A KNOCK AT THE DOOR

Let's face it: Halloween is dying a slow and agonizing death in the Bible Belt. Trick-or-treating is fast becoming a lost art.

We're being surrounded by "Harvest Festivals" and "Costume Parades" without one mention of the All Hallowed Eve whatsoever. All the fun has been sucked dry from the holiday--completely unaided by vampires. Halloween has become a symbol of evil and darkness and crime. (Thanks a lot "Hell Week" participants.)

I say it's time to "take back the night". It's time to give trick-or-treating a good name again. It's time to celebrate what is good about October 31.

And what is that? Why the costumes and goodies of course! What better way to stretch a young imagination than by transforming a child into a make-believe creature of some sort? What better way to reinforce how visiting your neighbors can be a good thing than by freely giving out candy one night a year?

Maybe that's not quite what I meant--but I hope you can see there is some good to be had by knocking on doors on Halloween. On one particular All Hallowed Eve--the night before All Saints' Day in 1517--a man named Martin Luther, dressed in a monk's robe, knocked on one particularly large door at the Cathedral of Wittenberg.

Luther wasn't exactly begging for candy. He was asking for the church fathers to clean up their act and stop bilking the poor, illiterate populace of what little money they possessed by selling indulgences touted as "tickets to heaven". He wanted to tell others of the tremendous joy he felt when he read how God's love was freely given to all who believed in His Son as stated by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. . .(NIV)

The "works righteousness" concept disseminated by the Roman Catholic church at that time was invalidated simply by studying Scripture Luther discovered. His "trick" was to nail a long list of grievances (95 of them to be exact) for discussion on the church door the night before one of the most attended services of the year.

His defiant act started the Protestant Reformation whose repercussions can be felt to this very day. And all because he wasn't afraid to get dressed up and knock on a door.

So, let's stop being "Halloweenies." Why should we be afraid of October 31? Christ has effectively silenced our accuser, the devil.

Let's embrace the significance of the holiday by celebrating the fact that the "old ghosts" of "working your way into heaven" were driven away starting on that very night. Driven away by one strong knock on a door.

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