Today's Scripture Reading (October 31, 2022): Proverbs 3
All Hallows Eve is upon us
again. The night is inhabited by all kinds of
ghosts and goblins, superheroes and important fictional characters, and some
non-fictional characters. It is always an important question about how we, as
Christians, should react to this pagan festival. I know some Christians who try
hard to ignore it and are almost insulted if anyone should bring up the concept
of Halloween within their hearing. As a youth Pastor, I was part of a counter-cultural event on this night called Neewollah,
Halloween spelled backward. It was an all-night activity-filled event that kept everyone awake by going from
one action-packed event to another.
Tonight, I will be attending
a "Trunk or Treat" event, an evening when a group of people will dress up in costumes and hand out candy to the
kids who will visit the field beside the church. There will be a fire going so
the kids can
warm up and free hot chocolate and hot dogs to warm the inside of our costumed
visitors. And every year, I field the
complaints. How can a Christian organization do anything to embrace Halloween?
And often, my answer is, how can we not? How can we not bring
something good into
a night filled with evil, even if
the evil is pretend? How can we not do good, regardless of what the world might
be doing?
But then, of course, I travel
back to my teen days and remember turning the church I attended as a kid into a
haunted house for Halloween night. The church became a place of artificial
horrors for one evening. And on that night, I was ushered into rooms I didn't even know existed, all in the name of fun.
Maybe part of the problem is
that I have never taken Halloween too seriously. The curses pronounced on
Halloween are fake, along with all the ghosts and goblins that go house to house, and trunk to
trunk, looking for candy. Is it a
stepping stone to something more serious? I don't know. It wasn't for me, and to be honest, I don't know anyone who celebrated Halloween with me as a kid who moved on to develop a serious fascination with the occult. But it is possible
if someone is bent that way. But the only curse that really bothers me is the
one God pronounces on the wicked. I want to be the one God blesses because, with the strength of God inside
of us, we try to do what is good.
And hopefully, we can be blessed because we have shown love to our communities, even if a portion of that good is just handing out candy to the children of our
neighborhoods on All Hallows Eve.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading:
Proverbs 4
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