Halloween and Christians: What Matters Most?

Everytime October rolls around, the church’s age-old dispute over Halloween begins all over again. Christians everywhere step up to the microphone and take to arguing back and forth about whether or not they should be participating in the activities. One group reminds everyone of the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, and the evil origins of carvings, costumes and candy. The other group tries to point to Halloween’s more Christian roots and the transformation of Samhain to All Saints Day and All Souls Day, to All Hallows Eve and eventually to Hallowe'en.

Every year October 31st passes and November 1st arrives and nothing really changes, except that one group has a little more sugar in their blood and both groups are a little more annoyed and even angry at the other.

Now here’s the thing. At the end of the day I think that there is validity to both arguments. Both groups are right. Halloween probably does have pagan roots and ties to Samhain, and it also probably can be traced back to All Hallows Eve. That being said, I think the issue of participating in it or not is a little more complex than either of these arguments make it. I don’t think it is as simple as calling Halloween an evil holiday and throwing it all out, or calling it a Christian or even neutral holiday and taking it all in.

Forget about the pagan and/or Christians roots for a second and think about Halloween from some other angles. What about the commercial aspect of Halloween and the fact that its revenue in America is second only to Christmas? What about the imaginative part of it that reeks of people wanting to escape the weariness and boringness of life and find some sense of adventure? What about Halloween’s obvious emergence out of an anxiety that people felt or feel between summer and winter, between life and death? Or what about the focus of many communities to make Halloween “a safe day for our children” in response to the vandalism that has so often overtaken it?

There is so much more to this single October evening than we often realize, both good and bad. There are evil roots and beautiful roots. There is violence and vandalism. There are smiles and laughter. There are opportunities to be salt and light and opportunities to be consumed by the darkness. It is a complex day, and the decision to participate or not is a complex one. So complex that I do not believe the church will ever be totally agreed on it. And frankly I think that is OK. God has allowed us the freedom to think biblically about complex cultural issues and to not always completely agree on them.

In fact, I would say that agreeing about Halloween is not what matters most. Here is what I think matters most when it comes to using discernment on complicated and divisive matters like this one: Having grace for your fellow believer.

No matter how we interpret and engage with Halloween, are we willing to have grace for other Christians? To not judge, but to have the humility to say, “This is what I have discerned. This how I am going to respond. But I know that I could be wrong.” Wouldn’t it be something if instead of unbelievers recognizing how much Christians fight about Halloween, they saw how much grace we had for another and how much we loved one another even when we disagree?

All cards on the table. I am going trick or treating in a few hours with a lion, a cow and a little fireman. I cannot wait. I know others in my congregation have come to different conclusions, and they will be at home enjoying the evening doing something completely different. And that is OK! What matters most tonight is that that my participation is based on me trying to think biblically about Halloween, and my engagement with and my speaking about other Christians who disagree me is saturated in the kind of grace that reflects the Savior that we will together gather to worship this coming Sunday, side by side.

Economy of Generosity

The apostle Paul’s parting words to the Ephesian elders: “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ (acts 20.35). Could Jesus (or Paul) say anything more counter cultural to our culture today, particularly that last part? We might not like to admit it but practically speaking, don’t most of us live as if the opposite is true? That it is more blessed to receive than to give?

The materialism that invades our lives is not about how many material items one is able to distribute but how many he/she is able to accumulate. The aim of the American dream is not about another person’s prosperity but about one’s own. And its not about one’s own prosperity for the sake of enriching other people’s lives, its about prosperity for the sake of enriching one’s own life.

Yet clearly, based on Paul’s quotation of Jesus, God’s economy works so radically different than ours. It always about the other. It’s always about giving over receiving. And ironically its in this upside-down economy of generosity that one finds himself/herself truly blessed. Or according to the Swiss theologian Karl Barth’s favourite translation of blessed, the one who gives rather than receives is truly the lucky bum.

Easy Christianity

It is truly wild how seemingly easy we have made Christianity in the West. We have crafted this version of Christianity (which is really no Christianity at all) that requires so little effort. You don’t have to get your knees scraped or your hands dirty; you barely need to break a sweat. You almost don’t even need the power of the Holy Spirit. You just accept Jesus into your heart, then proceed to do your private devotions each day, sit in a church once a week like you’re at the movie theatre, try not to curse in public and maybe send some money out to a few different charities. I mean there is probably a little more to it then that in most people’s minds, but at the same time, maybe not.

I remember N.T. Wright wrote in a commentary on Mark some years ago, “Jesus is not leading us on a pleasant afternoon hike, but on a walk into danger and risk. Or did we suppose that the Kingdom of God would mean merely a few minor adjustments in our ordinary lives?” I think that is exactly what many of us think Jesus is leading us on these days, a pleasant afternoon hike that means little more than a few minor adjustments to our otherwise ordinary lives. Again, I say it is wild because just like N.T. Wright is highlighting, nothing could be more contrary to what Jesus is actually calling His disciples to then that.

Take one verse. It is a short and simple verse and its one that caught my attention this morning and reminded me once again how uncomfortable and dangerous the Christian life is and also how impossible it is without the Spirit’s power. It is 1 Corinthians 10.24. Paul is addressing the Corinthian Church on eating food in the marketplace, i.e., is food sacrificed to idols, and he sums up his instructions to them with this command: “No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.”

Did you hear that? Well maybe read it again to make sure you are picking up what Paul is putting down. Do not seek your own good, but the good of others. That is a crazy command! How is that even possible to do consistently? How do you do that without adjusting your whole life? Now just in case your knee jerk reaction is to say that that statement pertains only to the situation Paul is addressing in 1 Corinthians, take note of two other places that such a command comes up: Romans 15.1-2, “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbour for his good, to build him up,” and Philippians 2.4, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

The interesting thing about all of these references is that they are all rooted in the person of Jesus. In every one of these references Paul gives the command, then points to Jesus as the example of one who truly walked out this command, and then he tells the crowd that he is writing to, “Now imitate Christ.” Well to be completely accurate, in 1 Corinthians specifically he follows up the command by saying, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ,” but you get the point. This command comes from the example of the person of whom Christians are disciples of. In other words, there is no getting around it. The command to put others needs before our own is a universal command for disciples of Jesus everywhere. This is a slice of what it means to follow Him.

When I really think about it, I am not sure that I could find a more difficult ethic to walk out then this one. I mean come on, no one naturally seeks the good of their neighbour before the good of themselves, or at least not all the time. Its impossible. But I think that is kind of the point. As Jesus once told His disciples while speaking of another impossible part of the Christian life, “With man this is impossible, with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19.26).

If you have found some version of Christianity that doesn’t make you frequently think, “How can I even do that?!” then I would guess you have found something that is not Christianity at all. The reality found in the pages of Scripture is that Jesus is not calling us to an afternoon hike, but instead is calling us into danger and risk. He is calling us into an innumerable amount of uncomfortable adjustments to our otherwise ordinary lives. Jesus never calls His disciples into an easy Christianity, instead He calls them into the kind of lives that can only be lived through the power of his Holy Spirit; the kind of lives that make little of themselves and instead make much of the needs of others so that in turn they make much of Jesus Christ.