“I felt that I had been born anew and that the gates of heaven had been opened. The whole of Scripture had gained a new meaning. Now the phrase ‘the justice of God’ no longer filled me with hatred, but rather, it has become unspeakably sweet…” – Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will
Greetings and Happy Reformation Day! I know that I usually don’t upload posts on Sunday’s, but obviously this Sunday is a bit different than most as it is the anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation! The day when German Monk, Martin Luther, nailed his 95 Theses to the church door of Wittenberg, Germany in order to spark debate on the selling of indulgences. While Brother Martin’s desire wasn’t to break with the church, but rather reform it (hence Reformation), his actions ultimately ended up with him being excommunicated. Interestingly, his actions also led to other “reformations.” Two in particular are worth noting.
- First, was the Roman “Counter-Reformation,” particular defined by the Council of Trent (1545-1563), which forced the Roman church to clearly define many of the doctrines that had long been commonly held, but not clearly codified within church tradition. This council and “counter-reformation” also denied many of the teachings and positions that had developed within the Protestant Reformation.
- Another “reformation” also occurred, more commonly known as the “Radical Reformation” – it was this movement that sparked not only the Anabaptist movement (which gave us the Amish and Mennonite communities that we have today), but also movements that felt that the early Reformers didn’t take their reformation far enough. From this “radical reformation” we ended up with further movements that would eventually birth groups that we Americans are more familiar with, such as the Puritans (think the Pilgrims) and even the more recognizable denominations that you’ll see on church signs in your home town.
As interesting as all of this is (and as much as I could probably write on the subject), that’s not the point of this post. A few posts ago I made mention of the fact that I would like to start including some “guest posts” from other pastors and teachers that I know. My desire to do this, other than to give them a platform to write and share their own experiences in ministry and in their personal theological growth, is so that you all are reading the thoughts of other great shepherds of the flock of God.
So, I am excited to present to you (by permission) a Reformation Day Homily given by Chris Johnson, a co-elder and co-laborer at the church where I also serve as an elder and as the Minister of Preaching. I have come to appreciate Chris’s insights into the Christian Life. I have also come to appreciate his leading in many areas in the local church, so I have no doubt that you will benefit from this sampling of his teaching. While this was his sermon/homily for the week, he has updated the transcript to make it more readable in a non-sermon setting. Enjoy!
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Grace and Peace in Jesus!
Nick
ALL HALLOWS EVE
by Chris Johnson
Presented at Christ Community Church – Jackson, Tennessee
This year, Halloween falls on a Sunday. This feels odd to some of us. Growing up I never really knew anything of Halloween beyond what culture holds to it. Being raised in a small town, we simply thought of it as a fun day to dress up as a superhero or other costume of some sort. It was always fun to decide what we wanted to dress up as. People actually went all over town trick or treating when I was a kid, not just one or two streets. It was a custom I know I experienced that I didn’t realize was a dying one at the time, at least in the way we did it. We were free to go house to house, running around over town with our bag in hand and get lots and lots of candy.
As we got older, my teenage years, it was more about pranks. Right? People’s yards got ‘rolled’. As you know, ‘rolling a yard’ is the act of tossing rolls of toilet paper up into the trees and having it unroll while in flight, causing lots of streamers all in the trees. The more destructive kids would even “egg” houses—my mother always wisely said that was not allowed. Our house always got rolled, every year. For a span of about 3 years it got worse and worse, and my dad realized it generally always happened late—around 11-12 pm. So one year my dad decided to do a reverse prank. He got out his ladder and put it on the back side of the house and took the garden hose and sprayer up the ladder with him, which was of course attached to the outside hydrant, and the water was on. Of course our pranksters didn’t see the hose because it ran up the BACK of the house and our trees that always got rolled were in the front. He crouched down on the roof, peeking over the edge into the front yard and of course he was hidden in the dark. Sure enough, right at the usual time, here came the pranksters to roll the yard. But this year, it went differently. As soon as they got in range and began tossing their toilet paper rolls, he opened up that dreaded hose on them—soaking them in the chilly fall night! They were routed running as fast as they could run and as I recall our yard was safe for many years to come.
So Halloween was just a fun day. Nothing particularly important about it and certainly not sacred or special. We didn’t even think of it as dark or evil. Then I remember in the early 90s there seem to have been a sort of anti-Halloween movement. I had never really thought of the day as celebrating evil, but that was the message of the anti-Halloween movement. Now every so often, this sort of thing comes around in evangelical culture. It shows up as things like anti-Santa-Claus, or anti-Harry Potter. I do not seek to explore here whether such movements are good or bad, but to simple note that they come about. It was around this time I was in college and then getting married–it MAY have simply been the first time I had ever really given enough thought to the day to consider of it in any sort of moralistic terms. But suddenly, it was thought of as a demonic day or day of evil. Participating in the ghoulishness of it all was considered by some to be a bad idea and at best it was a day that dwelt on dark themes such as horrible zombie masks, skeletons, etc. And truly, some do get carried away with that aspect of the day.
And then there is my brother Barry. In many ways my brothers are very different than me and from each other so it is hard to believe we all came from the same family. If you have ever seen Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase, Barry is the uncle Eddie of our family. He is the life of the party. He will have you in stitches laughing! Every year he and his son Travis used to drive different places because Travis takes part of motor-cross. But one year they went somewhere around Halloween for their motorcross hobby and they stopped and got fuel. Barry saw a zombie mask and suddenly got a great idea. Now, understand this was a really horrific looking thing. It was the kind of thing that, when you have your little kids with you in a store, you guide them away from the aisle hoping they don’t see it in case they have nightmares. He bought the mask and got back on the interstate. They were driving in the night so it was dark out and lot of drivers were probably “in the zone” driving, perhaps a little tired and so forth. So Barry put on the mask and starts driving down the interstate wearing it, with his window down. Travis, his son, of course thought it was hilarious. They would catch up to an unsuspecting car on the interstate in the lane next to them at 70-80 mph or more, and Barry would turn and look right at this with this zombie mask on! If they didn’t see him, he would honk his car horn to get their attention. You can imagine it startled everybody! Their cars would weave over, they would try to slow down and let him get away from them, and so forth. So that is one way to Halloween might be celebrated that I am guessing not many of you have ever done.
Now, let me share what may or may not be a different perspective with you. There are some things in Christian culture that being on the journey into the Church calendar has illuminated. For the sort of evangelical roots I grew up with, there are a number of “holidays” that make little sense apart from the ecclesiological Church calendar. Mardi Gras? A party day. Christmas Eve? It exists solely to be the day before Christmas, and as the Santa Clause night. And Halloween? It is all about the candy and costumes. What I didn’t know, and could not know due to the church culture I grew up in, is that the very next day—Nov. 1st, is All Saints Day. It is a day that celebrates people in the Church who have lived lives that we highly respect. They did well in their Christian life. The word Halloween is a language trick, that has run together into one quick term from “Hallows EVE”, or “All Hallows Eve.” This happened because Old English sounded more like the way we say Hallow’een even though people at that time understood it to mean Hallows EVE. In the same way we say Christmas EVE. So the word Hallow-eve (or Halloween) really means the day before Hallowed; the same term used in the Jesus’ prayer we say in the phrase “Hallowed by Thy name.” Hallowed means holy. Our term halo comes from it. “Hallowed.” “Holy.” “Halo.”
This is all from the same etymology. If you began calling Oct. 31st “All Hallows Eve”, you would be calling it by its original terminology. So let us ask ourselves: What is inherently evil about this day? The realistic answer is: nothing, other than maybe misguided pranks and so forth.
In fact, in an historical sense, the very opposite. In the middle ages, assuming evil spirits would stir up the night before All Saints Day or Hallows Day, the people would do somethings that they believed might help ward them off. These practices included lighting the inside of a pumpkin with a face carved in it. And costumes? They originated with European children dressing up as well-known saints or apostles, in a very innocent and good way. All of this, no doubt sounds familiar to anyone familiar with Halloween.
But, before we start calling such actions superstitious, let us not forget we as Christians do believe in evil spirits. Our culture is so secularized that the idea of evil spirits is often either considered a silly joke or pretty much forgotten altogether. But we do in fact believe in Satan and his fallen angels. Why might they NOT be stirred up before a holy day? Maybe, just maybe our medieval ancestors were not so off-base and ghoulish after all. Now I am not saying a jack-lantern will ward off a demon. But there is plenty of evil in the world, right here in our city and time and place. Why not engage in a visual display—even if no more than symbolic—of opposing evil? In the grand scope of things, this sort of thing is All Hallow’s Eve. It is the day before All Saints day.
“It is really only when we become separated from the Christian underpinnings of our ecclesiological calendar and have holidays stripped of their earlier Christian context that we completely lose track of these matters.”
Chris Johnson
Sometimes the preparation for a day can be almost as fun as the day itself, in an anticipatory way. Again, Christmas Eve is an example. It is, in a way, a means to start celebrating a little early. Doing so can be a tool to get us thinking about what is being celebrated when the sun comes up, in the morning. Advent serves the purpose as well for the season of Christmastide. Lent also serves this purpose for the season of Eastertide.
It is really only when we become separated from the Christian underpinnings of our ecclesiological calendar and have holidays stripped of their earlier Christian context that we completely lose track of these matters. Let us do the Christian work of sanctifying days like Halloween by realizing their sources. Doing so returns us to the Christian basis for events and holidays; in doing this we have liberty. It stands to reason we can let your whole year be made ‘hallowed.’
This is the real benefit of the Church calendar, brothers and sisters. Ephesians 6 tells us: 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Our reality is that we have to deal with the Evil One having been cast down to earth – and troubled are the inhabitants of earth and the sea because of it. From the war in Heaven that we read of elsewhere in Scripture, the forces of evil are among mankind. But All Hallows Eve can and should remind us that evil is defeated. The grin of the jack-o-lantern is a mocking of the forces of evil, for we are delivered from those forces, and they are defeated by Christ. As Psalm 37:13 reminds us, the Lord Himself laughs at the wicked, knowing what the future holds for them.
The SouthTown Pastor 