Archive for the ‘Fasting’ Category

John Wesley on exceeding the righteousness of the Pharisees

Monday, July 12th, 2010
An image of The Revd Dr John Wesley (1703-1791)

The Revd Dr John Wesley (1703-1791)

IN our Gospel this week (The Sixth Sunday After Trinity), Jesus cautions us “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:20-26).

SEE, first, that thy righteousness fall not short of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Be not thou as other men are (Lk 18:11)! Dare to stand alone; to be, “against example, singularly good.” If thou follow a multitude at all, it must be to do evil (Lk 17:23). Let not custom or fashion be thy guide; but reason, and religion. The practice of others is nothing to thee: “every man must give an account of himself to God” (Rom 14:12). …

Secondly: let not thy righteousness fall short of theirs, with regard to the ordinances of God. If thy labour or bodily strength will not allow of thy fasting twice in the week, however deal faithfully with thy own soul, and fast as often as thy strength will permit. Omit no public, no private opportunity of pouring out thy soul in prayer. Neglect no occasion of eating that bread and drinking that cup, which is the communion of the body and blood of Christ.

Be diligent in searching the Scriptures; read, as thou mayest, and meditate therein day and night. Rejoice to embrace every opportunity of hearing “the word of reconciliation” declared by the “ambassadors of Christ” (2 Cor 5:20), the “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor 4:1).

In using all the means of grace, in a constant and careful attendance on every ordinance of God, live up to (at least till thou canst go beyond) “the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.”

Thirdly: fall not short of a Pharisee in doing good. Give alms of all thou dost possess (Lk 11:41). Is any hungry? Feed him. Is he athirst? Give him drink. Naked? Cover him with a garment (Mt 25:31-46). If thou hast this world’s goods, do not limit thy beneficence to a scanty proportion. Be merciful to the uttermost of thy power. …

BUT rest not here. Let thy righteousness “exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.” Be not thou content to “keep the whole law, and offend in one point” (Jas 2:10). Hold thou fast all his commandments, and “all false ways do thou utterly abhor” (Ps 119:128 [Coverdale]). Do all the things, whatsoever he hath commanded, and that with all thy might. Thou canst do all things through Christ strengthening thee (Phil 4:13); though without him thou canst do nothing (Jn 15:5).

Above all, let thy righteousness exceed theirs in the purity and spirituality of it. What is the exactest form of religion to thee? The most perfect outside righteousness? Go thou higher and deeper than all this! Let thy religion be the religion of the heart.

Sixth Discourse On The Sermon On The Mount (Sermon XXVI)

See more by John Wesley.

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Thomas Ken on Daniel and the Lenten fast

Monday, March 15th, 2010
An image of Bishop Thomas Ken (1637-1711)

Bishop Thomas Ken (1637-1711)

IN a Sermon preached at King James II’s chapel in Whitehall, Bishop Thomas Ken (1637-1711) offered some remarks on Lent and on the discipline of fasting.

His subject was the prophet Daniel, who made appeal to God over the Exile of the Jews under Babylonian rule (597 -539 BC) by “prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes” (Dan 9:3), and who “ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine into his mouth” (see Dan 10:2).

In keeping with the Reformers, Ken recommended that those who fast in Lent should not cherry-pick things to “go without”, but should adopt a general simplicity of fare – always in keeping with our health and situation, and without becoming legalistic about it.

NOTHING is more plain than this, that Daniel did not think the bare abstaining from flesh to be fasting, when in the mean time we indulge ourselves in all the most palatable wines, all the delicacies of fish, and all the luxury of banquets. This is a licentious notion, which rose by the decay of christian piety. When he fasted, his diet was afflicting, and such as became a mourner; not to humour, but to chastise nature; not to pamper his appetite, but merely to appease it.

The ancient Christians knew no such distinction between fish and flesh; their lenten-fare was bread and water and salt; and their first meal on fasting days, was not till the evening.

I mention this example, to show you what the ancients thought fasting, and how they kept Lent; I do not exhort you to follow them any further, than either our climate, and our constitutions will bear; but we may easily follow Daniel, in abstaining from wine, and from the more pleasurable meats, and such an abstinence as this, with such a mourning for our own sins, and the sins of others, is the proper exercise of a primitive spirit, during all the weeks of Lent.

Prose Works Of Thomas Ken. A Sermon Preached At The King’s Chapel In Whitehall, 1685.

More by Thomas Ken here. He also wrote many prayers, and a preparation for Holy Communion.

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John Wesley on fasting, literal and moral

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
An image of The Revd Dr John Wesley (1703-1791)

The Revd Dr John Wesley (1703-1791)

THIS morning’s reading (Mk 9:2-29), about the epileptic boy, and his father who cried “Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief!”, is very nicely explained by Archbishop John Bird Sumner (1780-1862).

Since I quoted from him only yesterday, though, I thought I would simply upload a couple of extracts (on applying our belief in Jesus to ourselves, and on fasting and self-denial), along with a nice prayer by Bishop Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) for the grace and strengths of faith.

Meanwhile, one of the chief purposes of this blog is to set the record straight about classical Anglicanism, and the charge – or claim, depending where you stand – that it was no longer the old-fashioned, disciplined Christian spirituality of previous centuries, which it most certainly was.

An example is fasting, which our reading recommends together with prayer as something of great spiritual potency. John Wesley (1703-1791) was a great advocate of the discipline, composing a sermon to respond to the usual objections.

“BUT is it not better (as it has, secondly, been objected) to abstain from pride and vanity, from foolish and hurtful desires, from peevishness, and anger, and discontent, than from food?” Without question it is.

But here again we have need to remind you of our Lord’s words, “these things ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” And, indeed, the latter is only in order to the former; it is a mean to that great end. We abstain from food with this view, that, by the grace of God, conveyed into our souls, through this outward mean, in conjunction with all the other channels of his grace which he hath appointed, we may be enabled to abstain from every passion and temper, which is not pleasing in his sight. We refrain from the one, that, being endued with power from on high, we may be able to refrain from the other.

So that your argument proves just the contrary to what you designed. It proves, that we ought to fast. For, if we ought to abstain from evil tempers and desires, then we ought thus to abstain from food: since these little instances of self-denial, are the ways God hath chosen, wherein to bestow that great salvation.

Sermons Vol I. Sermon XXIX: On the Sermon On The Mount, Discourse VII.

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Peter Gunning on the Lenten fast and the Bridegroom

Thursday, February 18th, 2010
An image of Peter Gunning (1614-1685), Bishop of Ely

Peter Gunning (1614-1684), Bishop of Ely

THE idea of fasting in Lent can be understood in terms of the spiritual marriage of Christ and his Church.

AND they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. (Lk 5:33-35)

Peter Gunning (1614-1684), Bishop of Ely, wrote a dense sermon to show that the Lenten fast has full Apostolic authority, and appealed to this text as part of his argument.

In the course of his sermon, Gunning gives us a picture of how Christ the Bridegroom redeems his bride.

MEANTIME as upon the espousals He became chargeable with His spouse’s debts, and hath discharged them on His cross, and after that discharge was taken from prison and from judgment, and hath washed her in His own blood, and hath given her the pledge of His Holy Spirit, and clothed her with the double garments of His righteousness; so also is she called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord did name; from His name, Christ, she is called Christian first at Antioch.

The Pascal Or Lent Fast.

The idea is that the marriage of Christ and his Church produces a community of property and a legal identity, such that Christ’s merits supply our debts, and we are called by Christ’s name rather than by the name of sinners.

Gunning held that we may fairly choose to fast at times of the Church year when we particularly recall our Bridegroom being taken from us in the crucifixion, and also at times in our public or private lives when we feel that he is distant, and we would like to feel him present again. It is essentially an act of love, a wife identifying with her husband’s unconditional love and feeling deeply every moment they are apart.

This makes abstract-sounding phrases like “substitutionary atonement” come alive. When we think of it in terms of a loving husband who pays his wife’s crushing debts from a store of his own, a store for which he himself had first voluntarily paid with his life, it has much more impact.

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Posted in Fasting, Lent, Marriage | 2 Comments »