Halloween: Trick or Treat? from 10ofthose.com on Vimeo.
i was asked recently by an acquaintance if our family goes trick-or-treating. the question was asked with all the crushing weight of evangelical guilt, as if my whole christian witness relied on my correctly answering this loaded question. i, of course, answered with a robust "of course we do!," because i refuse to be painted into a cultural box by my Christian comrades, and i even went on to explain my rationale, that i think Christians would do much better by being present with our culture, rather than cutting ourselves off from it while pointing at it and calling it all sorts of horrible names. i want to be a light in the darkness! and i want to teach my children the same. i said all of that, more or less.
but i wish i had seen this video at that time, because i would have instantly pulled it up on my phone and showed it to my guilt-laden conversation partner, who finally admitted to almost secretly taking their child out trick-or-treating, while hoping that no one from their church saw them participating in such an evil and heathen act. bah! if only i could have shown this video! as a reminder that we are on the side of light, as well as part of the way we can experience our victory over darkness, we subversively show its ultimate powerlessness by exposing its masks and sheets, by pulling back the curtain to show that the mean green wizard is really just a tired old man pulling levers and trying to seem loud and powerful.
so, happy halloween! enjoy some sweets, as you cherish the sweetness of the greatest news ever: the light always defeats the darkness, which gets shattered into nothingness. glory!
you should seriously watch the video. it is under 3 minutes. check it out. below is the text for the video.
Vast armies undead do tread through the night and
In hordes march towards hapless victims to frighten.
They stumble in step with glass-eyes on the prizes;
Bunched hither, hunched over in monstrous disguises;
In sizes not lofty but numb’ring a throng;
To unleash on their prey the dreaded DING DONG.
Small faces with traces of mother’s eye-liner,
Peer up to the resident candy provider.
And there to intone ancient threats learnt verbatim;
They lisp “TRICK OR TREAT!” Tis their stark ultimatum.
Thus: region by region such legions take plunder.
Does this spector-full spectacle cause you to wonder?
Just how did our fair festive forebears conceive,
Of this primeval practice called All Hallows Eve?
The answer, if anyone cares to research,
Surprises, it rises from old mother church.
On the cusp of the customary All Saints Day
The Christ-i-an kinsfolk made mocking display.
These children of light both to tease and deride;
Don darkness, doll down as the sinister side.
In pre-post-er-ous pageants and dress diabolic,
They hand to the damned just one final frolick.
You see with the light of the dawn on the morrow,
The sunrise will swallow such darkness and sorrow.
The future is futile for forces of evil;
And so they did scorn them in times Medieval.
For this is the nature of shadow and gloom;
In the gleaming of glory there can be no room.
What force is resourced by the echoing black?
When the brightness ignites can the shadow push back?
These ‘powers’ of darkness, if such can be called,
Are banished by brilliance, by blazing enthralled.
So the bible begins with this fore-resolved fight;
For a moment the darkness…. then “Let there be Light!”
First grief in the gloom, then joy from the East.
First valley of shadow, then mountaintop feast.
First wait for Messiah, then long-promised Dawn.
First desolate Friday and then Easter Morn.
The armies of darkness when doing their worst,
Can never extinguish this Dazzling Sunburst.
So… ridicule rogues if you must play a role;
But beware getting lost in that bottomless hole.
The triumph is not with the forces of night.
It dawned with the One who said “I am the Light!”
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