Ramadan Gathering: Tuesday's Reflection

  

"Happy Ramadan" 

"Ramadan Mubarak" (moo-BAH-ruk)

On Friday evening members of our congregation gathered in our Fellowship Hall for a time of learning and connecting. And feasting, but trust me, it wasn't our usual Lutheran potluck. The Turkish American Society of Minnesota were our hosts for Iftar, a breaking of the fast, and such delicious food they provided.

Before enjoying the food, however, we learned a bit about Ramadan, which began last week. This is the month in which Muslims believe the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammed, and they celebrate by fasting from sunrise to sunset every day of the month. Fasting, we learned, is one of the five pillars of Islam, along with testimony of faith, daily prayer, charity, and pilgrimage.

We also learned what it takes to be a Muslim.
1.     To accept God or to submit to the will of God.
2.     To accept the message of God and Mohammad, that there's an end to the world, a day of judgment, and to accept all the prophets, including Jesus, before Mohammad.
3.      To act as if God is always with you in your actions and can always see you. 

The five pillars are ways to experience and get closer to God. 

I sat next to a young couple from Turkey who have lived in the United States for many years, and he explained to me how easy it was to fast during Ramadan. "Something happens when you fast then. You want to fast. You want to experience God." He told me how even his young children have fasted at times and want to have that experience. 

He stressed to me that the fasting itself is a way to celebrate this time. I would have thought that fasting was a way to prepare for celebration. 

I've always thought of fasting as a discipline, a way to reveal what controls me and also a call to remember how I am sustained not by food, but by God's love. 

Richard Foster in his classic, Celebration of Discipline, The Path to Spiritual Growth, says, "we are not so much abstaining from food as we are feasting on the word of God. Fasting is feasting!"

Fasting as feasting. 
Fasting as celebrating. 
I now see some similarity between the two views. 

Before we ate, however, there was a time of prayer for our Muslim friends. Their prayer rugs had been arranged facing Mecca in our Colonial Room. At times standing and other times in a posture of supplication, they chanted and lifted their prayers. It was a holy time for them and for those of us who stood quietly in the back to not only observe this important ritual, but to hold the space for them. 

And then we ate and continued our conversations about our faith, but also about our work, our families, our concerns for this country. 

My only regret about the evening was that I had not fasted that day as well, and if I attend another Iftar, I intend to do that--both as a symbol of interfaith connection, but also to experience feasting in a new way. 


An Invitation
The last day of Ramadan this year is June 4. Is there a spiritual invitation calling to you during this time? I would love to know.