The Supernatural

I can still see it in my mind’s eye, a clearly written neatly typed bulletin note just outside the student lounge. It was from a good friend, fellow seminarian who was a ‘recovering hippy.’ He had seen it all, tried it all, and he was not pleased with us fellow Christians in this grad school, participating in on-campus or community trick or treat door knocker festivities. Although he and his wife were both kind hearted, soft-spoken fellow students, they sparked considerable conversation and fresh perspective especially for those of us with children who loved to dress up and collect a few candies and cheery greetings in the neighborhood.

Created by David

Today’s Canuckle word is SCARY – yup, got it in three tries 😊 – and the Fun Fact is a continuation of this same topic. “Halloween is the perfect time for all things scary in Canada. … Creepy costumes, scary decorations, and spine-chilling stories make Halloween the perfect time to embrace the supernatural.” That’s where I cannot but gulp a little. It's fifty years later and today my friend's  admonishment comes to mind. As we prepare treats for the little hooligans who will ring our doorbell my mind goes back. What are we including, or possibly excluding in our celebrations? In my last blogpost I write about the nature of Jesus’ ongoing presence. [i] This could now be a continuation of that. Much supernatural-ness in that one!

Now here is the question. Do we believe in the supernatural? We spend considerable energy aligning ourselves with various spiritual or political or personal viewpoints, but do we believe in the supernatural? Fact is, All Hallows’ Day, in medieval Christianity was a recognition of thin line between the living and the dead, and the day before came to be celebrated as All Hallows Eve, easily shortened to Hallowe’en. My knee-jerk response to the FUN FACT is “Do you also believe in the upside of supernatural? How about God, how about Jesus, about resurrection, ascension, about the ongoing presence of Holy Spirit among us? What is not supernatural about that? What is not supernatural about weekly worship services?

I’m guessing the writer of that fun fact may even be a church goer – just maybe not very often (?) or perhaps not made the connect. It is indeed easy, almost par for the course, to put church or ceremony or liturgy in a ritual category, easy to forget the supernatural, and that is what has made it easy for Halloween to be the commercial fun evasion of that which we all yearn for.

The Apostle Paul seemed quite aware of this possibility even back there in one of his epistles, “It is my eager expectation and hope that … Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20). Whether by life or by death, we dare not forget the supernatural in God’s daily redemptive presence, not only the ghoulish coffins we put on our lawns.

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[i] “Who is Jesus?”, https://www.jcfroomthoughts.blogspot.com/.