Feasting and Fasting

Thanksgiving is the best holiday. Do not even try to argue! What is better than food, family, and football. However, we normally forget the whole “what-are-you-thankful-forness” once the fried turkey is being sliced. Regardless of the history of the holiday, the point is to feast and be thankful for the feast.

I wonder if this Thanksgiving will be like the past few. Will families be at odds over politics? Will people even see their families for Thanksgiving because of differences in beliefs? Will we be angry because of Trump and his goonies more than the daily injustices that take place around our neighborhoods? Will we stop bickering about team blue and red, and remember why we are even together in the first place? The irony is that we place these fruitless arguments around an abundant table. While outside there are those who starve. 

My friends, do we understand that when we have a festival like feast that we give thanks to the one who provides the abundance. We rejoice, as one in Communion with God and other. On the flip side of feasting, is fasting. Our modern sensibilities see no room for such a pious ritual. We are different people, why should we fast? If the feast reminds us of God’s abundance, than fasting should remind us of those who are without. It is not God who withholds the abundance, it is us who refuses to see God’s abundance in the world. We fast to not show that spiritual sustenance is as important as physical, We fast to show solidarity with those who are impacted by the wicked, greediness of our commodified, plutocratic system built on robbing the wealth of nations and the lands. We fast to show unity with our brothers and sisters who have nowhere to lay their heads and are told their worth is zero. We fast, because in doing so, we remember that God has called us to live into God’s abundant life and in so doing we cannot do it without charity and love.

My friends, as we feast next week, be thankful for the Abundant God’s goodness, for there is more than enough. However, do not forget those who fast, not by choice, but by circumstance. 

This week, remember to love your neighbor. Show solidarity and thankfulness. God’s abundance is for all, let us choose to believe it!

Zac