Ghosts and Goblins, costumes, masks, tricks, treats, and frights are all part of Halloween. Halloween’s thrill is to feel scared without actually experiencing any real danger or threat. Candy too. But, what’s scary for me, aren’t the ghosts and goblins but the zombies. According to Webster’s dictionary, “a zombie is someone who appears to be lifeless and unresponsive to their surroundings.” These days, it’s possible to claim allegiance to Jesus Christ loudly and publicly while delighting in and celebrating indifference and malice loudly and publicly. Have you noticed the prevalence of Jesus’ Cross, at events where people talk in terms that Jesus clearly condemned? How do you square that? If we pardon the speakers of this vitriol, on what grounds do we pardon ourselves, the Christian crowds, who ingest it, commend it, support it, and live by it? How is hatred of or indifference to neighbors consistent with Jesus’ life, teaching, and example? What do we do about the lifelessness that metastasizes in us every time we betray the words we pray? Seems like there’s only one way back to health for us, ‘‘ ‘ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
For People with Bishop Rob Wright
The new podcast expands on Bishop’s For Faith devotional, drawing inspiration from the life of Jesus to answer 21st-century questions.