, what good is it?

This is not to say that our piety, that fasting, practice, prayer and ritual is unimportant. However, our spiritual lives should have an effect on how we live. What good is fasting if we do so while also exclusively serving our own interests, oppressing others, quarreling, fighting and striking with a wicked fist? (Isaiah 58:3-4)

This is an important thing to reflect upon on Ash Wednesday, during Lent, and really all year long.

There is also a version of this question that should be asked of us collectively, St. John the Divine, as we gather for our Annual Vestry Meeting. Is our budget, our financial statements, our reports, our activities, our structures, our worship, our building leading us to glorify God, to build up God’s kingdom, to love God and our neighbour more? If not, what good is it?

This Lent, this Vestry Meeting, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, may we become more deeply rooted in the Love of God for the blessing of the world.  

Thanks be to God!

CG+