Monday, October 31, 2022
All Hallows Eve (Halloween)
           (click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Big holiday
Brothers and sisters, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, make my joy complete by being of the same mind.
After church our worship leader prayed us out with an allusion to the beginning of the holiday season.
Truly. If not before, then certainly after Halloween the stores are open for business. Farm and Fleet’s famous toy aisles have been papered off for weeks, getting ready. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their economy.
But no. Not the shopping holiday. The day after Halloween is All Saints Day. Among others, Lutherans, Catholics, and Episcopalians celebrate with as much energy as they have left after counting trick-or-treat candy and planning shopping adventures. Halloween’s descent into all things eerie is over. And after All Saints Day come Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Maybe you love this run of holidays, or maybe not. The mix of secular and religious Spirit intoxicates many of us. These days there will also be a confusion and confluence of generosity and selfishness. At church today we heard instructions for constructing Christmas shoeboxes for kids around the world.
Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also everyone for those of others.
Jesus gives us an example:
When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
Confession time. Margaret looked at our credit card statement. You gave money to church, she said. Then you spent more at Binny’s, and then again at the grocery store, and then again at Texas Roadhouse.
Yes, I guess that’s true, I said, abashed.
Watching football last night I noticed ads for vacations, Walmart, tv shows, cars (lots of cars)and cool shoes, all in living color. Earlier today I did see an ad for Samaritan Purse Christmas Shoeboxes. But only one. Sandwiched between ads for beer and Jersey Mike sandwiches.
O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
I want to lighten up on myself and anyone else that’s listening. We can manage these consumer lusts if and when we want to. On All Saints Day I will pray for all who have died, and ask them to pray for me. Today I will make vigil to prepare for these prayers, as All Hallows Eve is intended. There will be some shopping involved, and a celebration of the sun.
We will attend chapel at Austin Classical School, and bring Jasper home with us for the day. Maybe we’ll go fishing in a five gallon bucket, or even fly a kite. In conversation with God, what keeps coming up is reflected in today’s psalm. I struggle, and then the Spirit rescues me.
And I have stilled and quieted my soul like a weaned child. Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap, so is my soul within me. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
(Philippians 2, Psalm 131, John 8, Luke 14)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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