This week’s Lenten Offering is written by Mondo Scott aka Armando Canchola-Scott, a creative director and member of our church familia.

On Sunday, I lead our church familia in a time of prayer around the themes of fasting and feasting. I shared how fasting and feasting can be seen in opposition. After all, fasting is almost exclusively abstaining from food/feasting in the scriptures. Admittedly, there was a time when I wouldn’t have even considered feasting a spiritual practice, let alone a “holy” one that God paid attention to.

But as I paid attention to Jesus, who shows us what God is like, I began to see patterns in which He subverts a regular practice of fasting by embodying a prophetic practice of feasting. Besides His 40-day fast in the wilderness, only mentioned in Matthew & Luke’s gospel (and a few teaching moments), Jesus and His disciples are not known for fasting. If we only had the Gospels of John and Mark, we’d be left to wonder if Jesus ever fasted at all (individually). Instead, we find our LORD participating in an excess of communal feasting, so much so that it draws criticism from His religious counterparts. Eventually, Jesus and his disciples are accused of being gluttons and drunkards.

I am not saying that fasting doesn’t matter (spoiler: it does), but rather, advocating how Jesus centers a practice of intentional feasting, honoring the prophetic tradition of one of his favorite Poet Prophets, Isaiah. In Isaiah 58, we read a prophetic critique to the powerful elite that were exploiting the vulnerable of His day. So as we hold space for the sacred practice of fasting during this season of Lent, may we also hold sacred the way Jesus modeled a practice of feasting, or more importantly, who He shared tables with; the poor, sick, forsaken, wicked, elite, corrupt, foreigner, pious, and even Judas, His betrayer. This gives us permission to wonder and ask, “what is God in Christ revealing to us through His subversive table practices?”

With that, I leave space for us to explore and meditate on that question and this Liturgy of Fasting and Feasting. May we continue to confess the things that we need to perpetually fast from while feasting on Jesus’ cross-shaped ways so that we might continue the process of becoming and being The Church We Hope For.

“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?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
Isaiah 58:6-9

Let us fast from the yoke of smug religious rituals that only promote self-righteousness.
May we feast on cross-shaped humility and the justice that flows from that place.
Let us fast from the yoke of embracing coercive power that seeks to control others.
May we feast on the Gospel of liberation that empowers and commissions.
Let us fast from the yoke of economic self-interest that exploits the vulnerable.
May we feast on satisfying the needs of the poor and hungry through co-suffering love.
Let us fast from the yoke of US VS THEM rhetoric that demonizes our neighbors.
May we feast on including all into the familia of God.
Let us fast from the yoke of resentment that perpetuates hostility and hatred.
May we feast on radical forgiveness and the work of reconciliation.
Let us fast from the yoke of apathy in the face of continual injustice that fatigues our souls.
May we feast on audacious hope that cultivates prophetic imagination.
Let us fast from the yoke of retributive justice against our enemies that only reproduces cycles of violence.
May we gather to feast together at your table of mercy and peace.

Holy Spirit, as we remain in this Lenten journey, we ask you to escort us into the cross-shaped life of our LORD Jesus and help us develop this sacred practice of fasting and feasting. Grant us the discipline and desire to withdraw from the things that keep us from loving you and our neighbor as ourselves. — Amen.

Art by @madebyemfern (source:@madeforpax)