Once every thirty-three years the Islam holiday of Ramadan, the Jewish celebration of Passover and the Christian celebration of Holy Week/Easter overlap. It’s a big deal.
Ramadan is the most sacred month for Muslims. All who are physically able fast from sun-up to sundown. It is a time of deep contemplation and focus on one’s relationship with Allah. It is a month of intense study of the Quran along with extra prayers and acts of charity. At dusk the fast is broken and family and friends gather to celebrate and share a meal. At the end of Ramadan there is a three-day festival called Eid al Fatir.
Passover is the Jewish celebration of the Hebrews’ liberation from slavery in Egypt and the deliverance of the firstborn child of each family from death. By smearing blood on the doorposts of their houses, death “passed over” and spared the child. Contemporary Passover celebrations begin with a Seder supper in which foods symbolizing their captivity and journey to freedom are consumed. Special prayers are recited and the story of liberation is recounted.
Holy Week and Easter are Christian celebrations. They mark Jesus’ return to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival (remember Jesus was a Jew). He was subsequently arrested and put to death as an enemy of the state. Holy Week consists of Maundy Thursday and the Last Supper, Good Friday and the crucifixion, and Easter which is the celebration of resurrection.
All of these religions have a common bond in the Patriarch Abraham. Muslims trace their line back to Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar. Hagar was the slave girl of Abraham and Sarah. Since Sarah was barren, Abraham had a son with Hagar. After Sarah gave birth to Isaac things got a little uncomfortable between Sarah and Hagar. Sarah sent Hagar and Ishmael away. Muslims believe that Ishmael was a prophet and a forefather of Mohammed.
Jews claim Abraham, his son Isaac and Isaac’s son Jacob as their patriarchs, the forefathers of the faith. Christians acknowledge that we are the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and thus firmly connect us to our Jewish roots. It is why we call our faith the Judeo-Christian tradition.
These three religious traditions have much in common. They all acknowledge a deep dependence on God, prayer, gratitude for the bounty and abundance of God and spiritual reflection.
Fasting is also a part of the three religious traditions. There are numerous instances of fasting in both testaments of scripture as well as the Quran. In the early church, fasting was a highly valued practice. Those who were able fasted on Wednesday and Friday until 3:00 p.m. That did not change until the institutionalizing of Christianity by Constantine in the fourth century (that is putting it kindly). Fasting then accompanied the desert mothers and fathers as a spiritual discipline and has since remained slightly out of the mainstream of Christian practice.
However it is embodied, fasting is a reminder that God is the true source of everything. All sustenance comes directly from God. Through fasting, the rich know what it is like to be hungry and they are (hopefully) moved to greater acts of charity on behalf of the poor and hungry.
John Thompson, Associate Professor of religion and philosophy at Christopher Newport’s College says of fasting, “I think you can learn what it means to be human.”
These three major world religions are all children of Abraham.
In this season each is engaged in a time of intense prayer, devotion, fasting and acts of charity. Each tradition tells the story of their faith and how it is lived out in their families. They challenge one another to greater expressions of faith and devotion by the way they live in the world and how they live in the world-wide community.
The convergence of these three religious traditions creates a spiritual energy that permeates the universe. We can harness that energy for the benefit of the world. There is a potential to change the world as we share the richness of our faith traditions. As we pray for our Abrahamic sisters and brothers and look for areas of commonality, we can minimize the misunderstanding and tensions that exist between these traditions. As sisters and brothers in the Abrahamic tradition, it is incumbent on us to deal with our prejudices, fears and anxieties about the traditions that are not our own but whose history we share. Crystal Dunlap of themedialine.org writes, this is an “opportunity for three main faiths of the Holy Land to remember our relationship with one another while we pray and practice good deeds together.”
By being faithful to whatever tradition we claim, we cast our energy into the world for the sake of the world. We are all children of Abraham.
Be sure to listen to the song of the week: All the Children of Abraham by John McCutcheon. You can listen here.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6S59OR1VaE
The Irreverent Reverend 