Why I'm not celebrating Halloween: Because Jesus is better.

Because I’m a misery guts cleary. Well, I have a tendency temperamentally to be a bit miserable, but that’s not why. Here’s two reasons why:

Firstly, broadly speaking, in the Bible it says this:

‘Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.’ Philippians 4:8

And I’m not sure Halloween, and thinking about death & witchcraft are very good things to think about.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good fancy dress party. When I joined the church I now attend in Liverpool, we practically could have been dubbed the “fancy dress” church. Every social or birthday seemed to involve fancy dress! So I’m not anti-fancy dress. Nor am I anti-parties. Nor am against alcohol. Christians are permitted to drink, but not get drunk!

And I really want you to know, Christianity isn’t ultimately about rules – either “doing” something and “not doing” other things. It’s about living with God as my King, my ruler, my ultimate boss. But not only that. But enjoying His Fatherly care of me. And He says think about good stuff not bad stuff (verse above) and so I think he knows best for me.

Christians will make different decisions on this “issue”, and even I will make different decisions on this “issue”, depending on circumstances. Christians are free, (to quote a Bible verse slightly out of context, if you want to know the context better, ask me), for Christians “Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive” 1 Corinthians 10:23. My 1^stever night out in Liverpool was Halloween with a bunch of people from Pharmacology – it was a chance to get to know some new people, my 1^st chance! That’s permissible and I don’t think that evening was harmful. A good Christian friend of mine, goes to Halloween parties as a pumpkin or cat. So she can go, but doesn’t engage in the “death” and witchcraft ideas.

I guess, I’m tempted at this point to say, it doesn’t matter what you decide.

But if you’re a Christian – the Bible would urge you to listen to your conscious and not to sin against it!

Also, I’m always greatful that God used the uncertainty of a friend (&her obedience to her conscious), who decided not to celebrate Halloween to bring me to know about God…

So, Secondly, On Sunday 30th October 2005, I went to an evangelical church for the 1^st  time in my life. I went to St Andrew the Great, Cambridge. (StAG).There I heard a crazy Welsh man (Graham Daniels, Danno to his friends!) talk from Romans 12v1-2.  The Bible says God wants us to offer ourselves as “living sacrifices” and shook his body around on the platform/stage for a bit and explained that Jesus wanted ALL our lives. I found the whole experience really disturbing. People sang the songs like they believed the words. But they weren’t weird, they didn’t wave their arms or clap – thank goodness! I was offered a free student lunch afterwards, but was too scared to stay and ran back to my University halls of residence. Where I sat and tried to do some Maths homework on imaginary numbers (I still don’t understand how a number can be imaginary, before you tell me it’s the square root of a negative number – I know, I just don’t “get it”). I sat there all day – trying to understand the Maths homework (a common feature of weekends in Cambridge 1^st year), but this Sunday I couldn’t get that church experience out of my head. I mean, seriously – these people were supposed to be intelligent, but they believed in Jesus wholeheartedly. Hmm… I was perplexed, what if it was all true.

Because I’d been at church that morning – I hadn’t got a costume for the 1^st year Halloween party or “bop” as they call the parties in Cambridge. But anyway, I wasn’t up for partying. I was perturbed and upset by what I’d heard that morning. Did the God of the Universe care about me? Did he have a claim over my life? This was a scary thought. I didn’t like it.

I eventually rang up, the friend who’d taken me to church, Sarah and asked if we could chat. Luckily, Sarah had made a decision that she didn't think Halloween to be a positive thing and she had decided not to go to the party. I can remember walking up to her room, as her housemates left dressed as witches and in a green zombie outfit.

That evening I asked Sarah to explain the Christian faith to me, and she did. She took me through a gospel outline, called “Two ways to Live” with little stick men that she drew. 

She was clear, there was a choice to make about this whole “God/Jesus” thing. We chatted for ages.

When I still wasn’t leaving her room and by this time, had surely drunk at least two cups of tea. We read Ephesians 1 together. Jesus seemed to be the centre of the Christian faith. The claim was clear, that he was now in charge and ruling the world ‘And God placed all things under his feet’ (Eph1:22). I had to check this out more. I eventually left around midnight. Having chatted since about 8 pm.

I spent the next four weeks, intensely checking out Christianity.  Going to two Christianity Explored courses (I never do anything by halves!) and a month later, I committed myself to the God of the Bible. It’s been an adventure since.

I will forever be grateful that Sarah decided not to celebrate Halloween and instead explained the Christian faith to me.

For me, it’s been life changing.

So this Halloween I will be using words in Ephesians to articulate my praise to the God who has rescued me. To Praise Jesus who is the centre of everything. How about you? Do you need to check out Jesus?

I needed a filling.

Having not been able to find an NHS dentist easily when I first arrived in Liverpool, I’d not been to the dentists for about 2 years, so I was overjoyed when the dentists at the end of the road said I could have an appointment the next day. I’d never had any dental treatment & have always found going to the dentists a pleasant experience, which I often enjoyed, as I love having my tea-stained teeth polished back to smartness.

This was different though, as I reclined in the chair, the dentist said, “You need a filling”. I needed a filling? He enquired what type of filling I wanted and enquired as to when I wanted the treatment, he could do it then & there if I so wished.

The problem was, I didn’t believe him. Dentists are only out to make money, I thought.
I brush my teeth regularly and (before I came to Liverpool) didn’t eat that many sweets. I have a balanced diet. I couldn’t need a filling. I was a good healthy girl who followed and obeyed NHS guidelines and instructions (most of the time anyway).

How dare he, a qualified dentist suggest that I needed a filling? I had simply come in for a check-up & to be told everything was okay & maybe get a quick polish up. The problem was, I did need a filling.

 “I can tell you need a filling, because you’ve got a hole in your tooth” he patiently replied, looking slightly perplexed when I enquired “How do you know I need a filling?”. I couldn’t really argue. I had remembered that tooth hurting about six months prior. But I’d ignored it. He anaesthetised my mouth and then drilled away! It wasn’t the most pleasant experience ever. It left my mouth numb all day.

The thing that hurt most after having my filling? My pride. Surely I could eat loads of sweets and biscuits and still have healthy teeth? Surely I was better than those terrible people who had poor diets, and had to have fillings. The truth is, I did need my tooth filling. I was just like many other normal people. Who’s bodies decay. Who’s teeth decay. Who had been found out for not “sticking to the healthy eating rules.” Perhaps I was like everyone else after all. No better than everyone else. How annoying I could no longer claim self-righteously to be “filling free”.

It reminded me that Jesus said he came for the sick. He didn’t come to call the righteous but sinners (Mark 2:17). When Jesus calls people & tells them he’s come to forgive our sins. Do we accept his authority? Will we listen to his diagnosis?

All too often I go to Jesus and church with my attitude of going to dentist. Looking forward to being declared okay. A quick check over and maybe a bit of a polish up. But the problem is, if I listen, I will hear, first of all, bad news, that I am diagnosed a sinner. The root cause, not something physical though, but a heart problem (Mark 7:15). I’m rotten within. I am just like everyone else. I’m no better, or worse. I am simply a sinner.

Like the dentist though, Jesus doesn’t diagnose our problem, just to sit there and laugh. He offers a solution (more on that in another blog).

The problem is will I be willing to accept a diagnosis that I’m no better than others? That I have a problem? Irrespective of a nice “moral” middle-class hardworking life, that by nature I want to live without God and have rejected him. That really I haven’t kept the 10 commandments. That I am a sinner, a rebel, who is in trouble and needs rescuing from judgement.

My response to the gospel, is often one of outrage, “how dare God call me a sinner?” “But I do X,Y, Z …..and I’m not like THEM….”

That’s why I’m so glad, at church over the next few weeks we’re looking at Romans Chapter 1-4. Written by the Apostle Paul, who by all rights had every reason to be proud (Phil 3v1-6). He sets out a very logical argument about how “no-one is righteous, not even one”! Nobody is right with God on their own! What a depressing message! I need to constantly be humbled, reminded of my problem! Why?  So that I can seek for the answer, the treatment, the solution!  

Not just so that I don’t become more sinful, but so that I can have radical treatment.

Luckily at the dentists, I only needed a filling. Thank goodness I didn’t need literal root canal treatment. But if you’re a follower of Christ, then don’t turn up to church on Sunday, connect group midweek, open the Bible alone & simply expect some “polishing” and “fillings”! Our problem is much deeper, we need “root canal” treatment – or more precisely a heart transplant. It will at times be very painful.

Are you willing to listen? Are you willing to be humbled? Are you ready for a bad diagnosis? Are you ready and willing to receive treatment?