If... then types of theology

I've had a couple of thoughts on things that are together in the Bible that don't seem to come together, or they do need to come together, in our practice. With only ten minutes before I have to get ready for school, I'll focus on just one for this morning. These aren't original with me. This one, in particular, was brought to our attention by Pastor Rhonda during our 21-day fast back in January. I thought it was profound, and I wanted to share it.

In Matthew 6, Jesus begins a new section of His "Sermon on the Mount" with the words, "When you give to the needy..." A paragraph later (I'm sure Jesus thought in paragraphs... right?), Jesus says, "And when you pray..." So, for those two topics, there is an assumption made by Jesus that we will give and pray. He doesn't say, "If you give... " or, "If you pray... " but "When..." And, for most Christians I know, even if they don't do these things well, they at least give lip service to the need for them. We have an offering in church every Sunday. We endeavor to pray at least over meals and before and after each church meeting. So, why is it that we tend to skip over the next section, which begins, "And when you fast... "?

I think it's because it costs us - our flesh, primarily - something, and we aren't willing to pay the cost. We don't really believe it matters, so we aren't willing to pay the cost. It's not truly a part of our church culture like prayer and giving are, so we find it easy to brush aside. As partial evidence of this, I point to two things. First, look at church giving as a whole. Do we as a church actually give 10%? Not on average. I don't know what the stats are, but I know it's fairly low. Ten to fifteen years ago, I believe the stat was 3%, on average, is what the average Christian gives. Then there's prayer. Pastor Sal spoke on this last Sunday. (Click the link and scroll down.) We'll pray over meals, or at church, or before and after meetings. However, get up an hour earlier than needed in order to pray? Attend a prayer service at our church instead of watching our favorite TV show? Let's not get radical. After all, prayer helps, but it doesn't help that much. Okay, I'm getting sarcastic now. However, that's evidence number one for why I believe we don't want to sacrifice for fasting - we don't really sacrifice that much for giving our finances to God, or for prayer. Evidence number two, I simply insert... me. True, I took part in the 21-day fast in January. Pat myself on the back. Okay, that's enough, because the reality is that I haven't fasted since then, and I really don't want to. It costs me something... a lot. I know the benefits -spiritually, physically, emotionally - but I like food, and our culture is permeated with it. It's probably the one thing in our culture that we soak our selves in more than sex. I want to do it, but there's always an excuse.

I'm running late, so let me close with this thought from Pastor Rhonda. Ideally we tithe 10%. I don't know how prayer fits into this, except that we try and pray regularly. What if we were to fast regularly, and it was 10% of our month? What if we actually fasted 3 days a month, or 36-37 days a year? Not just as a religious exercise, but truly use those days to spend time seeking God. We may not be able to get to a desert and spend all day seeking God, but we could use that time to get our focus on him for the opportunities we did have to be in His presence. What might God do then? I wonder if maybe some of the lack of miracles in our churches (you know, the ones that are supposed to follow those who believe, even just the culturally acceptable ones) might start showing up like they do in other nations. This is a little short and not well thought out on paper, but it's something to think about. For now, I've got to go have breakfast...