Christians need a Ramadan

My last year at Duke Divinity I sat in on a panel discussion between Sam Wells, dean of Duke Chapel, and Abdullah Antepli,
Muslim chaplain to Duke University. (Imam Antepli also spoke at Wild
Goose this summer.) In the course of their discussion about Islam and
Christianity, Imam Antepli said something that disturbed me a great
deal about my faith. It went something like this:

When I ask a Muslim what makes them a Muslim I get an
immediate response which includes things like, I pray 5 times a day, I
take care of the sick and the poor, I do not eat this or that, I fast on
a regular basis and I observe Ramadan.   These practices make me
Muslim, they would say.

Imam Antepli then said the thing that damned me and I think most Christians,

When I ask Christians what makes them Christian I usually
get an odd look, and an uncomfortable silence ensues.  At most, they
might say that they believe in Jesus.

Believing in Jesus is just fine, I think we can all agree.   But
Muslims believe in Jesus.  Heck, Jesus said that even demons believe.

Our Christian tendency to fall back on belief talk is an
indication of just how well the Reformation worked.   We swung the
pendulum to the other side – completely.   And I suspect that Martin
Luther would swing to the other side of his grave if he heard our
spineless Christian responses to what it means to be Christian.

Today marks the beginning of Ramadan for Muslims.   It is the start
of a month long period of fasting and prayer and worship.   When I lived
in Bahrain back in my unchurched days I watched devout Muslims go as
far as spitting their saliva out of their mouths while the sun was out
so as to not break their fast from water.   It was 130+  degrees
outside.   I observed this from my air conditioned apartment, sipping my
FIJI water bottle while thanking God I was born to a Christian
household.

That was 15 years ago.    Today, I wish Christians had Ramadan.   I
think we’d be stronger, more faithful, more joyful, and better off for
it.

We are all orienting our lives around something.  We are being
habituated in ways that either bring life or death, or maybe something
in between, like apathy.    It might surprise many of us to discover
that the first Christians around Jesus called themselves The Way.     Being a Christian was about living in a certain way that was distinguishable from other ways.  It might surprise many of us to discover that Sharia, the law for Muslims so often used pejoratively in America, also means The Way.

Have we lost our way when we reduce Christianity to a belief?

Christianity needs a Ramadan.   More precisely, we need to embrace
the practices – the ways – that make us unique and distinguishable.  We
need to become lovers of liturgy again.

That is what Ramadan is, essentially.  A form of liturgy.   It forms
Muslims in a way that fasting, prayer, scripture, eucharist and baptism
ought to be shaping us Christians.   What a pity that so many churches
celebrate eucharist, a central component to Christian worship, monthly
at best, quarterly or yearly at worst.   I’ll never forget the response a
professor of mine gave to the objection that frequent eucharist waters
down its significance.    He asked, “Do you have sex with your spouse
only quarterly to maintain its importance?”

Most mornings I post on my Facebook page a status that simply reads “coffee and morning prayer.”   Each day I use a prayer book
that guides me through my scripture readings for the day and directs my
thoughts towards God – if only for 15 minutes.    Someone once asked
what my motivation was for doing that.  Was I trying to convert people
to my religion?   Or was I just too lazy to think of something more
creative to say?    There may be some truth in both of those
possibilities, but the best answer I can offer is that it grounds me in a
habit that brings me life and I hope (in fact, I know it does) it
models for others one way among many ways that we can distinguish
ourselves as Christian.   It would be a very cool thing, I
think, to see my Newsfeed filled with “coffee and morning prayer” from
the faithful and trying-to-be-faithful among us.    And if you must ask,
yes, coffee (black) is the only acceptable offering to the Lord early
in the morning.   Should you pray after 5, a cold AmberBock is also on
the approved list.

So, thank you, my Muslim brothers and sisters, for reminding us this
Ramadan season that we Christians need to embrace our liturgy – our way –
to greater degrees.    May we become known increasingly more for the
bread and wine we consume at every mass, the widow and orphan we stand
beside, the absurd ways we turn the other cheek, the radical ways we
forgive, the devotion we have to our scriptures and prayers, and the
affection we have for Christ’s body, the Church.

Happy Ramadan, everyone.

(for a fun, satirical piece I wrote last year during Ramadan see: Face to Face with Evil: My Family Visits an Islamic Community Center)

Originally posted at Dancing on Saturday.