Bethlehem Lutheran: An Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Congregation

My church buddy has been talking for a couple of months about attending an ELCA church and this week, on the spur of the moment, I joined him. His mother’s family was ECLA. Marie was at Quaker meeting.

I gotta tell you. There’s no one particular thing that shouted to me about this experience, but I walked in having pretty much given up on fasting this Ramadan, which begins May 15, and I walked out determined to try. And that’s a good thing! This Christian church did not drive me into the arms of Islam, it inspired me to do my duty by God as I understand it and to trust Him to see me through when that duty is challenging.

But back to Bethlehem Lutheran. The greeters were two men who did double duty helping older congregants out of their cars at the church door. They were not your typical greeters in that they were not dressed up, in fact one man struck me as a motorcycle rider. Way to shake it up, Bethlehem Lutheran!

The social hall had some posters talking about mission work and local activism. They are a thrice-weekly pick up location for the Greater Lansing Food Bank, they work on providing handmade quilt kits (as well as survival kits, school kits and sewing kits) to areas of the world in distress, they do outreach to Native American reservations, and they had a world prayer board where you were encouraged to place a stickpin and offer a prayer for a particular area of the world. I understand that their three Women’s Circles are very good from the nice woman in the pew beside me who overheard that we were new and took it on herself to be welcoming.

Once again the pews were too small for my large body to get up and down for singing and Gospel reading but I think I can sit in the handicapper area to alleviate that. Glad to see this church had that. Otherwise, I’m seated throughout the service.

I liked that it was a neighborhood church. And what’s more, at a distance of 2.5 miles, it was practically in my neighborhood.

Oh, and the music! While none of the hymns were familiar to me I felt like there was great promise that they could become so. The hymns were much more accessible than those at All Saints. And they had a bell choir. Awesomesauce.

So, let me speak for a moment about Ramadan, which begins a week from Tuesday.

A lot of religion for me is about duty. Prayer, not eating pork, attending services. Those are kind of obvious ones. I’m considering Jesus’s teaching and considering incorporating some of that guidance into my everyday practice but to be honest they look really hard .

But without community, Ramadan can be really hard, too. When I was breaking my fast with others in people’s homes or at the mosque many evenings, when I was a part of a supportive social circle, I didn’t feel alone and lonely during this month. I checked out the website of the local mosque and their advice was that if you couldn’t fast to the letter of the law and work that you should find another job. That’s just not a realistic take on my life. Even if I were thinking about looking for some support in the Muslim community, it wouldn’t be here. And I don’t have it in me to scour Muslim message boards looking for like minded folks.

Last year, I relied entirely on duty to see me through but to be honest I never felt that closeness with God that, for me, is really the whole point of fasting. Without that communion, Ramadan just feels like a whole bunch of hard.

But the Lutheran service this morning encouraged me to try. To reach out for God and show some faith that He will reach back. To live up to my responsibilities and to trust in God to care for me during that process.

So, thank you Bethlehem Lutheran. I don’t know if I’ll be back but you offered me a great gift this morning.