"Mock the devil, and he will flee from thee. Fear of the devil leads to devil worship." Bono
"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.", Martin Luther
Now, how often do these two get quoted together? More often lately, I am guessing, but I use them to illustrate why we do Halloween at our house.
Notice, I didn't say celebrate, because to me celebrate means we love the darkness, evil, the devil, etc. And there is an element of that in Halloween that is disturbing, no question. And, if it is left there, it is not something I would touch.
But, Halloween is more than that, the fun, the costumes, the trick or treating, etc is a way for us to confront what we fear. And more than that, to make fun of it, to belittle it. But, how can we do that?
The answer comes in Christ and his complete work in our lives. His perfect love that lives in us casts out fear, drives away the devil in scorn, showing him for what he really is, a prideful fraud. And, it does the same for us, as the Cross exposes our self reliance, the worship of our selves and the idols that set themselves up in our lives. The cross mocks them.
Because, that is what God does with idols in the Bible. Colossians 2:15 that Jesus exposes the authorities, things in our lives, Satan for what they really are, silly, ridiculous frauds. And, the Old Testament tells us more. I call it the Elijah treatment. Check it out in 2 Kings 18. Basically, the prophets of Baal think their god can overcome Elijah's God, they cut themselves, they shout, they get naked, etc. Baal doesn't show up and Elijah mocks them with such expressions as "is your god out taking a piss?"
God does this sort of thing all the time. He treats idols and idol worship with contempt, especially among His people. And, the way He treats it in my life and the way I want to treat evil, and my fears when the become idols in my life.
So, we do Halloween, not celebrate it. We do not celebrate evil, the devil, witches or anything that is morbid. But, rather, we mock our fears, mock the devil, and mock anything that thinks it is more powerful than God. So, as my family does pumpkins, passes out treats, or goes trick or treating, we tell the devil, the darkness and our idols,
Piss off, I belong to Christ and I no longer fear the night.
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2 comments:
You will fear photos of me as a zombie groom though, so oooooooh!
I have sometimes in the past avoided Halloween. But this year I started thinking - why IS it that Christians hesitate to celebrate Halloween? Is it because we fear being spiritually tainted by a holiday that ultimately celebrates the occult? Is it because we worry about our witness in endorsing a pagan holiday?
I guess I always felt like it was because we don't want to have anything to do with something that, at its heart, its origin, is contrary to our faith. That dabbling in it by putting on a costume is indirectly celebrating (or endorsing) an evil purpose.
But it struck me that this is sort of ironic ... because 2 months later we take a very different view of the trappings of a holiday vs. its original meaning. We are a bit sad to see people with Christmas trees and wreaths who know (and care) nothing of our Lord. We criticize ourselves for getting caught up in the decorations and traditions and superficial celebrations of Christmas, and not getting close enough to thanking God for Jesus. It seems that when Christmas comes around, we are all-too-aware of our ability to enjoy a holiday without letting it touch our hearts.
And about our witness ... well, I guess I've never viewed an agnostic family getting a tree as endorsing the birth of Christ. And I don't think they see it that way, either.
So, just my thoughts today, but I feel like - if we can enjoy Halloween like the non-Christians enjoy Christmas, then that's OK.
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