Halloween and Reformation Day

Everyone knows that today is Halloween and it has its pros and cons. In my adulthood, I've heard moreso the cons. It is the one time a year one could dress up to be what one might wish to be, though I think we wear plenty of masks throughout the year.


As kids, we used to plan way ahead as to what we wanted to be. We did it as a neighborhood, community thing, and often tended to coordinate a theme, which always included our wagon. It's nostalgic, primarily remembering the freedom to roam, because our parents felt it safe. And we did roam!

My kids always costumed up for Family Fun Night at our old church, planning as a family. Throughout the years we've often won the costume contest in some category. Before Monte and me were married we won with our cave men costumes. In fact, it was the only picture my mom had to send to distant relatives, and when we were married, visiting the relatives they said, "you DO look different from your picture!" ;^)

In all we do, God looks at the intentions of our heart.

 With God-in-our-midst we can enjoy fall decor and apples and pumpkins and corn and scarecrows! ... and love the candy and costumed people! Jesus said "I am the light of the world" and as believers in Him, we know the end of the story: He's already won the victory over darkness. "Hallow" means "to make holy." Halloween is the eve of All Hallows Day or All Saints Day.

I remember that October 31st is Reformation Day - when Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis on the castle door. The thesis were asking the church to reform. The castle door was used as a bulletin board and he was asking people to debate. There's more to this story that's not usually told related to the castle door (tomorrow: the rest of the story).


Luther wasn't the 1st asking for reform. It had been asked for ages by various peoples, including many female "saints". The time was ripe for him to hatch the egg that had been laid.


The Muslim Turks were on the rampage. Many people in the Middle East were escaping into Europe - bringing ancient manuscripts. The Religious and Secular Enlightenment was a result of these manuscripts. People for the first time in Europe were seeing the original Greek and Hebrew writings (and art). There was a surge of language study. Also, the printing press was invented, with the Bible being the first book printed in the mid 1400's.


So people were finally able to read the Bible for themselves. Erasmus actually gave the Pope a Bible he had translated from the original languages and the Vulgate side-by-side (remember I told you about Jerome?) along with his personal notes about where the church was wrong. (Erasmus and Luther debated a lot. Erasmus never left the Church, whereas Luther did, marrying a nun - Katharine.)


There's tons leading up to Martin Luther along with his own story that's too much to tell here. All I'll say is that with the Muslims pressing into Europe from Spain and the East - kings, Popes, and Lords were so preoccupied with keeping alliances for potential battle at their borders, that Luther was not burned at the stake for being a heretic.
 His Prince Frederick whisked him off after his trial to a hidden place. During that time Luther translated the Bible.
 (I love the movie "Luther".)

In History today

The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, was dedicated in New York Harbor in 1886. And then was rededicated by Roosevelt on it's 50th anniversary (Political cartoon 1919).

A Michael Servetus was condemned to death by the Church in 1553, for the crimes of subversion of the public morality, blasphemy, and heresy - executed in Geneva. Interestingly John Calvin pleaded for mercy in his case. 

Servetus had a gifted mind, was trained by the Dominicans, and went to university in Spain. He had to flee to France assuming another identity and studied math and the sciences and gained fame as a physician discovering pulmonary circulation of the blood, and the use of syrups in medicine. Then fled to Geneva.

Why the heresy? His gifted, fanciful mind while studying the Bible brought him into conflict with the Church when he published several books, like: Errors of the Trinity. He said the gods of the Trinitarians were like three-headed monsters and a deception of the devil. So for over 20 years he'd publish and flee and republish and flee and was finally caught.

Then, there's an era referred to as the twelfth-century literary renaissance, sometimes called the Age of John of Salisbury. He was an English philosopher and humanist, and died on this day in 1180. He was intimate friends with the Pope and Bernard of Clairvaux, was trained by the infamous scholar Peter Abelard, and his close association with Thomas a Becket, who was hacked to death by 4 knights, cost him dearly. John a champion of Aristotelian logic, wrote extensively on principals of free government, history, and education (the trivium), and commonsense works on the foolishness of superstitions, etc.

And too, today in 1965, the tallest monument (is it still?), the St Louis Arch, called "The Gateway to the West", was completed (630 ft x 630 ft). I still can't believe we've driven by it and never taken the time to go inside.

For Fun !?!

Monte emailed me this -

Dorothy got lost in OZ because she had three men giving her directions!

I had forwarded a fun email to him earlier about all the dumb things guys do that would shorten their lives. He then added to the list by telling me a story of what his grandpa did ...

They were driving down the country road in Ogema and the ladder didn't fit in the vehicle. So Monte's grandpa drove with the ladder out the passenger window and the young Monte was sitting in the passenger seat with his head above the ladder, through a rung. They did hit a mailbox ...

Campfire

When we were in GreenBay, Monte's brother Mike told of this burning log thing they did at campfires, and Dawson was going to be having an event with the college group at our house - frisbee golf and then a campfire. So we emailed him pics and instructions and he did it and took pics.

Mike calls it a Tiki man. Dawson called it something else on his photoblog.

Amazing Grace Cello

Go to the link below to hear Dawson play his metal cello he forged/welded. He doesn't even play the cello, but he did play the violin as a young boy. And it does sound better in person.

And yes, he's been told he's playing backwards - that's how it pictorally recorded and he couldn't rotate it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upb4eZh4KAE

Liturgy?

What does the word liturgy mean?

What has it, or can it look like?

Scarecrows

I finished my scarecrows yesterday, and last evening was great lighting from the sunset, so I ran out and took pics. Dawson ran out, along with his pretty much finished cello, and took pics too, and posted them on his photoblog (I'm the one at the end silhouetted holding the cello in the sunset).

I just posted on Facebook that I "told Monte this is the best Fall ever"! And it has/is. The weather's been beautiful, I've seen my plants mature to their designed beauty without the elk and deer destroying them (The Joy of the Electric Fence, I ought to compose), and I've seen the color changes in New England, Wisconsin, and here.

Calendarwise today? - Hillary Clinton's birthday and Mahalia Jackson. I grew up listening to Mahalia Jackson since my mom liked her. When I hear Gospel and Christmas songs, I often hear Mahalia singing them and do a comparison.

My scarecrows will stay up all winter. I read that some people put them up in October and burn them November 5 on Guy Fawkes' day, which I'll post about on that day (another need-to-know event for literacy since it's mentioned in books and movies). The only thing that I'm remembering always happens when I have a scarecrow in a window's vision is that it catches me off guard for a bit, thinking someone's there.

Pablo Picasso Quote

I've quoted him in posts before, but Pablo Picasso was born today in Malaga, Spain (1881). He said, "I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."

I may even have posted this quote, I don't remember, and haven't looked. But I could say the same thing of myself too.

Stuff

I've been wanting to write, but haven't. Like I've often said, I wish there could be a way to just transfer the brain's thoughts into print! - the laying in bed time could accomplish a lot!! And yesterday our internet went out and Dawson spent several hours with our DSL provider getting it solved.

Last night was another Show & Tell us artists at church and any body valuing creativity (wouldn't that be everyone, if they realize that creativity is one of the traits we share, being made in God's image?!) have had once a month. I didn't bring anything to share other than bringing my son Dawson (and a couple of his friends), who brought his metal cello he's creating (and I've posted pics of).

I've gone to second-hand stores and have my stuff for making scarecrows. When they're done, I'll post pics. I was remembering I wanted to mention how before Halloween is a great time to look at second-hand stores for fun stuff. We still have a barrel that's labeled "Dress Up", and it's got wigs, shiny material that's been used for all sorts of creations from royalty to ... gloves, hats, bags, bolas, and varieties of clothes ... Also over the years I've made Big Bad Wolf, Lion, Dragon, Dwarf, and Elephant head-covering masks.

We've got some nice days to finish cleaning up the out-of-doors stuff, getting ready for winter. My last things to plant are tulip bulbs. We've been harvesting last stuff from garden and cooking up or storing in garage, reshuffling compost ... An electrician friend is coming this afternoon to finish up some stuff too (like I'm afraid to show him what I've got rigged up with several heavy duty extension cords going through windows into the room we call our 'Parlor', but is now the piano, weaving loom, treadmill room).

Yesterday I had read a news article about Jews sneaking into Palestine to visit what's believed to be Joseph's burial site, and I asked myself "Why?" and did some research. Israel/Palestine are having to figure out how to deal with this place, with so many pilgrims wanting to come. There's been lots of desecrating and deaths. 

Apparently especially during the High Holy Days through Sukkot, Jews do what's called Selichot which has to do with penitential poems and prayers. Between midnight and dawn the oral speaking, singing and dancing, is done communally (never done individually). People take turns voicing the 13 Attributes of God (of Mercy) they get from Exodus 34:6-7 - all methods of God's activities; His divine governance as seen by us; ways of God which Moses prayed to know.

They pray "We have sinned, our Rock, our Creator ..." 

Simchat Torah - the end of Sukkot

So, for one week each year, Jews build and live, even if only eating suppers in it, a shaky temporary dwelling. They leave their solid homes, where warmth and comfort have been created, with spaces filled and decorated with nostalgic mementos, and reflections of our daily living. Our homes are our castle, where we can pull up the drawbridge at times of darkness, where we are in control, where we return each day to eat and sleep, to talk, to love, and to share.

The sukkah helps in realizing that there can be a kind of idolatry lurking within our homes. We would do well to have a yearly celebration as reminder to not rely solely on the works of our hands, nor trust in our home's size and strength or our possessions. And Sukkat follows Yom Kippur's once a year cleansing, a clean slate leading into a week of remembrance of God's providing in the desert and the good remembrance of God seeking us and desiring to know us. Sukkot is celebrated with lots of joy, and celebrates the end of the year with its final harvest and at the same time the beginning of a new year. The booths are decorated with harvest produce.

Sukkah is a reminder not to become entombed in our homes, a reminder of a different kind of shelter made of openness and faith - following God wherever led, even into the desert, and learning to trust. It evokes opposing sets of images: rootlessness and home, wandering and return, exposure and shelter. God's sukkah is open to all, a house of prayer for all nations, the promised land.

In temple time, there was a daily ritual: Simhat beit ha-sho'eivah - "the rejoicing at the place of the water-drawing", a water libation. Water was poured symbolizing gratitude for rain and more for the year to come. Jesus risked his life as a 'wanted man' coming into Jerusalem for this festival in John 7. It is here that he said, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." The surrounding Jews were thinking water in relation to the festival. Jesus knew the drought of their hearts.

The last day, the eighth day, God asked that the people tarry for one more day in Jerusalem (this being the last of the three pilgrim trips to Jerusalem in the year). Simhat Torah is a day when the cycle of reading the Torah through in a year ends and begins anew. Singing and dancing, the people parade about the synagogue with the Torah scrolls. They end the year with reading Deuteronomy 33 and 34, where Moses blesses the people of Israel, reminding them who they are, before entering into the promised land. And God buries Moses, the prophet whom God knew face-to-face!

I so loved and craved that image of face-to-face with God when I fell in love with Him when I was 18. And so today, a favorite passage in scripture is II Corinthians 3:7-4:1, where I read of the living God getting rid of the veil, nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of His face!

So celebrate! Remember the stories of God-in-our-midst.