The Annual Christian Harvest Wars: Sowing Seeds of Understanding

Rose Hips
By Hedwig Storch (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Virtually every person alive has been touched by death.  Having had an abundant share of experience with death in my own life, I have had plenty of opportunity to observe the reactions of people to it.  They certainly vary.  Some people are rather stoic and insist that death must be whisked away quickly and completely, and not dwelt upon.  Others choose, or are at least intuitively compelled, to live through, rather than "get over" grief.

Christian views vary, in much the same way, about the October holidays.

Archaeological and historical evidence teach us that people and cultures have always been fascinated by death and dying.  The perennial human question, "What happens after we die?" reappers throughout the history of humankind.  Cultures in every time period through the ages seem to have come up with some sort of communal answer, even if individuals continues to wonder if it was correct.  Cultures always develop some sort of remembrance that ties the dead to their loved ones.

Of course, as Christians we know that because of the death and resurrection of one man, those questions are answered.  Nevertheless, loved ones who die are still gone from us; we still feel their loss.  

Benjamin D. Esham / Wikimedia Commons [CC-BY-SA-3.0-us
 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons

As the leaves begin to turn and the days gradually lengthen, we are approaching the transition from Fall to Winter.  The leaves will fall; the final harvests will be brought in, and we will prepare for the long sleep of winter.  This is the time of year when our thoughts naturally turn to death and dying.  

The Church has set aside key days in this period for a remembrance of those who have died and for the contemplation of our own deaths. In the Western church,  All Saints Day, on Novemember 1, and for some Christians, All Soul's Day on November 2, are the key celebrations.  Of course, like all holy days, All Saints has an eve.  All Saints Eve falls on October 31.

There are pagan celebrations associated with these days as well.  Of course there are; we live in community and the development of human observance is impacted by that which went before.  Some Christians reject any observance which carries some vestige of association to a prior practice; others recognize the Christian transformation of a prior non-Christian practices as the triumph of Jesus over death and all things worldly.

Many Christians, especially lately, prefer to call the celebrations at this time of year "Harvest Festivals".  I have found rather interesting the Christian push over the last 40 or so,  to shift the focus of the October celebrations from the winter sleep of the fields to the harvest.  After all, the harvest of the final fruits of earthly plantings is a great thing, but, the winter death of temporal things means rebirth into the eternal. Whether we like it or not, death is part of life.  Death for Christians means life eternal.  I'm not sure why we would want to limit our focus to the last fruits of Eathly life, when we could include the first fruits of death.

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firsfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 
 ~1 Corinthians 15: 22-23

I don't believe that there is much healthy about immersing ourselves in death, but neither do I believe that it is healthy to entirely ignore it either.  The church calendar is a cyclical experience of all things human and eternal.  It touches every part of the human experience of life and death, and leads us from the human to the divine.

By Photo (c)2006 Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man) (Own work (Own Picture))
 [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)],
 via Wikimedia Commons

We need not be afraid of death, because Our Lord has triumphed over it, but that does not mean that it does not impact us emotionally.  It also does not preclude the fact that when faced with the harsh reality of death, we may suddenly have an intense need for confirmation of what we have always believed about it.  In those days which span the gulf between the end of October and the beginning of November, time has been set aside by the church for us to contemplate these things, celebrate those who have gone before us, prepare for our certain entry through the passage they have traversed, and give thanks for our assurance, in Christ, of hope.

We can ignore these things, because non-Christians before us have held celebrations at this time of year that are not infused with beauty and truth, or we can use them to strengthen our Christian walk and heal our souls.

I choose the latter.  At the same time, the great annual Fall challenge is to avoid the annual Christian divide between those that celebrate All Hallows and those who do not.  Unfortunately, the Holy Days that are intended to give us hope and healing can also serve to divide us from our brothers and sisters in Christ.  In a year that is already infused with tension and division due to the upcoming election, I hope that we can strive to avoid this fracture in the Christian community.  At the least, we can achieve understanding of and respect for the views and practices of other Christians.  I hope that we can use this time of hope and healing to sow unity among the living.

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