Like it or not, we are beholden to the production/consumption system. Some years ago I read that Americans receive something on the order of a thousand messages a day, from some electronic device, enticing us to purchase certain medications, buy this car, fly to this island, get this hair treatment or weight loss product, vote for this candidate – and for God sake’s, don’t vote or even consider another candidate who is so deeply flawed that he or she shouldn’t even be on the ballot. We try not to pay attention to this daily pummeling of come-ons and warnings, but they somehow seep into our psyches; and they keep coming because their purveyors have discovered that their carefully curated messages are effective. They know that at some level we pay attention and are more likely to buy what they are selling.
In the past four weeks the production/consumption system in America has been turned upside down. People and positions are being purged left and right. For some, this is being done in the interest of efficiency. For others, it is a form of cruel punishment. People who hold a different opinion from the new Administration are now being identified as enemies and are summarily banished. Immigrants – deported. Trans people – denied. Woke people (which seems to be anyone who disagrees with what is happening) – denounced. And on and on. The gears of the production/consumption system are in overdrive. How many more people will be chewed up and spit out? Enemies are being declared so quickly that it is hard, if not impossible, to keep it all straight. Will the gears slow down? Can they be stopped?
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. That is not a non-sequitur. Most of us were taught that the third commandment meant we needed to go to synagogue or church on the sabbath.. That is indeed a part of it, but only a part. As scholar Walter Brueggemann has pointed out, sabbath is intended to be a day set aside to break free from the production/consumption system. Sabbath was a day – or part of a day, when we were given time to be reminded of who we are and whose we are. Sabbath time enables us to break free from being controlled cogs in a relentless economic machine. Sabbath provides the opportunity to not have to prove ourselves by how much we have or how productive we are.
Especially these days, we need to embrace this broad concept of sabbath. At least I do. To carve out space for reflection and discernment. To have a day of shelter from the ongoing blizzard of orders, firings, bizarre policy shifts, and cruel pronouncements – the combination of which generates a toxic cocktail of anxiety, anger and fear. To that end, beginning Ash Wednesday, March 5, I am going to engage in a broad fast once a week. I will fast from food from sundown to sundown; I will fast from engaging in economic activity (following the invitation of The People’s Union to engage in a day-long “economic blackout” on February 28). And every Wednesday I will fast from receiving or reading news or commentary.
I will also be talking to other religious leaders to see if we can engage others in the fast – and through the fast to make a growing witness. The Sojourners community in Washington D.C., which has long been a leader for Christian social justice witness, is organizing a series of hour-long vigils on the Capitol Hill grounds, beginning on Ash Wednesday, March 5, and continuing every Wednesday at 1 pm through the end of the month. They have a growing list of partners. Their intent is to speak truth to power in the escalating constitutional crisis. I will endeavor to see if Wednesday vigils can be organized in other communities around the country, as an integral part of the fast.
Fasting is an ancient spiritual discipline. Fasting is often thought to be an act of personal purgation, a practice of self-denial. A way of saying NO. In some way this proposed Wednesday fast of food, finance and media is a non-violent way of saying no to cruelty, constitutional overreach, scapegoating, and racial and gender bias. But what I have learned over the years is that acts of self-denial begin with an important YES: a yes to hope, a yes to mercy and compassion, a yes to justice, a yes to the vision that all humanity needs to be not just acknowledged, but honored and embraced. A sabbath fast is standing in two directions at the same time: No to the naked exercise of power; and yes to the abiding power and witness of love.
Will this make a difference? It certainly will in my soul. Beyond that, I don’t know. I certainly hope so. But I believe it is an important beginning.
What guides me – and grounds me – are the well-remembered words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Power without love is reckless and abusive. Love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice; and justice as its best is power correcting anything that stands against love.
My prayer is that a sabbath fast will help release that abiding power of love.
