Letter to the Congregations: 5th October 2024

Our Dear Brethren,

Are we prepared?

Each week we do our best to prepare for the Sabbath before it comes. If we will be driving to services we fill the car beforehand. If we take public transportation we make sure we know the schedule and we're ready to pay for the ride. Food is bought ahead of time, and our outfit is ready to go. Everything that we can think of to prepare is ready.

Preparation for each of the annual Sabbaths is similar, although we also need to make sure we request leave from work or school ahead of time. We also must prepare to give an offering so we don't appear before God empty-handed. For the Feast of Tabernacles there are certain unique preparations we must make. We have our rooms booked and our bags packed. We've also planned out our transportation, and budgeted our meals and activities. We don't want to come up short or be late for the Feast.

As of the time I'm writing this letter, we've already rehearsed the future return of Jesus Christ through the keeping of the Feast of Trumpets. And now, before we can head off to our temporary dwellings for Tabernacles, we prepare for another very unique and very important holy convocation which has its own unique preparation. Are we ready to afflict our souls and humbly gather with one another before God on the Day of Atonement?

There is a certain level of physical preparation that most of us need even when comes to fasting. If we've been in God's Church for any length of time then fasting is not new to us. We are all hopefully taking time throughout the year to draw closer to God through fasting. Each time we fast we become a little more used to going without food and water for twenty-four hours straight. Each time we fast we build up mental stamina for the next time. We also learn a little bit more about our own weaknesses and hopefully realize how much we need the physical and spiritual sustenance that comes from God.

The preparation of our physical bodies can help the physical aspects of the fast. But even more important is the mindset and purpose for fasting. Besides the fact that this one day a year is the only commanded day of fasting in Scripture, we willingly submit to God in obedience because we love Him and want to draw ourselves closer to Him. So on this day we set aside (hopefully permanently) selfish pride and the desires of the flesh, and put that desire for a close, personal relationship with our Creator ahead of our own needs. We gladly give up our typical routines, our meals, our tea and coffee, so we might be able to hear the will of God more clearly.

As Isaiah the prophet recorded, we do not fast to make our own voice heard on high. But rather we fast "to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that [we] break every yoke" (Isaiah 58:6). To be free from the burden of sin and guilt and death is truly the will of God for us! After all, God desires "that all shall come to repentance" and have eternal life as part of His divine family (see 2 Peter 3:9).

Are we prepared to loose the bonds of wickedness? Are we prepared to humbly present ourselves before God? Are we prepared for this Day of Atonement?

Our love is with you,

Lewis VanAusdle

Pastor, United Church of God

NYC, NJ, CT, Malawi, Zimbabwe