Ash Wednesday (B), February 17, 2021—Isaiah 58:1–12 and Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21

 

Fast Times in a Pandemic

Isaiah says the fast to choose

Is not where you are in denial

Of all the things that make life good,

As if, all humble, you’re on trial.

 

Instead, he says, our public fast

Should be where we might change a life,

Go treat the poor as your own kind,

Stop pointing fingers, causing strife.

 

Then Jesus calls a private fast

The one where God’s the only crowd,

Where prayer alone with your beloved

Is what will make you glad and proud.

 

Thus, quarantine goes hand in hand

With Black Lives Matter action,

So someday all across this land

Our prayers will end our factions.

 

Isaiah 58:1–12

 

Shout out, do not hold back! 

Lift up your voice like a trumpet! 

Announce to my people their rebellion, 

to the house of Jacob their sins. 

Yet day after day they seek me 

and delight to know my ways, 

as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness 

and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; 

they ask of me righteous judgments, 

they delight to draw near to God.

“Why do we fast, but you do not see? 

Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” 

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, 

and oppress all your workers. 

Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight 

and to strike with a wicked fist. 

Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. 

Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? 

Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, 

and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? 

Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the fast that I choose: 

to loose the bonds of injustice, 

to undo the thongs 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?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, 

and your healing shall spring up quickly; 

your vindicator shall go before you, 

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. 

 

If you remove the yoke from among you, 

the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 

if you offer your food to the hungry 

and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, 

then your light shall rise in the darkness 

and your gloom be like the noonday. 

The Lord will guide you continually, 

and satisfy your needs in parched places, 

and make your bones strong; 

and you shall be like a watered garden, 

like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; 

you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; 

you shall be called the repairer of the breach, 

the restorer of streets to live in.

 

Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21

 

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.