It's ramadan again.
This is my 12th since coming to Paris in April of 1995. I barely knew what is was back then.
But when you live in a country so marked by the presence of Islam, in a city that more than 
a million Muslims call home, in a neighborhood in which all the butchers are Islamic as well as most of the children in the public schools ... you get a good feel for what Ramadan is all about.
As I ride and wall through La Goutte d'Or neighborhood this past week, I got even more of a feel for part of the draw and appeal of this religion.
The French call it solidarity.
In Islam, they talk about the Umma. It's the community of Muslim believers throughout the world. There's an idea of them being linked together spiritually despite the fact that they come from different countries, speak different languages, have different skin colors, etc.
(here are some Muslim men hanging out in a neighborhood park waiting for sundown when they will break the day's fast)
When you walk around my neighborhood during Ramadan you really sense the Umma. People are out in the streets. They're shopping for food (it's interesting that during a month of fasting there is so much focus on food ... but then, it's the same thing when I try to diet, I guess).
All the little neighborhood restaurants are packed at sundown for the traditional shorba, the soup consumed at sundown to break the day's fast.
The shorba is often shared with anyone who comes into the restaurant, even if they can't afford to pay for it. There are trucks that go around serving shorba to the poor. You also see people giving food and money to beggars on the sidewalk or in the subway.
(here's one of the many stands selling North African pastries in the neighborhood)
The shorba is usually just the beginning. There's usually a meal with friends and family, larger and smaller meals depending on the day of the week during the monthlong fast period.
There are special pastries -- most of them honey-drenched -- that are particularly consumed during this time. There's fermented milk ... and fresh dates.
And the atmosphere is somehow holy and festive, serious and joyful.
The sense of togetherness in this neighborhood is simply undeniable.
THE UMMA VS. THE BODY?
All of this led me to reflect on the church. I couldn't help but think that what I was sensing in this neighborhood would be a hard act to follow for the church.
In fact, I know it is. I know many Muslims who have become Christians while I've been here in France, and the majority of them have had a hard time in the Western church.
After a few days walking through the hood, this is not surprising. Nor is it surprising that many French people and other Europeans are drawn to Islam. There's an itch that many feel for community and brotherhood that is particularly well scratched here.
In individualistic Western culture, we spend most of our time trying to scratch our own itches. We often don't realize that it's easier to reach some itches in community.
This wouldn't be a problem if Western churches were only for Western people. But in cities like Paris, East meets West every day. And many Western Christians want to share their faith in Christ with people in the Muslim world, in the middle East, in Asia and in Africa.
But Western Christians have a great deal standing in the way of this goal.
SIDING WITH THE OPPRESSED
One of Christianity's biggest obstacles is its real and perceived ties to the rich, powerful Western world. A world that many see as the source of selfish materialism, oppression, exploitation, etc.
As you walk around the neighborhood here, looking at magazine covers, listening to discussions, reading grafitti ..., you begin to sense a culture, a religion, that is pulling for the underdog. You sense that Islam is a religion of the people, the little guy, battling against injustice.
Perhaps this changes when you're hanging with the elite from Saudi Arabia or Egypt, but among the masses here, among the working class and the poor, there is an unmistakable sense that Islam is FOR them.
Christianity in the southern hemisphere does this as well, but Western Christianity has a real problem.
PR PROBLEM
Of course, the Body of Christ is supposed to be about justice, right? What was it Jesus said?
"I have come to announce good news for the poor, freedom for the captives, release for the oppressed."
Sounds like Jesus wanted to pass along a very populist mission to his church. It was THE very first thing Jesus said about his public mission.
One would think that Christians would be known for their solidarity and advocacy with the poor and powerless in the world. And indeed, there has been much good done by many Christians over the centuries.
But those of us from America or Europe cannot help but be linked to the injustices done by our powerful cultures toward the weaker ones they have encountered across the world in the past several centuries.
(some African mothers out shopping for the evening meal)
We cannot deny that Christians were all-to-often willing accomplices to the wrongs that were done to weaker countries across the developing world.
And even if we are able to get beyond those past realities, it is still true today that we have adopted, for the most part, the individualism that is espoused by our Western culture.
The Body is a concept that puts us squarely in the middle of something that should exude solidarity. It should be all the Umma that anyone could desire.
But the churches that a curious Muslim from my neighborhood might visit here in Paris would most certainly fall short of matching the sort of togetherness he's feeling right now during Ramadan.
And he'd probably be alarmed at the indifference many of us would demonstrate when faced with many of the social and political issues that deeply touch him.
It's easy to try to get below the surface of all that goes on during Ramadan. Christians can easily point to the fact that we don't believe in a works-based salvation, that we don't get points for fasting or giving to the poor, etc.
We can easily point to the flaws of other cultures or other religions.
But if you live in a place where you can do so, I'd encourage you to go have a shorba somewhere before Ramadan ends. Or perhaps you can even get invited to break the fast with some friends.
If so, instead of looking to criticize Islam, take a look at the good you see. Listen to the hearts of the people you're with. And then listen to see if God gives you another image than you have imagined for what the Body should aspire to be.
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