Fast For Good

Today as you fast and pray, I want to point you to something I mentioned briefly in my sermon on gluttony last week. There is some good evidence that the early Christians in Rome would not only fast together but that they would use the money they saved by not eating and use it to get food for the poor. Check this out:

As early as the second century, Christians were practicing an interesting and very sacrificial form of charity. They would fast from meals so that the unconsumed food and resources could be given to the poor and hungry. The first mention of this practice that I have found is in the Shepard of Hermas (early 100s):
Having fulfilled what is written, in the day on which you fast you will taste nothing but bread and water; and having reckoned up the price of the dishes of that day which you intended to have eaten, you will give it to a widow, or an orphan, or to some person in want, and thus you will exhibit humility of mind, so that he who has received benefit from your humility may fill his own soul, and pray for you to the Lord.
It is also found in another second-century writing, the Apology of Aristides (130 CE).
And if there is among them any that is poor and needy, and if they have no spare food, they fast two or three days in order to supply to the needy their lack of food.
The practice was enduring. Origen writes in the third century: "Let the poor man be provided with food from the self-denial of him who fasts." Also, according to historian Michel Riquet,
It has been calculated that at Rome in 250, under Pope Cornelius, ten thousand Christians obliged to fast could provide, from a hundred days' fasting, a million rations a year. These more or less regular offerings were supplemented by gifts made to the Church by rich converts.

I LOVE THIS. It makes me wonder what would happen if we did the same thing? What if every Christian in Richmond fasted for a few meals each week? Could we not feed every hungry person in our city?

That’s food for thought today. Chew on that while you don’t chew on lunch. I hope it goes well for you today.

Chris Barras

Lead Pastor