The Fast I Choose

I understand that the president spoke for 77 minutes at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington this week. We frequently held National Prayer Breakfast observances on post when I served as a chaplain. We brought in big name guest speakers and the whole base was invited. The Washington observance is the original. It is designed to bring members of Congress, the presidential administration, and other national leaders together.

If I were speaking at a National Prayer Breakfast observance in 2026, here is the text I would use. It’s the Old Testament reading for this Sunday (5th Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A). 

Shout out; do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they want God on their side. “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day and oppress all your workers. You fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am.” 

If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. The LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places and make your bones strong, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. (Isaiah 58:1-12)

At the National Prayer Breakfast, we normally talk about what prayer and religious faith will do for you and for the country. The fasting of which Isaiah speaks was an intense form of prayer for the nation. It was not just a method of personal devotion.

Israel was called to be, out of all the peoples of the earth, God’s chosen nation, to be used for God’s own purposes, to make his ways visible in the world, and to bring salvation to all creation. Fasting together in times of crisis was baked into their national existence.

Israel wasn’t just another country; it was God’s elect. We do not hold that place in the world, but in the words of Isaiah we can still see what God is looking for. The people who gather for the National Prayer Breakfast are doing exactly what Isaiah said. Well, almost. They are eating instead of fasting. They are, however, seeking God. They are claiming the mantle of righteousness. They want God to keep our nation strong and safe.

But look at our nation. How closely do our national sins resemble those of Israel? 

Look, on a personal level, sharing bread with the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and clothing the poor is good for you. I recommend it. Charity and various forms of service take your eyes off yourself. They strengthens human virtue and nurture a godly spirit. True spirituality is not focused solely on the self. Do something for others.

Isaiah, however, is not giving personal advice. He is speaking to the leaders of a nation which fails to practice justice, a nation that practices oppression and violence. Pray all you want. It will do no good without justice. If you want to pray in a way that makes the nation strong, in a way that saves the nation from God’s holy judgment, end oppression and learn to do good.

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