They seek me day after day,
and desire to know my ways,
Like a nation that has done what is just
and not abandoned the law of their God;
The world definitely does this. It is happy to go along being entertained and numbed until something happens so severe that it cannot solve it with its own resources. In the past when that happened the world would turn to God and seek after him. Disasters drove people back into the churches. It was said that there were no atheists in foxholes. The trouble is that God would not allow himself to be used only as a last resort when all else failed. Turning to him in distress did not necessarily alleviate the distress. It definitely mattered to the hearts that chose to do it. But the world observed a God who did not respond as things did not seem to improve. Finally we came to a point where the world was too jaded to even turn to God in times of trial, as it seemed to not suffice in the past. If God refused to be present on the world's terms, as a last resort when our own efforts fell short, when entertainment could no longer distract us, when pleasure could no longer numb us, well, the world wouldn't bother with him at all. The saddest aspect of this is that we never experienced what it would be like to be a nation that was just and had not abandoned the law of God. Had we been walking with him the whole time we might have discovered that providence and protection really could make a difference.
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.- GK Chesterton
Is it only the world that does this, that seeks God in desperation and then gives up on him entirely? Or does this describe us as well? Do we keep up some regularity of external practice, but only truly open our hearts and seek in periods of distress and need? Perhaps we point to the regular external practice as proof that we are entitled to the healing, breakthrough, or answered prayer we seek. Likely we don't even consider how differently things may have gone had we been seeking God all along.
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.
Jesus promised to be with us always, unto the end of the age (see Matthew 28:20). The bridegroom, then, is taken away from us only by our lack of response to his grace. We are called to rend our hearts precisely because they have become insulated against his presence. This rending of hearts necessarily entails the rending of social injustice as well.
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
We must rend the bonds holding others captive, because in them we find Jesus truly present. This rending is a double movement that breaks the obstacles within us to God and breaks the obstacles before others to both the corporeal and spiritual goods to which they are entitled. By doing so, their full dignity as made in the image of God, as those with whom Jesus himself so closely identified, can be made manifest.
When our hearts are hardened we are unable to find God anywhere. Our prayers in crisis, especially to the degree that their are presumptuous, may turn out to be too little too late, and this precisely because God desires a closer walk with us. And so let us rend every obstacle to God's presence, the hardening and insulation that keeps us from seeking him first, that keeps us from caring about the plight of the people who surround us.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
Your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!
No comments:
Post a Comment