You may already know that Ramadan this year overlapped with its Christian counterpart: Lent.
Lent is the 40-day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.
It is marked by three main foci: fasting, prayer and giving to the needy.
Fasting is common to many world religions. It is also something people sometimes do, not for religious reasons, but for physical or medical reasons.
Christians have practised fasting since the time of Jesus (see Matthew 6:16-18). Jesus doesn’t give any hard and fast rules on how fasting should be done, so there is a lot of variety in the way Christians choose to do it.
While some may opt to restrict their food intake during Lent, others forgo foods, or perhaps other luxuries that they enjoy, for example chocolate, alcohol, or social media.
They do this to regain a sense of appreciation for good things they might otherwise take for granted.
Especially in affluent countries like Australia, our lives are so saturated with good things that we start to feel entitled to them and come to expect them.
It can be a very good exercise to consciously and deliberately lay our luxuries aside for a time, so that we can regain a sense of appreciation for how blessed we truly are.
It is good not only to give things up, but also to share with others, especially people in need.
Traditionally, when people gave up luxuries, they would save up the money which they would otherwise spend on the things they were giving up.
They would then donate this money towards charities or other agencies that helped care for the needy.
The third element is prayer. This is important, because it provides a spiritual focus for the other two exercises.
The idea is that you redirect your time and energy towards prayer. Suppose you have given up social media, then you could take the time you would normally invest into managing your social media accounts, and you could spend it in prayer or reading the Bible.
Likewise, if you’re focusing on the needs of other people, it’s natural to spend some of your prayer time commending these people and their needs to God.
When Jesus teaches his followers about fasting, almsgiving and prayer, he instructs them to surround it all with a spirit of humility.
He tells his disciples not to make a big show of what they’re doing, to draw attention to themselves, and make themselves look good in front of others.
Instead, he says, do it in a quite way that nobody notices. The important thing is that God sees, and that’s all that matters.
Finally, it is no coincidence that Lent is a time for Christians to prepare for the celebration of Easter.
This is a time to remember how Jesus gave his life for the world, how he prayed for the world, how he saw us in our need, and he reached out his arm to save us.
Put simply, Lent is an invitation to draw closer to God grateful for all that we have received from him through Jesus Christ.
Pr Matthias Prenzler
Trinity Lutheran Church, Echuca
27°C