I've drafted a script:
Anyone here scared of spiders?
Hands up who wants to tell me what they're scared of?
I've got a scary joke book here. [visual aid: scary joke book. Read random joke]
I heard a programme on the radio this week where a lady said she was scared of lettuce.
Anyone scared of Pumpkins? [visual aid: Pumpkin]
Anyway it's Halloween time so there are a lot of pumpkins about, I hope you kids are going to be OK and that your parents will make sure that there are no pumpkins in your house or anywhere in the garden.
The Bible talks about scary stuff. Jesus actually met some of the things we're scared about. I can't tell you if he met any pumpkins, maybe after church some of you will be able to let me know about that. But he did meet a lot of other scary stuff. There was the time where he met a man who was full of demons.
(Insert summary of Mark 5:1-20 here. Punchline: 'You see how Jesus is much more powerful than even 2000 scary things?')
I guess if you see something scary today, which is Halloween, especially if something scary dressed like a pumpkin comes to your door, you get a choice of at least two things.
1. You can go out for pizza with your family. The pumpkin won't know where you are and will go to the next house. We do that quite a lot at Halloween, even though we sort of like pumpkins.
2. You can say hello pumpkin, have a lolly. Did you know Jesus is more powerful than any pumpkin, or any powerful thing in the whole world? Happy Halloween.
If you comment in the next 24 hours, you will earn another 300 points for the house of Hufflepuff.
14 comments:
Great talk, Gordo. We've previously just told the kids to go away, in the nicest possible terms of course. But more and more come to the door each year. This year we're changing plans. We've got a kids tract and we're making up small lolly bags and going with the flow. Here's the link to the tract, which is free to print and use: http://www.alamedabiblechapel.org/2%20Seeking%20God/Right%20Tract_files/H-08_What_do_following_PRINT.pdf
Why is it ok to like Harry Potter but not Halloween?
Thanks Deb L for sharing! The tract is certainly worth a look.
Anonymous, fair question. I suppose some would say it's because it's OK to be anti-American but not OK to be anti-British. ;-)
no seriously, this is something I just don't understand.
Only one kid came. But on the up side, we now have a lot of Whizz Fizzes and mini Snickers to get through.
I liked the talk.
I liked anonymous's question, too.
Is it only for Gordon, or can anybody try to find the answer?
Just to clarify, my question was referring to Christians,
Anonymous No. 1
How did the talk go Gordo? (Sounded great to me!)
I'm not sure about all the anonymous questions though - where is the dichotomy between Halloween and Harry Potter? Gordo advocated celebrating Halloween but re-directing people to Christ. Surely the same can be said about JK Rowling? (In fact I though that was Halloween started in the first place - Christians subverting a pagan culture.)
BTW I was out on Enmore road on Sunday arvo. People told me that they were dressed up for Halloween. I can't say I noticed any difference.
I realised you were talking about Christians, Anonymous No 1.
Personally, I don't like the H Potter books anyway, but I think the distinction that many Christians make is between (1) reading a book, which can be interpreted as being about a struggle between good and evil, with the protagonists standing for good, and (2) enacting and delighting in figures of evil, including wallowing in horror movies. Or possibly (2) actually engaging in genuinely dangerous past-times for "fun".
Anonymous No. 2.
halloween is supposedly a black sabbath in present culture for real, but harry potter doesn't exist in reality. harry potter is also not horror-based, but depicts good over evil like any othr fairy-tale.
forgot to add on, there ARE churches & christians out there who ban harry potter in their community
i love pumpkin cream soup do i get that free on halloween?
John, the talk went well, thank you. I got my daughter Lily to tell a joke in the end.
'What sort of dog does a vampire have?'
'A blood hound.'
On the Harry Potter vs Halloween question, at least here in Sydney the opposition to Halloween amongst Christians seems to be more because you get doorknocked by kids demanding lollies because of Halloween, whereas Harry Potter will leave you alone until you pull him off the shelf.
I wouldn't have thought there is a lot of deep theological thinking behind this. There may well be some distaste over the idea of pretend vampires, zombies etc wandering the neighbourhood, especially if you are trying to teach your kids that evil spiritual forces aren't necessarily just pretend.
LOVE it Gordon. Classic.
By the way, the word I had to type in for verification to be able to post this comment was 'larthors'. Sounds like something straight out of a HP novel to me.
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