Monday, October 24, 2005
Of Pumpkins, Saints, and Reformers
Halloween is fast approaching and I will be off blog for most of this week so I wanted to share a few thoughts here before I take a break.
Found this poem by Nancy G. Westerfield , published in 1997 in Theology Today. It is an interesting combination of things going on here. I am not sure I fully understand the poem yet but I like it and I offer it here for your Halloween/Reformation Day reflections.
All Hallow's Eve
Brother Martin has turned on the monastery's
Portal lights to welcome any trick-or-treaters,
And Brother Matthew, manning the entryway,
Has set out his p ampkin-colored party cups
Of treats. They wait. Only a neighborhood
Few will come tonight, from those parish
Families who remember the monastery's friendly
Lights from their own childhood, Most
Will be driven out to the Mall
For its strobe-lit ghoulishness. Evening
Deepens. The steps have been ascended
By scarcely a dozen solemn witches, clowns,
And Cinderellas. Brother Martin yawns,
When the bell is .rung. The foursome at the doorway
Are curiously costumed, curiously crowned by masks,
Their hands extended more as in giving than asking.
Dimly in that wan light, they loom alien
And yet familiar, friendly: one tall and leonine,
One eagle-headed, one ox-horned, one a man.
Yes, my kids will go trick or treating, one in the clown costume an older woman in my church (Nina Shedlov) made for me when I was in first grade, the other as either Smaug the dragon or Batman, he's not sure yet.
Anyway, while I understand at some level the issues some Christians have with what can be the darker side of Halloween , I don't fully get it. In my mind if we point our kids to appropriate costumes and appropriate celebrations (ie trick or treating, a party at a home vs. egging and tping houses) we are being a witness to the world rather then acting afraid of the world. Christ has won the victory, conquered death, demons and hell in an ultimate sense and while the principalities and powers are real and to be taken seriously I don't think that means avoiding things like Halloween altogether.
I know many churches will have Reformation Day Celebrations on Halloween. No problem, that is when Luther did his thing and it is an important part of our Christian Heritage. I just don't feel they need preclude each other as so much presented on the subject seem to assume they must.
I grew up in the Episcopal Church were all Saint's Day is celebrated on Nov. 1st each year, generally with a communion or morning prayer service that includes the listing of those who have died in the congregation in the year past and other deaths, recent or not so recent that are important to the members of the congregation. I have heard some misidentify this as praying to or for the dead. While I suppose that may be how it is seen or presented in some congregations it was never so in my experience. Rather it is a rememberance of them, their faith and witness to us and praying that we would not soon forget them or what we learned/gained from them in this life and being thankful to God for His influence on us through them.
The collect for All Saint's Day from the 1953 Book of Common Prayer reads:
O Almighty God, who has knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son our Lord; Grant us grace so to follow thy blessed Saints in all various and godly living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys which thou hast prepared for those who unfeignedly love thee, through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Also relevant to my remembrance of that celebration is a favorite children's hymn, I Sing A Song of The Saint's of God.
Found this poem by Nancy G. Westerfield , published in 1997 in Theology Today. It is an interesting combination of things going on here. I am not sure I fully understand the poem yet but I like it and I offer it here for your Halloween/Reformation Day reflections.
All Hallow's Eve
Brother Martin has turned on the monastery's
Portal lights to welcome any trick-or-treaters,
And Brother Matthew, manning the entryway,
Has set out his p ampkin-colored party cups
Of treats. They wait. Only a neighborhood
Few will come tonight, from those parish
Families who remember the monastery's friendly
Lights from their own childhood, Most
Will be driven out to the Mall
For its strobe-lit ghoulishness. Evening
Deepens. The steps have been ascended
By scarcely a dozen solemn witches, clowns,
And Cinderellas. Brother Martin yawns,
When the bell is .rung. The foursome at the doorway
Are curiously costumed, curiously crowned by masks,
Their hands extended more as in giving than asking.
Dimly in that wan light, they loom alien
And yet familiar, friendly: one tall and leonine,
One eagle-headed, one ox-horned, one a man.
Yes, my kids will go trick or treating, one in the clown costume an older woman in my church (Nina Shedlov) made for me when I was in first grade, the other as either Smaug the dragon or Batman, he's not sure yet.
Anyway, while I understand at some level the issues some Christians have with what can be the darker side of Halloween , I don't fully get it. In my mind if we point our kids to appropriate costumes and appropriate celebrations (ie trick or treating, a party at a home vs. egging and tping houses) we are being a witness to the world rather then acting afraid of the world. Christ has won the victory, conquered death, demons and hell in an ultimate sense and while the principalities and powers are real and to be taken seriously I don't think that means avoiding things like Halloween altogether.
I know many churches will have Reformation Day Celebrations on Halloween. No problem, that is when Luther did his thing and it is an important part of our Christian Heritage. I just don't feel they need preclude each other as so much presented on the subject seem to assume they must.
I grew up in the Episcopal Church were all Saint's Day is celebrated on Nov. 1st each year, generally with a communion or morning prayer service that includes the listing of those who have died in the congregation in the year past and other deaths, recent or not so recent that are important to the members of the congregation. I have heard some misidentify this as praying to or for the dead. While I suppose that may be how it is seen or presented in some congregations it was never so in my experience. Rather it is a rememberance of them, their faith and witness to us and praying that we would not soon forget them or what we learned/gained from them in this life and being thankful to God for His influence on us through them.
The collect for All Saint's Day from the 1953 Book of Common Prayer reads:
O Almighty God, who has knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son our Lord; Grant us grace so to follow thy blessed Saints in all various and godly living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys which thou hast prepared for those who unfeignedly love thee, through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Also relevant to my remembrance of that celebration is a favorite children's hymn, I Sing A Song of The Saint's of God.
