Joel 2:23-32, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 and Luke 18:9-14

Well, if the weather forecast holds up, October 31 will be a rainy day. You might expect the Halloween costumes on all the Trick-or-Treaters to be more visible as the fun activities move indoors! Zombies? Dracula? Disney characters? Video game characters?

Regardless, it is THE one day of the year that costumes of all kinds of characters overwhelm shirts, jeans, skirts for the evening. And many congregations will join in on the fun in some way. Trunk or Treat out of the cars in church parking lots or host a “Fall Festival” themed party with less emphasis on the “scary!” Most churches accept the popular culture moment of Halloween but hesitate to engage some of the ideas that lie behind Halloween’s origins.

This Sunday’s texts will help us think a bit about that fine line between popular culture e.g. movies, TV, social media, entertainment and the like. We will hear about and see imaginatively the prophet Joel, the Tax Collector, the Pharisee, St Paul, and images of both doom and salvation. Our cast of Halloween characters in costume probably won’t look much like Bible characters, but we will see how some of the same Biblical themes of Evil, Fear, Death, Salvation are “played out” in scary characters in festive and light hearted ways e.g. Trick or Treat.

Dressing up as a prophet, Pharisee, Tax Collector, or St Paul for Halloween just doesn’t seem to work for most! Is it because the matters are too serious to be set into a fun, lighthearted occasion? If so, can the fun costumes and characters of the Fall season still give us “hints” about things of the Spirit?! Let’s see how that plays out as we hear the Word this Sunday in the season of Halloween!

Blessings even in this “scary” time!

Pastor Barry