On this 3rd Sunday of Lent, we looked at the Spiritual Discipline of Fasting. A member shared her experiences with fasting, after giving a bit of background to the practice. She did a great job, and I was so grateful that we could all hear her perspective. She used a few pictures too, which enhanced her story.
My sermon was just a few minutes in length. ?I had searched out all the occurrences of the word “food” in the Bible, and realized, for the first time, that you could tell the entire Biblical narrative through this concept ?I have never had the eyes to see that before. And it makes sense, since food is elemental, and hunger drives much of human behavior.
What an appropriate day to hand out the One Great Hour of Sharing banks and calendars, so we can collect coins to help feed the hungry.
The choir had a very appropriate anthem, nicely upbeat: Take Root in My Heart. We sang a “cross” hymn to begin: In the Cross of Christ I Glory, and another “cross” hymn to end: Lift High the Cross.
In between we sang a hymn I’ve never used before, from the Lent section: Kind Maker of the World. One verse goes: Give us the discipline that springs From abstinence in outward things With inward fasting, so that we In heart and soul may dwell with Thee.
I feel like we barely scratched the surface of any of the concepts that we touched: food, hunger, fasting, conscious eating. ?I hope to work with each of these concepts more intentionally in my own spiritual journey.