If you’re a churchgoer… If your church uses the readings traditionally appointed for Sundays… Have you noticed how we go from scary Halloween to scary Scriptures?
Halloween: Ghosts and goblins, haunted houses and scary apparitions. Then comes All Saints Day, increasingly associated with the Day of the Dead. And now we go to church and get scary Scriptures. Last Sunday: Amos 5:18: “Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! It is darkness, and not light.” 1 Thessalonians 5: “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” That’s a scary sky spectacle! For this coming Sunday, 1 Thessalonians 5:3: “While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them.” There are many more such passages.
What do little kids think when they hear these readings? Probably scares the bejeebies out of them. My guess is that many of us adults don’t take the scare seriously. Hasn’t happened yet, has it? Scary Scriptures and threats of hell are Law. Nineteenth-century theologian C.F.W. Walther said, “the Law does not give us the strength to carry out its commands.” Yes, these lessons are intended to make us alert and watchful for the Last Day. We need that. America has generally forgotten that a day of reckoning is coming. Scary Scriptures are for complacent people, but how should sincere churchgoers hear these Bible readings?
Does it make sense that Jesus took on flesh, ministered to the down and out, challenged religious power players, died for all our sins, rose, and now reigns… Does it make sense that Jesus did all that for us and now wants to scare us in church about the Last Day? In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, “there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6). They were ready for His appearing. Their lives were about their Lord. They weren’t scared but filled with joy. The Last Day will be awesome, whoa! but won’t scare us who center all our thoughts on Jesus. He’s coming to save us!
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