I find it interesting that in our modern western society where so many want to push away notions of the spiritual, Halloween still gets a run.
Is it our ongoing rejection of institutions and traditions which make people crave letting some back in? Is it an excuse to put up some decorations, wander around the neighbourhood and eat lollies? Or is there a growing sense for some in our post-Christian secular context that there may in fact be ‘more out there than atoms and energy?’
The ‘spookiness’ of Halloween, sees fascination and fear melded together. If there are other, spiritual forces at play in the world we surely cannot control them as we do the material world. This can cause some Christians to react in fear.
So how might we respond?
We need not fear.
We need not fear the rising and falling of various traditions in our culture. Nor fear those who say there is nothing but the material. Nor should we fear the spiritual or superstitious which some dabble in seeking a way out of our secular disenchantment.
For October 31 is also reformation day, and we remember that God alone is sovereign over all things, material and spiritual, and all the power and glory belongs to him. Soli Deo Gloria.
Paul said this to the Athenians:
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth… he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth… God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us…In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
– Sam Pursell