Mapperley Ministers' Mail, 27th October

Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community

I'm not working tomorrow, so I'll send this out today!

As this Thursday is Hallowe'en, here's a Hallowe'en poem from the excellent Glen Scrivener, or hear and watch him read it here:

Vast armies undead do tread through the night and

In hordes march towards hapless victims to frighten.

They stumble in step with glass-eyes on the prizes;

Bunched hither, hunched over in monstrous disguises;

In sizes not lofty but numb'ring a throng;

To unleash on their prey the dreaded DING DONG.

Small faces with traces of mother's eye-liner,

Peer up to the resident candy provider.

And there to intone ancient threats learnt verbatim;

They lisp "TRICK OR TREAT!" Tis their stark ultimatum.

Thus: region by region such legions take plunder.

Does this spector-full spectacle cause you to wonder?

Just how did our fair festive forebears conceive,

Of this primeval practice called All Hallows Eve?

The answer, if anyone cares to research,

Surprises, it rises from old mother church.

On the cusp of the customary All Saints Day

The Christ-i-an kinsfolk made mocking display.

These children of light both to tease and deride;

Don darkness, doll down as the sinister side.

In pre-post-er-ous pageants and dress diabolic,

They hand to the damned just one final frolick.

You see with the light of the dawn on the morrow,

The sunrise will swallow such darkness and sorrow.

The future is futile for forces of evil;

And so they did scorn them in times Medieval.

For this is the nature of shadow and gloom;

In the gleaming of glory there can be no room.

What force is resourced by the echoing black?

When the brightness ignites can the shadow push back?

These 'powers' of darkness, if such can be called,

Are banished by brilliance, by blazing enthralled.

So the bible begins with this fore-resolved fight;

For a moment the darkness…. then "Let there be Light!"

First grief in the gloom, then joy from the East.

First valley of shadow, then mountaintop feast.

First wait for Messiah, then long-promised Dawn.

First desolate Friday and then Easter Morn.

The armies of darkness when doing their worst,

Can never extinguish this Dazzling Sunburst.

So… ridicule rogues if you must play a role;

But beware getting lost in that bottomless hole.

The triumph is not with the forces of night.

It dawned with the One who said "I am the Light!"

[If you'd like to hear my sermon from this morning, please listen online. In brief – beware of false teachers who lead us away from Jesus by denying him, distracting us from him onto other stuff which might be good in itself or demeaning him by painting a false picture of what a life truly blessed by God looks like.]

God bless,

John