There are parts of the Bible that read something like a sci-fi horror movie.  I remember at the age of 12, reading this description of the beast, rising out of the water in Revelation 13 and how scary it sounded at the time.   It turns out this is just one of the monsters in the Bible and, given the time of year, it seems appropriate to reflect on those monsters and the power we give them in our lives.  Take the Book of Job, where we hear about Leviathan, a giant sea creature, a fire-breathing serpent who appears in the Psalms as well.  “Comets pour out of his mouth, fireworks arc and branch.  Smoke erupts from his nostrils like steam from a boiling pot…flames of fire stream from his mouth….king of the ocean, king of the deep,” (Job 41, The Message).    

Then there’s the prophet Daniel who had a seriously bad dream one night when he saw a terrible monster with wings and four heads…a grisly horror [with] huge...

I’ve come to believe that, despite its darker side – Halloween can be redemptive! After all it’s the opportunity for children and adults alike to pretend and to role play.  But more than this, we get to face some of our fears, including the reality of evil, and the fear of death.   

I’m thinking about Anne Rice,perhaps the most well-known author of “vampire” novels, and who penned The Vampire Chronicles.  She has made millions on these dark gothic novels that tap into the human longing to escape death and find immortality.  In her books, the vampire characters are immortals who can kill or give eternal life through blood.  She describes a vampire as one who “is cast out into the darkness but refuses to give up on meaning….” and looking back, Rice says that “I [too] was groping through the darkness.”  

In an interview with Cindy Crosby (Christianity Today) Rice talks about how she lost a child to leukemia; and that...

O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thoughts from afar.  – Psalm 139: 1-2

I was talking to a fellow last Monday at the gym about his work and mine.  He knows that I’m a pastor, and so when I told him that it was my “day off” he smiled:  “Your day off?  I guess that means you don’t have to save any souls today!”  “Oh, saving souls is not my job,” I said, “being a pastor is my job.  Caring about souls is my calling.”  To be more theologically precise, I should have said, “Saving souls is God’s job” but that seemed too complicated to explain at the moment. 

What made his comment noteworthy was the fact that he had just told me, not more than two minutes before, that he had been diagnosed with an incurable cancer.  He was hopeful because the doctor had said it was manageable; but as he spoke I felt for him, as most anyone would.  He’s a very intelligent man, someone who helps others in his line of work...