John the Baptist and Our Relationship to Fasting

 2 Advent  Cycle C     December 8, 2024
Malachi.  3:1-4      Song of Zechariah  
Philippians 1:1-11     Luke 3:1-6

Lectionary Link

If there were a patron saint for the 12 Step Program and for perpetual fasting, it might be John the Baptist.  He appears in our lectionary in Advent, a penitential season, second only to the season of Lent.  These two penitential seasons invite a corporate observance adjusting our priorities for the season to reassess our value systems and ponder how we might make some constructive changes in our lifestyle.   And not just for personal piety or personal amendment of life, but also for re-distribution of our life assets to help those who do not have adequate resources for living.

As regard fasting, John the Baptist stands quite in contrast to Jesus of Nazareth.  We are told that Jesus underwent a rigorous forty day fast in the wilderness of temptation in his encounter with Satan.  But other than that Jesus is cited by his critics as being a glutton, drunkard and one who ate with sinners.  So he was not seen as an ascetic in his lifestyle as John the Baptist was in wearing his camel skin tunic and having a diet of locusts and honey.

The goal of one in the 12 Step Program is perpetual sobriety; there is no intermittent drinking or drug use for the one who knows that he or she is addicted to alcohol or other substances.

Did John the Baptist embrace perpetual fasting because he could not attain moderation in his lifestyle and so he had to perpetually give up everything to live a sober life?  Or was his life an embracing of the vow of the nazarite, which included not drinking wine or ever cutting his hair?  Was Jesus one who had such perfect self control that he could be moderate in all things and thus enjoy all things which in turn allowed him to interact with people in a larger cross-section of society?  I apologize for such modern observations.

It could be that John the Baptist saw his lifestyle as preparation for the catastrophic end of times as people in his time speculated about.  John the Baptist was an apocalyptic prophet who chided those who came to him, saying, "who has warned you to flee the wrath to come?"  If the world as John knew it was going to end soon, the appropriate lifestyle would not be adopting a lifestyle of settling for the long haul; rather it would be the ascetic lifestyle of getting ready to face one's judge for everything that one was doing with one's life.  John the Baptist recommended that everyone else prepare to flee from the wrath to come by adopting the lifestyle of repentance, a lifestyle of perpetual renewal of the one's mind with attending amendment of indulgent behaviors, including behaviors of hypocrisy associated with phony religious behaviors.

Since Jesus is presented in the Gospels as both an apocalyptic prophet as well as a wisdom teacher who proclaimed that the "kingdom of God was already among us and within us," we might observe that his apocalyptic prophet phase derived from the time when he was mentored by John the Baptist, even to the event of his baptism.  As the extended time of the ministry of Jesus grew, perhaps the phase of his "realized eschatology" ensued as he noted the always already nature of God's kingdom.  It's important to note that Gospel writers of the early Jesus Movement cites words indicating both features of Jesus of Nazareth as they pertained to end of the world issues as imminent, the already realized kingdom of God, and delayed coming of the Son of Man in the future.

Today, we have a new fad in dieting called intermittent fasting.  With such a program the goal is to lose weight by denying oneself food for extended periods and thus allow excess fat to be burned up.

In church history, the church has had it's own program of intermittent fasting, seasonly, weekly, special days, and targeted.  Lent and Advent are fasting seasons in preparation for the events of excess: Christmas and Easter.  The church has had Friday as a weekly fast day, for which the seafood lobby are particularly grateful.  In the church calendar, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are the two obligatory fast days of the church.  And also fasting is recommended in a targeted way to focus on issues of justice and events of dire crisis.

The Season of Advent and the example of John the Baptist invite us to assess our relationship with the practice of fasting.  Each of us face our own "days of wrath" as the Requiem Latin hymn, Dies Irae is intoned at traditional burials.  We should fast in preparation for dying a good death, meaning that we should aim for good impulse control in our life for personal health, but also for the health of our community in not being so self focused as to forsake actions of sensitive and timely care for those who need our help.  We should accept our solidarity with our fasting community during Advent in denying ourselves so as to share our excess with those who don't have the bare minimum.  Certainly in our societies, our charitable agencies depend upon end of year giving to help fund them for the entire year.  So let us join with our communities to embrace during Advent skimming from our excess to help provide sustenance for the many in our world who need the basics of life.

John the Baptist is also a reminder that we may have to adopt fasting as a way of life in the areas where we have not attained impulse control.  This may involve a wide range of our behaviors in areas of food, drink, finances, gambling, sexuality, family time, social activism and much more.  Each of us needs to have and receive insights and the grace of the Higher Power to interdict and arrest behaviors that are not healthy for us, for our families, our church, and our society.

The Season of Advent and John the Baptist are rebukes to us and our society where we have extended the Christmas Season of excess from Halloween through the New Year.

Let the Season of Advent, and the witness of John the Baptist bring us into insightful relationship with the kind of fasting which we need personally, and the kind of fasting we need for the benefit of the communities in which we live.

And as the birth of Christ has become the cause for the greatest expressions of excess; let us remember the original story; God committed the Divine Self into a baby in a very poor family.  Let us use the Advent Season and the witness of John the Baptist to prepare us by fasting to better tend to the hidden Christ Child in many vulnerable people in our world today.  Amen.