The Collective Sacrifice

Isa 58:6-14 "Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke?
Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.' If you remove the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness. And if you give yourself to the hungry And satisfy the desire of the afflicted, Then your light will rise in darkness And your gloom will become like midday. And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot From doing your own pleasure on My holy day, And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, And honor it, desisting from your own ways, From seeking your own pleasure And speaking your own word, Then you will take delight in the LORD, And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

The Mile High Crew was sitting in Brent and Jon's apartment with our newly established Community Night this last week. Jon was sharing and asking for our thoughts on this passage. The more I thought about it, the more I came to the conclusion that this passage was talking about fasting as a collective sacrifice.

Let me elaborate more. Fasting is the giving up of a very necessary resource... food, life... bread. The thing that keeps our minds working properly, the thing that keeps our muscles from atropheeing. The substance that keeps us from becoming sick. I then thought about the statistics you hear in Sociology 101. How America possesses 1/10 of the world's population, yet we consume 50% of the world's energy (this may not be completely accurate, but the truth has the same thrust).

People tend to ask where God is when they see evil: oppression, hunger, marginalization. And people who would like to blame God (and I know have wanted to) would demand that we have more resources. But I sincerely believe that we have enough to go around. If we were to have more, the people who hoard now would have even more. Yet when do we look at ourselves in relation to this truth? Freedom and opression rely on a collective awareness and sacrifice. I really need to look at myself and my lifestyle right now.

I think one way Lindsey and I would want to be challenged is going dry for a period of time. When I think about the quantity of drinks we consume in a month is by no means extravigent or over-indulgant by the West's standards. But drinks (whether it be alcohol or soda) can be so expensive, all one has to do is turn around turn on the faucet and we're hydrated. How many people are oppressed and become ill because they can't do that. Yet we call it a sacrifice when that's our only choice we have at the moment.

I know this sounds cliche. But some problems that can get us so down, and pesimistic can be found by looking at ourselves. What about the collective sacrifice of going dry or skipping 6 meals a month? I'm sure the 100+ who've viewed our profile/ blog have the luxury of skipping out on a few things in order to fight for the freedom of the oppressed.