I’ve never admitted this to anyone, but I have a problem with ghosts.
To begin with, I don’t like to be startled. Knowing this, my wife likes nothing better than to jump out of some hiding place and scare me. It’s no wonder that I’m always on full alert. Ghosts are by nature a startling presence, always showing up somewhere unexpectedly, or so I’m told. I’ve never personally seen a ghost, though I’ve had one or two experiences I can’t quite explain.
But, my main problem with ghosts is that they don’t fit my theology. While I absolutely believe in life after death, and know a number of people who have had ghostly experiences, I just can’t make sense of them.
I bring this up because spirits and the spiritual will be front and center this weekend. This Saturday is Halloween, a day to celebrate the Thin Places that surround us. Thin Places are locations or occasions when the veil between heaven and earth is lifted and one is able to catch a glimpse of the transcendent. Or, as the website for Thin Places Mystical Tours puts it, “a thin place is where one can walk in two worlds.” Some people believe that Halloween is such a thin place, a day when the barrier between this world and the next becomes so narrow as to be nonexistent.
Now, I have nothing against Halloween. I like Halloween’s scary vibe (and eating candy), jack-o-lanterns (and eating candy), and seeing the kids in their costumes (and eating candy). But I’m more interested in the day after Halloween: All Hallows’ Day, better known as All Saints’ Day. On All Saints’ we celebrate the faithful (known and unknown) who have passed from this life to the next. All Saints’ is truly a thin place.
As a pastor, I’ve had the privilege of sitting at a number of saints’ bedsides as they transitioned from this life. Not to downplay at all the grief that goes along with the loss of a loved one, it is an awe-inspiring experience. It is at these times that I have been able to see the divine, the transcendent. As I hear about the heroic efforts of doctors and nurses caring for victims of the pandemic, holding the hands of the dying, I believe that hospitals are holy ground, Thin Places where angels wear scrubs and PPE.
The good news in all of this is that death is not the end; it is a new beginning.
Our greatest fear is the fear of the unknown. Death is the great unknown, which makes Thin Places, opportunities to see beyond the veil, so important. All Saints’ reassures us that you don’t have to believe in ghosts (or book a tour) to know that there is more life to come.
Trick or treat safely and remember that masks aren’t just for Halloween!
a thin place
I feel like I should take my shoes off
says the hospice chaplain as he
approaches my mother’s bedside
this is holy ground, sandy and parched,
real burning bush stuff he adds.
burning bush stuff indeed. God’s
presence is almost palpable in this
place as we stand shoulder to shoulder
with a host of unseen witnesses.
my mother’s death is a slowly
unfolding miracle, revealing long-
forgotten images. they say your life
flashes before your eyes when
you’re in the process of dying.
i can’t say what she’s experiencing
but life with her streaks past my
vision like a film run at double speed.
at last I close my eyes and turn
my gaze inward lest I catch a
glimpse of the divine and burn.
Divine Overtones 