Don’t Fear the Dark, I John 4:18
Introduction
Our family dog Happy is a big baby! For such a big dog, she is afraid of some of the silliest and smallest things. Recently my wife and I were at the store and our two year son Sebastian saw a toy that he just had to have.
It is a plastic ball that has little raised numbers and farm animals on it that can be pushed down. Some of them make noise and others make it sing songs. If you place the ball on the floor it has a thing inside of it to make it roll on its own. It is a lot of fun for a toddler and apparently it is very frightening to a Saint Bernard!
Sebastian was playing with this ball. He was throwing it and kicking it and then chasing it. Meanwhile every time the ball would roll near Happy the Saint Bernard, her eyes would get really big and she would flop her big body away from where the ball was.
Apparently there is something inside of this ball which is very dangerous to a Saint Bernard which the rest of us are unaware of! Or at least that is what my dog Happy perceives about the ball.
Even though the ball is perfectly safe to her and can do nothing really to harm her, Happy is afraid of the ball because of her perceptions and misunderstandings about it. Though the ball is harmless and can not hurt her, she is afraid because she is convinced that it will, in fact, cause her harm.
Happy’s problem is not the ball. Her problem is fear, which is caused by a false perception of the world around her. Her fear is unfounded, but she is convinced of her irrational fears.
How often are we just the same way? How often do people fear something simply because they don’t understand it?
In I John 4:18, the bible says that perfect love – the love of Christ which is in us – casts out fear. We have no need to live in fear of things simply because we do not understand them.
As believers, let us be unafraid to investigate the truth of a matter so that armed with the love of Christ and the truth… we can live free from fear and misunderstanding.
Transition
A lot of Christians live in fear of Halloween. They have all kinds of misunderstandings and irrational perceptions about the holiday which make them afraid to enjoy even the good things that may be found in this American festival.
It reminds me of the way that so many children are afraid of the dark. Even though the world around them is not much different in the darkness than it is in the light, they perceive it to be different and so to them it is.
October 31st is no different than October 30th or November 1st. Every day is a day that God has given us to enjoy. Every day is evil or good based not on the name of that day, but based on how we use that day.
Let us examine the history of Halloween so that we can know what all of the fuss is about.
History of Halloween (From the History Channel Website)
Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts – who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France – celebrated their new year on November 1st. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death.
Celts believed that on the night before the New Year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future.
For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter. To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.
During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.
The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints’ Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday.
The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-Hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead.
It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints’, All Saints’, and All Souls’, were called Hallowmas.
Tradition
While Halloween does have Pagan origins, I would suggest to you that the holiday, as it is commonly celebrated by your every day average “trick or treater,” has very little to do with the Romans, the Celts, or any other pagan culture.
Halloween, as we know it, is about children having fun. It is a tradition where every member of the community actually going out of their way to have candy to give away free to any kid who comes and asks for it!
In my family, we have lots of traditions. I bet you do in yours as well. Christina and I routinely take walks after dinner. We spend time talking about the events of the day and planning upcoming trips or just discussing everyday things like what bill needs to be paid or what we will have for dinner to the next day.
We are the kind of people who get up really early every year the morning after Thanksgiving to go Christmas shopping. One year, in fact, we were even on the news in Minneapolis because we were at the very front of the line at a famous toy store at the Mall of America!
Halloween is a tradition – that’s it. It is not the “devil’s night.” It is not an inherently evil or maligned day. It is a day which God has given to us just like any other day. What we choose to do with it is up to us.
Afraid of the Dark
My dog Happy is such a baby! Besides being deathly afraid of Sebastian’s new ball, she is also afraid of the back stair case in the parsonage! For those of you may not have every noticed the back stair case, it is attached to kitchen and brings you up to the back end of the hallways upstairs.
At night, if the light is not on, that stair case is really dark. It’s also a really simple old stair case design with a little landing half way up the stair case where it turns in the opposite direction.
The stair case is really creaky and makes a lot of noise when you walk up and down it. Sometimes at night, after I shut everything off downstairs, Happy and I will walk up those stairs and I always have to forcer her to get her started up the stairs!
When we are on walks she is always pulling my arm out of socket trying to get at squirrels and rabbits, so I always laugh to myself that she thinks there are vicious “killer rabbits” hiding in the dark corners of that stair case!
So many Christians are just the same way about Halloween. They act as though “killer rabbits” are waiting around every corner on Halloween. Rather than redeeming the day for God by enjoying the day, they say that it is wrong for a Christian to participate in it.
I’m sure you have met some of these types of Christians. Rather than being motivated by the God who created the day, they are motivated by fear or legalism.
Instead of embracing the very people that Christ died for, they run from them and point fingers at all of the heathens who wear “pagan” masks and pass out candy. It seems as though they are afraid of the dark – afraid of “killer rabbits.”
Conclusion
As with anything secular we should take caution. We should be mindful that there are some people out there who would take advantage of an evening where children are playing outside as they walk from door to door looking for candy or making their way to family parties.
We should be mindful to take precautions in order to keep our children safe and we should also be mindful of our reputation as Christians. Let us not forget that people are looking at us to see what Christ looks like.
We should be careful of “devilish” costumes, bloody evil things, or participating in séances or using Ouija board. 1 John 1:6 says, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” (ESV)
Let me be absolutely clear, however: We have no need to fear the darkness because we walk in the light. We have no need to separate ourselves from society completely to serve Christ. In Christ we celebrate liberty and freedom.
Does it make you a misguided Christian to celebrate Halloween? Certainly not! As believers we need not be afraid of the dark… we have the light of Christ dwelling inside of us.
Halloween in our culture is first and foremost about children having fun. For Christians it is yet another opportunity to share Christ’s love with our community and to let them know that we, like them, care about kids.
Our ability to enjoy every day that God has given us is not dependent on how others view that day. We don’t walk in the darkness of fear. We walk in the light of Christ! We have no need to be afraid of the dark.
For those who would pervert this day into some kind of pagan holiday or opportunity for mischief or evil, I say to them that, “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalms 118:24 ESV)
Amen.
