Introduction
I don’t like scary movies. Like, at all. Can’t watch ‘em, can’t even watch commercials for ‘em… But there is an exception, kind of. There is a movie that I think of as a scary movie, but some people might classify it only as “suspenseful”, not scary. Whatever. The movie is the 1999 masterpiece The Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan. Assuming that 26 years is long enough to not have to give a spoiler alert, the main character, a little boy named Cole Sear, can see and be physically affected by the ghosts of dead people. Only in the movie they don’t appear as ghosts, but as people bearing the wounds of how they died. Anyway it’s a fantastic movie and has stuck with me ever since I first forced myself to watch it on the assurance by others it was worth it.
In general we like dead people to stay that way. Except for our wishes for those we deeply love who have died to still be alive, our imagination of the “undead” is rarely if ever friendly or benevolent. The horror genre is dependent on the no longer, or not quite really, fully dead being scary.
I wish we could think about dead people in another way. I wish we could cut through the horror and get to the wisdom, a way of imagination that brought peace and comfort instead of fear and sleepless nights.
Turns out we can, and many cultures have for centuries. One such practice is called All Souls Day, which we will mark this Sunday.
Excited to talk about dead people with all y’all,
Grace and peace y’all,
John Ray and the teaching team
Text:
A Confession from John 15 (the message)
Reader: Jesus declared he is the Real Vine and his Father is the Farmer, that every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. That if we live in him -make our home in him just as He does in us, the harvest is sure to be abundant.
Everyone: Jesus we make our home in you and you make yours in us. Make this Church good soil for the Vine to take root and the branches to bear fruit.
Reader: Jesus told us the tree will be judged by the fruit.
Everyone: Give us hands to tend the soil, hearts to endure the pruning and ears to hear the song that gives us hope.
Lord’s Prayer
Christ, who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who’ve sinned against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory forever. Amen.
