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Saturday, October 29, 2016

Saturday Sermonette - All Saints' Day


The upcoming holiday when children go around to their neighbors' houses crying out "Trick or treat!" was not originally meant to be a time when people tried to scare each other, nor is it a time to honor witches, goblins, or werewolves. It began in Europe, probably Germany, in the fourth century to honor all those saints who had graduated to heaven. No, I'm not talking about the people canonized by the Catholic church. I'm referring to Christians, as Paul did. The Bible has dozens of places where "saints" are mentioned, Old and New Testaments alike.

The dictionary defines saint as someone noted as good or holy, although not without sin or perfect. No one but Jesus has earned that degree. Over the centuries, we've come to think of saints as anyone who has died and gone on to heaven, but not a high percentage of people use All Saints' Day to honor those graduates. Several churches (not just Catholic) celebrate on November 1--or the first Sunday after that day.

I'm going to have to find a way to duplicate myself, because they'll be honoring my husband at two churches on Sunday, November 6. A few months before he passed, I moved my membership from the church we'd attended before to the church in the town we moved to. Jack chose to leave his membership at the church he'd attended for several decades. That's probably the one I'll go to, Lord willing and the creeks don't rise.

But I digress. I wonder what it would take to turn people back to the celebration as it was intended. I wonder what the Lord thinks as He gazes at his people getting drunk, dressing up as denizens of hell, and in general acting like anything but Christians.

Father, forgive us when we put the wrong things into our lives and put the wrong things before what You want for us. You deserve much better from us. Have mercy on Your wayward children, dear Lord. For Jesus's sake, Amen.

4 comments:

Laurie said...

Amen! Well said. My sister is SO glad she was born on Nov. 1st, not Oct 31st!

Rik said...

Interesting, and "close". Three Special Days:
1- today is Reformation Sunday, a day when we celebrate the Church that was, the Church that is and the achurch that will be.
2- tomorrow evening is Halloween or Hallowe'en (a contraction of All Hallows' Evening), also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It begins the three-day observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.
It is widely believed that many Halloween traditions originated from Celtic harvest festivals which may have pagan roots, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, and that this festival was Christianized as Halloween. Some academics, however, support the view that Halloween began independently as a solely Christian holiday.
3- and then comes All Saints Day.
In my opinion, too many church's forget about Church History, and to forget about where we came from can taint our thoughts about where we are now and how much farther we need to travel.

As to Haloween as it is today, the kids (now grown with kids of their own) always enjoyed dressing up and going Trick or Treating. And they never once got drunk nor forgot who they were.

Shalom

Anne Baxter Campbell said...

I have a niece who was born on the 31st.
I haven't disowned her. :)

Anne Baxter Campbell said...

Thank you so much for the additional info! Yes--in too many cases we've lost our first love!