Lenten Reflection: Repairers of the Breach

Isaiah 58:1-12 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

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.² 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.^[a]3 “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.⁴ 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.⁵ 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?

⁶ 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?⁷ 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?⁸ Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,    and your healing shall spring up quickly;your vindicator^[b] shall go before you;    the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.⁹ 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,¹⁰ 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.¹¹ 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.¹² 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.

It was at a Montreat Conference a few years back when I became familiar with a powerful line of scripture from Isaiah. I am sure I had heard it before, but it took Bishop William Barber who at the time was the director of the North Carolina Council of Churches for it to make an impact. The particular phrase comes from the 12^th verse of the 58^th chapter of Isaiah.

That line from the text is “Repairer of the breach.”

Later that line became the name of an organization Bishop Barber helped create that works for the poor and marginalized.

Now that phrase “Repairers of the Breech”, sounds poetic and noble. But to Isaiah’s original hearers, it was not abstract. It was painfully concrete.

You see historically Isaiah 58 speaks to people who have returned from exile.

The city of Jerusalem was in disrepair. Parts of the city’s walls were in ruins.

The city was physically broken. It was also socially fractured and spiritually lost.

The people were fasting and praying, trying to restart religious life. And yet things are not getting any better.

And into this painful reality God responds, through the prophet Isaiah saying, “That is not the kind of fast I am after.”

Now we need to understand that physically a breach was a literal gap in a city wall. It was a place of vulnerability. A place where enemies could enter. If there was a breach, the whole community was exposed.

To be called a “repairer of the breach” meant you were someone who closed the gap. You rebuilt what had crumbled. You made it possible for people to live securely again.

Verse 12 promises:

“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.”

Notice what God cares about in these verses of scripture. Not performative religion. Not dramatic displays of fasting. God cares about loosing the bonds of injustice, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, and refusing to turn away from your own kin.

Original hearers would have understood this as deeply practical. This was about rebuilding neighborhoods and restoring fairness. It was about making streets livable again.

It was about getting your hands dirty.

During Lent we often focus inward. We give something up. We examine our hearts. That matters. But Isaiah reminds us that true repentance always spills outward.

The breaches today may not be stone walls, but they are no less real. There are breaches of trust. Breaches between neighbors. Breaches across political and cultural divides. Breaches in families. Breaches where poverty, prejudice, or indifference have left people exposed.

And if we are honest, some of those breaches run right through our own hearts.

I remember Mr. Foster from my dad’s first church who was the churches caretaker and later my adopted grandfather who once said, “Clay, if you see a hole in the fence, you don’t just stand there talking about it. You go and mend it.”

That is Isaiah in plain language.

Friends the truth is there are gaps in the wall of our communities. Lent is not the season to sit on the porch and complain about it. It is the season to pick up a hammer. To refuse to widen the breach. To resist throwing more stones into already crumbling walls.

Lent invites a different question. Not simply, “What will I give up?” but “Where is the breach I am being called to repair?”

Where can I loosen injustice rather than tighten it?Where can I restore trust rather than create more suspicion?Where can I help rebuild a street so someone else can live there again?

And friends here is the beautiful irony I have discovered. People who repair breaches are themselves restored in the process. As they rebuild what is in ruin, God rebuilds them. As they restore streets, God restores their souls.

So, this Lent, perhaps our fast is not merely from sweets or screens. Perhaps our fast is from indifference. From cynicism. From the easy habit of pointing out what is broken without ever bending down to mend it.

May we be called repairers of the breach.

May we raise up foundations for generations we may never meet.

And may our streets become places where all of God’s children can truly live in peace.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Alleluia Amen.