SHARE THE LIGHT OF JOY
Friday, December 20
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Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator[a] shall go before you,
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
(Isaiah 58:5-8)
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Perhaps you’ve risen early to catch a sunrise over a mountain or an ocean. You watched while the rest of the world was still dark and asleep, waiting without even knowing it. Gradually, you begin to see the sky illuminated and growing brighter and brighter until, suddenly, there it is. The light has come!
God told Isaiah that our actions will bring forth that same kind of dawning. This passage speaks about fasting, not a subject we usually talk about during the season of Advent. But I think about how freeing it would be to fast from the busyness, chaos, pressure, and shopping during this time and instead replace those activities with what God says is an acceptable fast. Loosing the chains of injustice, setting the oppressed free, sharing our food, providing shelter, clothing the naked, and practicing reconciliation will cause our light to break forth like dawn. And that light we have to is offer Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. We don’t have to wait until the sun itself appears to see its effects. The glow, the colors, the rays all promise that the light is coming. May our lives be those signs to a world that is dark and asleep, waiting without even knowing it.
- Dianne Boone
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