Jan Richardson, Rend Your Heart.
Bound Girl with Diamond Tears, by Choichun Leung
Lenten Reflections via Isaiah 58
As the global Church enters into the penitential season of Lent, we at M25i desire to walk with Jesus and be shaped by His heart for justice, mercy, and the most vulnerable among us.
For the next forty days of Lent, we invite you to join us on a journey to discover the heart of God as revealed in Isaiah 58: true fasting.
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Day 1: Ash Wednesday
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
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Today, we enter into the season of Lent through the observance of Ash Wednesday. Christians around the world will gather to examine their hearts, confess their sin, and be reminded of their own mortality.
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
In the breathtaking painting above, artist Meena Matocha uses ashes, charcoal, and soil to help us contemplate what it means to enter into Lent: a time for self-examination, for repentance, and for self-denial.
Day 2: God’s Kingdom Heart
Isaiah 58:6-12 welcomes us into “the air of the kingdom.”
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The message of scripture is consistent. Worship and action cannot be separated. If we know the true God, then we live in a way that reflects his heart both individually and collectively. And his heart is all about shalom. As we live in trusting love and surrender to his good ways, we experience shalom.
Day 3: A Look at What’s Ahead
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
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On this journey through Lent, we will take time each week to learn about some of our fellow Anglicans who are doing this work of "true fasting":
"to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them..." Isaiah 58: 7
Day 4: Light in the Darkness
Then your light will break forth like the dawn…..
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We are transitioning from The Season of Light (Advent/Christmas/Epiphany) into Lent, the season of reminding ourselves how dark the world is without Christ, how desperately we need Easter after Good Friday.
Day 5: Human Trafficking
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim... freedom for the prisoners
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“Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? 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?”
God tells us here that he cares deeply about the oppressed.
Day 6: Lean In and Learn
“You may choose to look the other way. but you can never again say you did not know." William Wilberforce
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As we were reminded yesterday, an estimated 50 million people are held in slavery today around the world (International Justice Mission).
That’s more people than the combined population of Texas and New York.
Day 7: A Contemplative Activist
We define “contemplative activists” as those walking
the Jesus rhythm.
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Josephine Margaret Bakhita, the patron saint of Sudan and victim of human trafficking, suffered immense cruelty under slavery, yet is remembered now for her gentleness and hospitality. She was born to a respected Daju family in the Darfur region of Sudan in 1869.
Day 8: Anglicans on the Streets
“You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.”
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Vulnerable single mothers can be protected from oppressive conditions and manipulative opportunists. Their children and teenagers can be shielded from being targeted by predators and people who would want to take advantage of them.
Day 9: Gary Haugen of IJM
"Joy is the oxygen for doing hard things." – Gary Haugen
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Gary Haugen is the one who “put justice on the map” for many Christians; in other words, he opened up the topic of justice for many people and many churches by bringing us a new awareness of the issues at stake, through a Christian lens.
Day 10: Let Us Cry Out
God listens when the despairing cry out.
Let us cry out on their behalf.
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We know that we are reflecting on roughly over 2 million God-imaged unique expressions of his heart and craft. 2 million dear-to-God who are dehumanized and oppressed to a degree that we wonder if healing and freedom is available.
Day 11: Food Insecurity
How can we be part of bringing God's shalom to the hungry?
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Food insecurity is an issue all over the world, including North America. Few of us know what it is like to be perpetually hungry, but it is actually all around us. God is calling us to help alleviate that hunger…
Day 12: Lean In and Learn
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink...” – Matthew 25:35
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Food insecurity exists in large part due to poverty. It is a commonly misheld belief that those living in poverty in North America, especially in the United States and Canada, “must not have it so bad.” And the perception is that, comparatively, the form of poverty is not as extreme and degrading as in other countries.
Day 13: A Contemplative Activist
“…we must pray patiently, believing, continue in prayer until we obtain an answer.”
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George Müller was born in Prussia (Germany) in 1805 to a tax collector and his wife. As a child and a young man, George lived rebelliously, overindulging in alcohol, gambling, and law-breaking.
Day 14: Anglicans on the Streets
"When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her….”
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When we think of hunger, we often think of large cities and rural communities. But, the reality is that hunger exists nearly everywhere, even in thriving small towns. Some have known hunger their entire lives; for others, it is a new and often scary experience.
Day 15: Dignity
"He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.”
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There is a certain irony in thinking of fasting as sharing our food, is there not? Essentially, God says to his people: I want you to engage in true fasting by sharing food with people who aren’t eating… not because they are also fasting, but because they have no food from which to fast.
Day 16: Prayer
“And if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness…”
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We are doing two things today: nourishing our souls with scripture and choosing an embodied, imaginative prayer exercise.
Take a moment to slow down and read and re-read these verses above.
Day 17: Homelessness
God’s heart is for his people to have a home – all people, all whom he created in his image and therefore imbued with dignity.
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Continuing on in our passage from Isaiah 58 this week, we see that in addition to sharing their food with the hungry, God says to his people, “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: is it not to share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter?”
Day 18: Lean In and Learn
I was homeless and you gave me a room.
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Homelessness is a complex issue. Like a spider’s web, it is made up of numerous, intricately woven threads in which victims will find themselves entangled, whether for a moment or a lifetime.
Day 19: A Contemplative Activist
“Sow time with the poor. Sit and listen to them, give them your time lavishly. You will reap time a hundredfold."
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Dorothy Day was a powerhouse of a journalist and contemplative activist whose life was devoted to prayer, and she took her conversations with God to the streets. Her cultivated awareness of God's love, presence, and filling enabled her to walk as a remarkable icon of Christ's light to countless others.
Day 20: Anglicans on the Streets
As followers of Christ we are called to contend for shalom in these contexts of brokenness.
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My name is Matt Lindell, and I am the Grant Director for the Matthew 25i Initiative. Recently, I traveled to Austin, TX, and stayed in the downtown area, a few blocks from Christ Church Anglican. Part of my assignment was to interview Assoc. Rector Matt Dampier, who has been a present and loving advocate for those “sleeping rough” in the parish community.
Day 21: Homelessness + Dignity
It is too easy for most of us to “other” those who struggle with chronic homelessness.
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Some of our parishioner friends who were formerly homeless can speak to the grueling work to stay ahead of rent payments, and one small emergency can land them back in a shelter or in temporary housing.
As we’ve acknowledged this week, homelessness is complex.
Day 22: Prayer
Behold this face, in the portrait above, as representative of the faces of the many who last night experienced a precarious home.
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Here is a communal prayer that was written for a parish to pray together. A small group or a bible study can dedicate time to learning about these topics using this week’s content and conclude by praying this together. Save this to share with your parish leaders.
Day 23: Creation Care
He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land.
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In the middle of this beautiful Isaiah 58 True Fasting passage, the prophet pauses to describe God’s vision for all of us as we pour ourselves out for the vulnerable. His description is dramatic and physical. He speaks hope where there is despair and brokenness of “a sun-scorched land.”
Day 24: Lean In and Learn
What does creation care have to do with the vulnerable?
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Broken creation care affects peoples' lives in many negative ways. It may seem like it never stops raining in your area, or that it is frustrating for it to be almost 90 degrees in February. But the impact of creation groaning (Romans 8) reaches far wider and deeper than just our local weather.
Day 25: A Contemplative Activist
St. Francis praised the Artist in every one of his works; whatever he found in things made, he referred to their Maker.
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He came to a spot where a large flock of birds of various kinds had come together. When God’s saint saw them, he quickly ran to the spot and greeted them as if they were endowed with reason….
Day 26: Anglicans on the Streets
As Christ followers, we are called to be repairers of the breach.
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In Beaufort, South Carolina, the historic St. Helena’s church is actively at work, mending and restoring aging and broken places. Founded in 1711 and one of the oldest cities in South Carolina, Beaufort is adorned with moss-draped oak trees and antebellum architecture.
Day 27: A Biblical Basis
You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
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We continue our learning of creation care rooted in orthodox Christian faith. Our examples and teachers today are A Rocha, which is “a global family of conservation organizations working together to live out God’s calling to care for creation...”
Day 28: Prayer
Christ with us, Christ before us, Christ behind us, Christ in us, Christ beneath us, Christ above us
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For our Saturday Prayers, we combine St Patrick's Breastplate with a prayer exercise. This week, St Patrick's feast day is celebrated, honoring a former slave, oppressed and kidnapped.
Day 29: Place-Based Shalom
Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you...for in its welfare you will find your welfare."
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This week we will be learning more about what it means to become the Repairers and Restorers God has called us to be.