Text
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?
Reflection
The Lenten period is a time of fasting and praying as we seek to come closer to God. This has been a practice for centuries and even in the Old Testament people always fasted and worship. The danger we see these practices however as Isaiah points out is an act void of any practical action. Yes, we may deny our bodies certain things as a way of our piety to God but do we confess of our sins? These are the things God is denouncing in Isaiah. It had been a custom that was not complimented by the real acts of repentance. They fasted but systems of injustice and oppression remained in place and the action became mere formalism. As we go through the Lenten period let us take to self-examine ourselves. We are all sinners before God but He is prepared to forgive a penitent sinner. Amen.
Collect
Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen
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