On Ash Wednesday, I wrote about the practice of giving something up for Lent.  I suggested that we are called to give up, not something simple like a certain food, but a way of life. The Hebrew prophet, Isaiah, calls us to a radical conversion.  I wrote that my response, this year, to Isaiah's call, was to give up what doesn't work in the church anymore.  I believe that the conventional way of being a church that views the congregation as a store that offers new customers religious goods and services needs to go.  I believe that God's Word is calling us to be missional communities of faith.  We exist, not merely for ourselves, but for others and ultimately for the glory of God.

But a conversion towards being a more authentic church is only the tip of the iceberg.  Isaiah calls us to give up our "top down" way of looking at the world.  The prophet Isaiah points us toward those in our society who are hungry, seeking shelter, suffering and all of those who are oppressed by unfair labor practices.  Isaiah declares that the one who suffers is our "kin."  He insists that the poor are our own flesh and blood. 

We are all children of God.  We all deserve respect, grace, and a meal when we are hungry.  German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "It remains an experience of incomparable value, that we have learned to see the great events of world history for once from below, from the perspective of those who are excluded, suspected, maltreated, powerless, oppressed and scorned, in short the sufferers."

During Lent, we are called, not to simply give up something like a certain food or habit, but, to give up a top down perspective in exchange for the bottom up view that Bonhoeffer wrote about.  Isaiah, then, promises wholeness and health for our communities:  "Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard."