The Weekly Perspective
by Burke Shade, Associate Pastor
By now you are sick of all the Halloween unDecorations, since they celebrate death and grossness and witchcraft and demons, albeit sometimes in a funny way, as in all the Minions in my neighbor’s front yard. You can’t help but chuckle—they are cute and they overcome the tragedy of death comically. But the sadness with all the skeletons is that it is a parody of the resurrection, albeit without bodies and flesh. Leave it to Satan to promise resurrection without skin and flesh and warmth and beauty! No thanks; I’ll take the true resurrection in Christ!
Which brings us back to some of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy’s observations. He notes that in observing a national holiday, say the War of Independence, it “celebrates more than survival: Through the holiday the tragic events, the death involved in the events commemorated, are incorporated into communal life, as we look ‘with condescension’ on our conflicts because we have triumphed over them. Holidays are the mortar of society; the fruit of a holiday’s observance is the rebirth of the community.” Why? Because as we view the painful events of the past, we “see the connection of death with birth, of darkness with light, of heaven with earth.”
He further notes that “the fellowship of a normal group…is the answer to our hunger for rhythm. Without holidays, humans are deprived of the necessary rhythm of time, and suffer psychologically.”
So we, first, ought to be at regular weekly worship; that gives us the Lord’s Day rhythm, from which the rest of the week flows. Secondly, let us remember to invite our family, friends, and neighbors not only to church holiday observances, but also to our homes for coffee, drinks, and sweets, just to fellowship around the holidays. What a privilege to exhibit peace and trust in Jesus to our neighbors so joyfully!