Guidelines for Wednesday Vigils and for Sabbath Fast

This Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, I am hosting an hour-long noon vigil at a prominent intersection in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Several people have said they will join me. We will be holding two signs: one that says, “What does the Lord require of you?” and the other, “Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly”. It is a direct quotation from Micah 6:8. We will be standing, not as a protest, but as a prophetic witness to three biblical values – justice, mercy and humility, that are either being completely ignored or blatantly dismissed by the orders, messages and directives coming from the White House.

I know other people will be taking up this witness in other parts of the state and the country. I don’t know if the vigil witness will have an effect on the brutality and damage that the Trump administration is wreaking across the country and the world; but I do have the faith that the witness will have an effect on my soul. It will remind me of who I am – and whose I am, which the ongoing fusillade of messages distracts me to the degree that I can both lose my core identity and forget that I am a child of God. That I have been created – that we have been created – in the image of God. That we are imago Dei (Genesis 1:27)

This Wednesday vigil will be like keeping a sabbath, which for me is setting aside time to pray and to break free from the production/consumption system. As I wrote in my blog post last week, our production/consumption system has gone haywire in the past five weeks. I need a sabbath rest to reflect, to discern – and to help figure out next steps. The sabbath break is being called for Wednesdays, because it doesn’t interfere with the traditional sabbath days of the Abrahamic faiths — Islam (Friday), Judaism (Friday night through Saturday) or Christianity (Sunday).

I will fast from food, finance and media on Wednesdays. I invite you to join me.

Here are the steps you can take:

Stand in vigil on Wednesdays at noon with the Micah 6:8 sign. You can make it yourself, or have it printed on poster board as I have done. Stand in silence, with perhaps a prayer at the beginning and end.

2. Take part in a fast.

– From food – from Tuesday evening to Wednesday evening (or extend it to Thursday morning. (I will be drinking water during the fast)

– From finance – don’t buy or pay anything during the course of your sabbath.

– From media – don’t read, watch or listen to the news for a 24-hour period.

3. Let me know what you are doing. What and where you are doing it. Adapt these guidelines as needed, but I would suggest that the Micah 6:8 message be maintained. I will endeavor to keep track of the responses.

I intend to keep the vigil and fast though Lent. This year Lent corresponds with Ramadan, when our siblings in faith fast from dawn to dusk from March 1 through March 30. At Easter, April 20, we will evaluate what we have done, what we have learned – and what are the most appropriate next steps that are prayerful, intentional and framed in a commitment to non-violence.

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