(My thanks to Yolanda Pearce who shared a quote from a Black theologian on her Twitter feed every day during Black History Month, which is where I found the one by Kelly Brown Douglas featured here.)

I saw an osteopath this week and it reminded me of just how connected the body is. Our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health are connected. And the different parts of our body are connected to each other.

For instance, if my knee is injured it may alter the way I stand or walk. And my back may compensate for that in some way, which may cause there to be tension across my shoulders and up my neck. Which may give me a headache. Which in turn may dull my focus and distract my thoughts and affect my emotions. Maybe I’ll be less patient and more snappy with those around me. Everything is connected.

Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

Romans 12:4-5

The Bible describes the people of God (and let’s define that really broadly) as a body, with each part connected and having an impact on the others. And, as the quote from Kelly Brown Douglas says (more of her writing can be found here) – we’re to look for ways to move in empathy for the other parts of the body.

Fannie Lou Hamer gave a speech titled ‘Nobody’s free until everybody’s free’ and that quote still rings powerfully today.

Perhaps that’s what Isaiah was calling us to, when he spoke about “true fasting.”

Is this what you call fasting?

Do you really think this will please the LORD?

“No, this is the kind of fasting I want:

Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;

lighten the burden of those who work for you.

Let the oppressed go free,

and remove the chains that bind people.

Share your food with the hungry,

and give shelter to the homeless.

Give clothes to those who need them,

and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

“Then your salvation will come like the dawn,

and your wounds will quickly heal.

Your godliness will lead you forward,

and the glory of the LORD will protect you from behind.”

Isaiah 58:5-8

Being part of a body means that I cannot move through the world ignoring the “suffering, the heartache, the hunger of others for life, liberty and happiness – for justice” (Kelly Brown Douglas)

Maybe, because all the parts of the body are connected, my wounds cannot heal fully until all our wounds are healed. Maybe, because all the parts of the body are connected, I cannot be fully free until are all fully free. Maybe, because all the parts of the body are connected, I cannot fast as an individual unless I am looking for justice and compassion for others.

Maybe there’s even a privilege in being able to choose to fast something (be it food or TV or social media or …) when others don’t have that choice.

So, if everyone is connected, how does that impact how I live here and now, in the everyday? Rather than being overwhelmed by the sheer scale of that interconnectedness and at the life, liberty and happiness with which I personally move through the word when others do not, how do I take a small step to live differently? Which is, after all, what repentance is – having changed behaviour because of a changed perspective.

Well, the fasting (if you define it very loosely!) I have chosen this Lent is to read Isaiah 58 everyday. And as I’ve been reflecting on the theme of justice and compassion, I’ve been reading a lot of other things too. I’ve bought myself a fair few books. So, I’m going to share the gift and discipline of reading with people near me who would maybe not be able to choose the same form of fasting. I’ve taken a book off my ‘to buy’ list and (after a little bit of research) have given the money instead to the Craigmillar Literacy Trust, a local Edinburgh charity.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. […] The body is not made up of one part but of many.

[…] There should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Excerpts from 1 Corinthians 12