Today’s Scripture Readings

Gospel Reading

NRSV

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

The religion of ancient Israel is called, at times, ethical monotheism. The way we relate to God is strictly related to the way we relate to other human beings. You can’t honour God if you dishonour other human beings. In other words, you can’t separate the vertical (how we relate to God) from the horizontal (how we relate to other people). That’s why the prophet Isaiah rails against those who claim to honour God and do all that worship requires, but treat others, especially the poor and vulnerable, as if they matter not at all.

If you want right relationship with God, you have to have right relationship with other people, especially the poor and vulnerable. The prophet also says that if you turn away from this false religion and enter the world of right relationship, then “your light shall break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up quickly”
(Isaiah 58:8).

Once we enter the world of right relationship, there is the joy of the wedding feast. But until then – and therefore through these days of Lent – we fast in order to feast once we come to the moment of Easter.

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