Is that you too?
Human beings are semi-permeable. Easily swayed. Susceptible to suggestion. And that works both for bad and for good.
All Hallows' Eve (or Hallowe'en as I understand it's called in Sainsbury's) is when people dress up as all sorts of scary things: witches and vampires and large orange vegetables. Heavens, this afternoon on the Cheetham Hill Road I saw two people convincingly dressed as pensioners, complete with tartan trollies. Full marks for imagination, but even with those realistic lines you didn't fool me… (Also, lots of people are just dressed as witches and vampires because black is so slimming. We know your game!)
It's also when Christians have Light Parties and other anti-darkness events to make a point about Jesus the light of the world, that "he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world." It's also a safeguarding exercise, because you can't be in ministry for long without seeing real darkness at work and the effects it has. Why dabble in darkness - even comedy darkness - when you can bathe in light? And for that reason, some Christians disdain Harry Potter, and some deter trick-or-treaters with posters or by giving them tracts. And we all blame America.
I'm hesitant to blame the States for everything, and I think Harry Potter is a good old-fashioned story about sacrifice and bravery (albeit with magical trappings: it could as easily have taken place at a Fame Academy or dance school. Or Rodbaston Agricultural College). But I take the point about careless exposure to darkness, and I do think that for some people Hallowe'en is the thin end of a wedge that leads to unhealthy associations with ouija boards, seances and stuff that even the least traditional Christian might furrow a forehead at.
My sense of it all agrees with something Sylvester McCoy (Doctor Who** number 7) said in 1989 in Survival: "You put a cat flap in your house, you never know what'll come in…"
We are semi-permeable, and if the Smiths and Hugh Laurie and Peter Capaldi can infiltrate their way past my defences, then so can the darkness in the world. Occult? No thank you. It comes from an old word meaning "hidden," which gives it a sort of esoteric glamour, a dangerous edge and of course means that people dismiss it at their peril.
Occult? No. But Yakult? Yes.
Yakult is, of course, that protobiotic yoghurt drink of nice, kind bacteria, who live in your stomach and perform beneficial services for your gut. Hurrah for Yakult!
And there's spiritual Yakult to be had, too. He's called the Holy Spirit. He's the one I want permeating me! He's the one I'd like to see saturating my heart and changing my moods and attitudes and actions and thoughts for the better. And the promise of God is, of course, that every Christian has this Holy Spirit inside of them, and that when we let him, he'll grow in us the character of Jesus.
It's not all bad, is it? All Hallow's Eve may be the day when the choice between letting in the light or dabbling in the dark is clearest, but it's there every day. Paul spends much of his writing imploring us to let the good in, to be filled again and again with the Spirit so that we're proof against the devil's schemes (yes, I believe there's a devil out there) and ready to stand up for the good works God has prepared in advance for us to do.
I'm off to a Light Party, dressed in yellow, mostly because I'm cycling, also because I'm making a point about light. Don't burgle the house while I'm gone: there's nothing worth stealing. Before I go I'll be asking God to fill me again with the Holy Spirit: bitterness and anger out, kindness and patience in, curled lips out, open arms in, moaning out, blessing in…
The Holy Spirit is God's Yakult. And much to be preferred than the occult.
* We'll get to Doctor Who next time. You'll be hearing from him a lot.
** See what I mean?
No comments:
Post a Comment