Happy Halloween, uh, Reformation
Here are some good All Hallow’s Eve posts for your perusal (be sure to go to the bottom for the best one of all):
Rev. Cwirla’s Blogosphere - Happy Halloween, uh, Reformation Day
The Burr in the Burgh: What Scares You?
“Dress Like a Prostitute Day”
With each passing year, Halloween loses more and more of any innocence it possessed when I was a child. That’s especially evident in the revealing costumes being marketed to young girls these days.
Personal Note: The theology of Halloween
Personal Note: The theology of Halloween
Some of the fish-sticker-and-praise-song Southern California Christians I know would gasp to hear me say this: I’m not sure trick-or-treating is a sin. When I first became a Christian, it was in the Calvary Chapel culture, where Halloween is considered an evil holiday, a high holy day of witches. Churches in this culture eschew Halloween — in name, at least — but hold “fall festivals” on Oct. 31 where kids are encouraged to, um, dress up in costumes and receive candy. That doesn’t make sense to me for obvious reasons. If you’re going to eschew something, eschew it.
Growing up, I looked forward to Halloween all year, scheming a new costume, dreaming about how much my candy sack would weigh at evening’s end. Would I get more than last year? Would that nice neighbor lady hand out full-size candy bars again? For me and my friends, Halloween was simply a day to dress up in scary or fantastical duds and go get candy. The thought that there might be real spell-casting witches cavorting around sacrificial altars never crossed our minds.
What would today be without some more reformation goodies?:
Cyberbrethren: A Lutheran Blog: Does Being Lutheran Matter?
Weedon’s Blog: Reformation Musings
St. Jude, whom we commemorate this day, warned:
“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 3,4)
Remembering that Antichrist presumes even to take his seat in God’s temple, in the Holy Church, we know that as Christians we must always be vigilant about what we are taught. The supreme measure of the truthfulness of what we’re taught is the Word of God’s grace in Jesus Christ, the word that will neither let us continue in sin with impenitence nor lead us to presume to trust in our own goodness before God. The Word of grace that unfolds to us the riches that our loving heavenly Father has given to us in His beloved Son - forgiveness of sins, a share in His divine life, a salvation that is eternal. Because the Church is in process toward becoming all that Jesus has declared her to be, the pilgrim Church heeds the warning of her Lord to beware of deception, especially from those who hold office in the Body of Christ and are called to be her teachers. To test out what they say and hear in their words the voice of our Shepherd, we have been given the Word, especially the Gospel. In this sense, the color of the day should be red. Red for the fire of the Holy Spirit who has inspired the Word and who works mightily through it to bring people to faith and to keep them in faith and to give them an inheritance which will never fade. Let your Reformation motto be: “Test everything; hold fast what is good.”
David Yow’s Blog: October 2006
“Reformation Polka”
by Robert Gebel
[Sung to the tune of "Supercalifragilistic-expialidocious"]
When I was just ein junger Mann I studied canon law;
While Erfurt was a challenge, it was just to please my Pa.
Then came the storm, the lightning struck, I called upon Saint Anne,
I shaved my head, I took my vows, an Augustinian! Oh…Chorus:
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation
Speak your mind against them and face excommunication!
Nail your theses to the door, let’s start a Reformation!
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation!
While the reformation is a serious topic, being lighthearted doesn’t hurt:
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But you forgot the Cyberbrethren blog site with a powerful Reformation article on it, “Does being Lutheran matter?” Plus a great Luther quote for Reformation.
Oh, yes, I did! Sorry! Well worth the read. Thanks for the heads up John.
Cyberbrethren: A Lutheran Blog: Does Being Lutheran Matter?
and
Cyberbrethren: A Lutheran Blog: “What More Do I Want?” — Thoughts from Luther for Reformation Day 2006