Coupled with the sights and smells of the Fall, Halloween was simply a lot of good innocent fun growing up. Yet I realize that for many Christian families this is not the case at all... (thus the birth of Trunk or Treat etc. which seems to take the fun out of it in my opinion! Plus could the church find a more sketchy way to give kids candy!?)
Yesterday as I was going about my work I mentioned to someone in passing "and Happy Halloween!" ... as I said it it was supposed to be funny more than anything. I realize people don't typically say "Happy Halloween" like Merry Christmas or something! But all the same it seemed fine.
Yet, this particular person, of whom I don't know super well but what I do know is that she is a devout Christian, paused and said to me..."How about... Happy Fall Fest..."
**insert a little awkward silence***
and then we went our separate ways.
Happy Fall Fest...? Really? ummm... No.
The whole thing reminded me of when we boycotted Disney films growing up (for another blog!) because of certain (fundamentalist) Christian values... until my mom came home with Pocahontas one day on VHS... because really, how long was that going to last!?
Halloween, or better stated, All Hallows Eve... isn't the day we celebrate the devil and his minions...
It is in fact that day that reminds us of the pattern of the universe.
All Hallows Eve... (the eve of All Saints Day, a beautiful Christian holiday) is a necessary moment when we say: to get to the Light we must always go through the Darkness.
Before there is new life there will always be death.
Before there is resurrection there is a burial.
Before there is a new day there is an old one that is passing away.
Our issue isn't goblins... its that we've forgotten the pattern of suffering and death to life that we were brought into even as we live. Its the very pattern Jesus came to teach us... (The sign of Jonah...)
But what we've been taught by the church is to "avoid the dark, dismiss the ugly, don't look that which is difficult in the eye and it may just go away... if you suffer then you must be outside of the Lord's plan for you."
Which coincidentally is the EXACT opposite of what Jesus and the entire thrust of Scripture teaches us. Suffering, the Cross, Death is always the way forward. Blessed are the poor, Blessed are the Hungry.
But we so eloquently have become masters at spiritualizing these revolutionary teachings... until now many are simply left with escapist theology.
Escapist theology will never let you trick or treat.
Because "that which is Dark, that which is Struggle... That which is full of shadows and despair... must be avoided... all we have to do is raise our hands higher in worship, squint our eyes more tightly, and have more faith..."
This sort of theology is BUST. It will never heal. It will never grow.
Because the only way forward is through confrontation, conflict, struggle.
"The first will be last and the last will be first." Isn't a futuristic proverb, or a bookmark. It is knife through the curtain that blinds us. A glimpse into reality.
Thus... naturally...
Christians ought to be the best darn Trick-or-Treaters...
Because we know... what's after the Eve, is the Hallows.
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