(005) Hallowed Opportunity

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Hallowed Opportunity

October 28, 2007

·         Art’s gentleness and compassion

·         Scott’s wisdom and thoroughness

·         Micah’s passion and insight

Bibleman

Q: What was your favorite Halloween costume?

Mine was when I dressed up as Bibleman. That was five years ago. Bible man is a rather cheesy, overly commercial Christian action hero. As you may have guessed I’m not a big fan.

However, I had been given a Bibleman cape and mask, along with some t-shirts and I am also cheap. So I decide to do a bit of a parody on Bibleman. My back story was the Bible man couldn’t make it so I was his half-baked fill-in.

I put on long-johns, a swim suit, and grabbed the smallest Bibleman t-shirt – a child small. I washed it in hot water to make it shrink. It wasn’t small enough, so I hemmed it.

I broke a rib squeezing into it, but it had the desired effect – about four inches of my hairy belly hung out the front. Walking around with my cape and mask, I was a sight to behold. The Children’s Church director still hasn’t forgiven me.

Family Fun or devil’s holiday?

Q: If you grew up in a Christian home, what was your family’s take on Halloween? Innocent fun or the devil’s holiday?

For us I think it was about an 80/20 mix. It was mostly fun, but there was something a little scary about it.

We had to carefully examine all of our candy and throw out anything that wasn’t prepackaged, because everyone knew Satanists were poisoning candy and putting razor blades in apples.

·         The upside was that I didn’t have to keep any of the fruit.

Halloween is easily the most controversial holiday among Christians. I wanted to know if it is okay for me to celebrate Halloween, so went to our highest authority: The internet.

So I Googled “Is Halloween Evil,” and found that overwhelmingly, the answer is “yes.” My favorite site was “yourgoingtohell.com” The best part was that “You’re” was misspelled.

Christians have developed a bad reputation when it comes to Halloween – we’re first rate party-poopers. One of my favorite King of the Hill episodes gives a painfully accurate portrayal.

If you know the series at all, you know that Hank has a hard time relating to his son Bobby, but Halloween was one thing that they had, until a fundamentalist Christian lady get Halloween canceled at the school and convinces Bobby that it is Satan’s holiday and anyone who celebrates it is going to hell.

·         The climax of the episode is Hank telling her that Halloween isn’t about demons and evil, it’s about having fun with Bobby.

·         Of course he throws a couple of “I tell you what’s” in.

A good question

But this stereotype isn’t as true as it used to be. Christians seem to be getting less condemning of Halloween. Most articles in “Christianity Today” articles encourage a balanced approach of letting your kids have fun without embracing the darker side.

To me, that’s good news, because I believe that Christians should look for productive ways to interact with their culture, rather than being reactionary and condemning.

At the same time, I need to guard myself against a condemning attitude. Mine is snobbery towards those that say Halloween’s pure evil and Christians should have nothing to do with it.

The fact is, they are asking a really good question, one that we must ask ourselves, rather than blindly adopting the world’s perspective. How are the children of the light supposed to relate to this dark world we live in?

·         And that question, especially as it relates to Halloween, is our topic today.

Citizens of another world

To be a Christian means to be a citizen of another world. In the book of Philippians, Paul says that we are citizens of heaven. We should never feel completely at home here.

You probably all know how the Lord’s prayer goes:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:9-10 NIV 

We want God’s will to be done – we want an end to sin and pain, death and destruction, yet a glance at the newspaper tells us it ain’t so. As Christians, we are citizens of heaven, where God’s will is done, but we live on earth where it is not.

·         So again, how do we live as children of God in a sinful world?

I read an articles year ago that explained in very well. There’s basically three views, two wrong and one right. Each of them is compared to living in different Biblical place.

1)  Samaria: In the world and of the world

Samaria was inhabited by Jews who intermarried with pagans and compromised their faith. Likewise, many Christian are so engrossed in this world that it’s hard to tell them apart.

·         On an average day, they’ll have the same bad attitudes, dishonesty, and selfishness as the non-Christians around them

2)  Jerusalem: Not in the world nor of the world

Jerusalem was the capital of Israel, where Jews lived separate from pagans around them. Many Christians are so distinct from the world that they can’t effectively relate to it.

·         These are the Ned Flanders – they might be nice people, but you don’t even understand half what they say!

·         I’ve spent far too much time in Jerusalem.

3)  Babylon: In the world, not of the world

In the Bible, the Jews were exiled to Babylon. God told them to settle down there and seek the prosperity of that land, even though it wasn’t their home.

Likewise, I believe that we as Christians are called to “live in Babylon.” Jesus said he didn’t want to take us out of this world. We live here and have the power to bring good.

Interpret, engage, and transform

Our mission statement calls us:

To exist as an authentic Christian community that interprets, engages, and transforms our culture in Skagit Valley through a genuine expression of the gospel of Christ.

·         In order to be expressions of the Gospel and example of Christ, we first have to interpret.

Interpretation is a two way act, from one language to another. We are the interpreters; we speak the language of earth and the language of heaven.

·         Interpretation means that we seek to understand our culture, and then help them understand Christ.

As we interpret, we must also engageconnect and relate to our culture in ways that are meaningful to them. It’s just like the Apostle Paul talking to the Greek philosophers. He quoted the pagan writers and found points of contact.

·         We engage our culture by finding points of contact with them, and Halloween gives us another point of contact.

Only after we’ve interpreted and engaged our culture, can we effectively transform it – bringing those around us to the love, hope, and healing that can only be found in Christ.

Back to Halloween

So back to the question: How do we, as the children of light relate to this dark world?

We remember that we living in Babylon, never forgetting that we don’t belong here, but all the while seeking to transform our culture through interpretation and engagement.

·         And Halloween is as an opportunity to interpret, engage, and transform.

But, the argument goes, if Halloween is truly evil, shouldn’t God-fearing Christians avoid it completely? As Paul said:

Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 NIV

And they have a point. If Halloween is truly evil, with no potential for good, if it is “Satan’s holiday,”, then it should not be celebrated by Christians.

·         But that is a big “if.”

There are two main arguments raised for Halloween being evil: The first points to its origins and the second to what it currently stands for.

Hallow’s history

First, let’s briefly look at the origins because a large majority of those condemning Halloween do so based on its origins. There is a lot of misinformation on this topic, so let’s start with a very quick review:

Halloween began in Ireland before the time of Christ. The Celts were pantheist, believing that God was literally in nature. They hence worshiped nature.

·         They celebrated a huge harvest festival on October 31st, called “Samhain” (SOW-en), which means “Summer’s End.”

It’s possible that the celebration included horrible things like human sacrifices, but our only source for information is what the Romans wrote, and they were known to vilify their enemies.

·         They also wrote that Christians did child sacrifices.

When the Romans invaded Britain, they added mixed Samhaim (SOW-en) with two of their own holidays, Feralia which honored the dead, and a feast to the goddess of fruit trees and gardens.

200 years later, Constantine became the first Christian Roman emperor and Christianity spreads throughout the empire. About 400 years later, the church replaced Samhaim and Feralia with a day to honor the saints who did not have their own day.

·         It was called “All Saint’s Day,” or “All Hallows” and was held Nov. 1st, which ironically is my dad’s birthday.

·         The celebrations began the night before, on “Hallow’s Eve, October 31st.

So does Halloween have pagan origins? Absolutely, even if it wasn’t as bad as the Chick Tracks say.

But if we are going to follow the “pagan origin” argument, we’d also have to give up birthdays, Easter (named after a pagan goddess), Christmas, and about half of the weddings traditions.

·         That’s what JW’s do – at least they’re consistent.

Business of redemption

But this line of reasoning ignores one fundamental truth: God’s people have always been in the business of redeeming what is evil, and making it good. Case in point:

Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds – his name is the LORD – and rejoice before him. Psalm 68:4 NIV

Looks simple enough, doesn’t it? But this title “rider on the clouds” is a very curious one. It wasn’t typically used of God, but it was the title of Baal, who was the ancient pagan god that the Israelites frequently got into trouble for worshipping.

This verse is even more interesting when it’s read in Hebrew. We have good reason to believe that this verse is a rewrite from an earlier version which said “his name is Baal.”

·         In other words, the Psalmist took a hymn to Baal and rewrote it with God’s name, Yahweh.

This isn’t plagerism, it is a statementyou say that Baal is the Rider on the Clouds, but Yah`weh is.

And that gives us a little understanding into the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal on top of Mount Carmel. Elijah sets up a showdown between Yahweh and Baal.

It was a very straight forward challenge: we’ll each set up an altar to our god, and then our god has to light it.

As you know, the prophets of Baal couldn’t get Baal to light his, but with a simple prayer, Yahweh lights his. But there is a little more to it than that.

Here is a picture of Baal. Can you see what is in his hand? It’s a bolt of lightening. Baal was supposed to be the rider on the clouds, the god of storms, but in the end, he couldn’t come up with one lousy bolt of lightening.

·         But Yahweh could, on a clear day no less.

The point of that is that God is God. As the Bible says “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” (1 Cor. 10:26)

It is not as if God will be a little less in control on Halloween and the devil will be a little more. Yet fearfulness some Christians seems to say that’s what they think. 

Again, God’s people have always been in the business of redeeming what is corrupt. Can Christians redeem Halloween by “interpreting, engaging, and transforming”? I think so!

What does it stand for?

The second objection is that Halloween stands for evil, that it’s Satan’s holiday, a celebration of the demonic. And is that true? Yes, for some people. There are probably people out there for whom Halloween is truly an occultic event.

·         But their numbers and activity have been exaggerated.

Q: How many children have been poisoned by Halloween candy?

There are no documented cases of random Halloween candy poisoning. According to Snopes.com, the only two case of poisoning occurred as cover-up by family members.

Q: So what is does Halloween stand for?

A: For almost everybody: Candy, costumes, and spooky fun.

Certainly, there’s a lot of inappropriate things about Halloween celebrations – from drunken parties, to risqué or gory costumes, and increased interest in the occult, with Ouija boards, etc. 

But, I would argue that there are a lot of inappropriate things about Christmas celebrations, from the gross materialism to all of Tim Allen’s “Santa Clause” movies.

·         But I’m not ready to give up a cherished childhood memory and a powerful opportunity to engage my culture because of that. 

Let’s return to a verse I read earlier:

Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 NIV

The reason we have to test everything is that almost nothing is 100% good or evil. Almost everything in our culture is a mixture. So we must hold on to the good, but avoid the evil.

Acceptable ratio

So since Halloween has a lot of ungodly and evil elements to it, but it can also be used for good, to engage and redeem our culture, we have to ask an important question:

Q: What is the acceptable ratio of good to evil?

·         I am sure some folks argue that smoking weed is a great witnessing opportunity.

That is a question I can’t answer for youyou have to answer it for yourself.

Here are two questions to guide us. And these don’t apply just Halloween, but anytime we have to evaluate how to live as a child of God in a dark world:

Q: Can you participate without being harmed?

Q: Will involvement help or hinder your witness?

I have a Christian friend who is a bartender and has wrestled with this issue. But he realized that he can work there without being personally harmed, and that it gives him a tremendous ability to be a light in a dark place.

So if you believe that Halloween is too evil for Christians to participate in, then I respect that.

But if you believe that it can be used to engage and transform our culture, here are two ways you can do so:

1.  Get to know your neighbor.

Q: How many of you know all of your neighbors?

We don’t and I am genuinely looking forward to Halloween as a chance to get to know more of them.

Q: Remember I said a couple of weeks ago about reaching our neighbors by inviting, welcoming, and including them?

·         It’s hard for me to invite them in a relational context if I don’t even know their names

What are our neighbors going to learn about us on Halloween? Please don’t be the mean neighbor who has their lights off. And pretty please don’t be the one who gives tracks instead of candy.

·         I think we should be known for giving the best treats, which is painful for me because I am so cheap.

2.  Use interest in the supernatural as an opportunity.

Halloween brings some very spiritual themes to the forefront: demons, ghosts, hauntings, and death.

The problem is that the world has some very confused ideas about these things. Time for another C. S. Lewis quote:

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.

They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or magician with the same delight. Screwtape Letters

Halloween oozes of both these dangers: A fascination with the demonic and spiritual things on one hand and on the other making devils so ludicrous and silly as to dismiss them all together.

As believers who know the truth, we are able to offer spiritual insight they can’t get anywhere else. As Paul said:

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:5-6 NIV 

And that is our challenge this Halloween: To make the most of this opportunity. This may be the only time of the year that our neighbors come to our house. Let’s interpret, engage, and transform our neighborhood with the truth of the Gospel.

Prayer:

Father, on this Halloween, we pray that you help us build bridges, establish relationships, and shine your light into our neighborhoods.

·         Provide us with opportunities to talk about you in natural ways.

·         I pray that interpreting, engaging, and transforming our culture be a hallmark of this church.

And keep the kids safe out there as they run around in the dark.

Announcements

·         Daylight Saving Time ends next SundayFall back. This may be the only time each year some of you are early to church.

·         Don’t forget that you can come at 9:30 on Sundays and have a latte, and hang out.

·         Finally, don’t forget to give your first five minutes after service to God by talking to someone you don’t know.

Benediction (2 Corinthians 13:14 NIV)

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  Amen.

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