Magyar Egyház, 1997 (76. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1997 / 2. szám
10. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ produce, namely the aid and blessing of God. The root of their transgression is that they think that by being pious in the external practice of a fast they can manipulate God. In his answer to the people’s question, the prophet describes the practice of fasting as it appears to God: ‘you are serving your own interest’. Under the cloak of piety, the people were oppressing others, for example by making people work for them even on the Sabbath. This unethical and unlawful behavior is present in our own societies as well. The newborn democracies of Central and Eastern Europe are suffering from the new reign of money. Money seems the driving force in the whole world as it becomes more and more significant in human relationships. Thus it stands in competition with God’s lordship over everyday life. In such circumstances, the fast is just an external sign. It has become a cloak covering nobody, an empty wrapper, the bark of a hollow and rotten tree. Without internal meaning fasting is empty and useless (Joel 2.12-13). God can only accept a fast that is supported by one’s whole life. One of the biggest sins is the tendency to transform God’s will according to one’s own taste and ideas. According to Isaiah, fasting has been accommodated. It has been absorbed into the flow of worldly life. It can proceed without challenging sin and evil. It has become a religion that conforms to life rather than a life which conforms to the will of God. This is not the kind of fast that the Lord chooses. When the verb “to choose” is used in the Bible, it often means that God delights in it, loves it. But God has not chosen this fast: God does not delight in it. In true religion human delight must follow the sovereign delight of the Lord. We must learn to love and choose what the Lord loves and chooses. Transgression begins by setting one’s heart on what God has not chosen. It is not the aim of fasting to parade our religion before the world. Real worship of God cannot be conveyed with a bowed head or a sad face. Fasting is beneficial when it is an instrument to get us more aligned with God. Then God will know what is in the heart (Mt 6.16-21). The passage is a criticism of fasting accompanied by oppression of others and other sinful deeds. This behavior is lacking in any inward renewal, which is based on confession of sins and on an open relationship with God (Ps 51.1-17). Those who practice fasting in a false way are deceiving God, others, and finally themselves. These verses address the sins of a church that is becoming richer and more prestigious at the expense of others. The prophet lifts up his voice to speak of God’s different choice, God’s real delight, that which is acceptable to God. The New Testament puts forward Jesus Christ as one in whom God was well pleased, in whom God delighted. In Christ, through faith, our hearts can be aligned with the choice of God. Without this, we will always perform empty rituals and find ourselves in the end as empty as our religion. YOUR LIGHT SHALL RISE These passages draw our attention to the very special responsibility of believers to be ‘doers’ of God’s will. Through their actions, the faithful will lighten the dark world with the whole of their life. The context is that one must observe the fast properly, that is, concentrate on the neighbor and on the needy with all one’s might. Then there will be light in the dark. When, like God, one acts only out of love for the other, then the light will be given. The prophet reminds us again of help for the needy. He uses a beautiful picture to express the quality of serving: ‘if you pour yourself out for the hungry’ (Is 58.10). This is more than just following the orders of God. This means letting all one’s love flow into care for the other. This is the perfect fast: considering the other before oneself. And this is what God wants! This changed attitude to the world brings happiness and conversion (Ps 112; Is 60.1-7). The Old Testament passages talk about the happiness of the people, who received an answer from God, who experienced God’s power in delivering them from exile. Through the experiences of their own life, they were brought to understand how right it is to do to others what God does to them. They receive God’s mercy and gifts. For the churches of Central and Eastern Europe there is a special task of being a light in the dark world. This does not happen by having long meetings and never reaching decisions. The experience of the last 50 years teaches us that in spite of wrong, there can be positive deeds. The experience of Christianity around the world is that we cannot come to the right theological understanding without a firm intention to put our understanding into practice. In the ‘dusk’, Christianity will be ‘like the noonday sun’. This will happen if you feed the hungry from your own plenty, and satisfy the needs of the ‘wretched’. God can make these deeds of charity shined in the world. The only way the people of God can receive the light is through doing what God does and expects us to do. If they do such things, they will practise the perfect fast and be partakers of the light from above. Does it mean that, if we do not see light around us, the churches and individual believers are not doing what God does? THE REV. ZOLTÁN TARR
