BLOG 10/28/15. FORGET HALLOWEEN—I WANT TO CELEBRATE ALL SAINTS DAY.

There is probably no big celebration that shows our cultural mindlessness than Halloween. Actually, it is more of an occasion for our consumer culture to separate folk from their money than any kind of a meaningful observance. It gets the merchants warmed up for their commodification of Christmas, alas! Halloween’s genesis is a bit obscure. When the early medieval church was seeking to initiate its feast days, and at the same time trying to tune-in to the pagan cultures into which it was moving, they made All Saints/All Souls Day to be something of the counterpart of the harvest festival, but made it a time of remembrance of significant Christian persons at the same time (it’s all sort of foggy in historical perspective).

So the pagan culture came up with the night before All Saints as the time when the spirits of the dead came forth from their graves and roamed the earth, i.e., ghosts. That along with all of the demons, ghouls, witches, goblins, etc. This was their chance to make mischief before the church heralded the contribution of God’s unique people … something like that. It has become interesting and humorous at times—like Charlie  Brown sitting in the pumpkin patch.

I, however, being the contrarian that I am, refuse to observe Halloween. I want to reclaim All Saints Day. But that raises other questions: who are the true saints? According to the writings of New Testament apostle Paul, the answer is that all of God’s people are “called to be saints” (I Corinthians 1:2). All of those who embrace Jesus Christ as Lord are thereby called to be saints, or set apart for such a divine calling. A part of our misunderstanding comes from the Roman Catholic practice of naming only certain persons, who pass a set of criteria as the official saints of the church. In recent years we have seen them ‘beatify’ Mother Theresa of Calcutta, and Archbishop Oscar Romero, martyr of El Salvador. They are uniquely worthy of tribute I think, but the New Testament insists that they are no more saints than any of the rest of God’s people. In this century there have been probably more martyrs than in most of the church’s previous history. To be sure, I have kept an embossed copy of The Prayer of St. Francis (“Lord make me an instrument of thy peace”) in my Bible for , and reflect on it often. I love Francis and his passion for lepers, for nature, and so much more. But …

… my own cherished practice every year is to sit down with my prayer journal and to seek to recall all of the wonderful Christian people who have been instrumental in forming my Christian life as Christ’s disciples I keep coming up with more every year. Here were those whom I knew, or who significantly blessed and challenged me in my Christian walk. It would begin with my father, Virgil Henderson, who led me to faith and modeled it before me. It would certainly include my late wife Betty, who was my partner, my encourager, my intercessor for 58 years, and who probably kept me from self-destructing many times. The list also includes those who wrote those  books that  I have read and that formed the mind of Christ in me in unique ways (Herman Ridderbos, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Soren Kierkegaard, Roland Allen, Jessie Penn-Lewis, John Stott, and so many others–a weird assortment, but helpful at particular stages of my journey).

I want to come back to this on next Sunday in my next Blog, but for now I want to commend to you this practice of giving thanks for the saints whom you and I have known and have encountered in our own pilgrimage … “For all the saints, who from their labors rest … thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.” (to be continued)